Polar Bear Club Makes a Splash With New Year’s Day Rite

Dorothy Walker inaugurated 1987 with a splash, landing on her rump in a strong undertow and fidgeting unsuccessfully to put on her top.

She may have been a bit embarrassed, but Dorothy Walker was laughing. Especially after taking a shot of brandy.

Walker, 52, hails from Marfa, Tex.--not the end of the world, but you can see it from there. But she showed a few Californians how a Texan can hit the waves on an overcast and cool New Year’s Day in South Laguna.

Except for a spring well here or there, there isn’t much water in Marfa, in the Davis Mountains. So Walker, in Orange County visiting friends, went down Thursday to participate in the 30th annual Polar Bears Club tradition of plunging into the cold Pacific on New Year’s Day. Sixty people participated this year.

But Al Griffin of Laguna Beach, a Polar Bears’ member of several years’ standing, came up with a different idea for this year. And he got Monty Montanvor, Rebecca Felspar and Walker to join him in his gag.

The idea was for the two men to dip into the chilly currents nude, but clutching their swimming trunks, which they would put on it the water. Felspar and Walker would dive in topless, donning their tops in the ocean.

But Walker underestimated the tides, which this week were the highest of the year. She was slammed into the sand three steps into the water, and she never got more than 10 feet from shore. For a few feverish moments, she tried to put her top on, but the strong waves kept her from regaining her equilibrium.

Finally, laughing the whole time, Walker just crossed her arms and walked out of the water.

“I’ve never done anything this crazy,” Walker said, “but I’m from Texas, so I’m supposed to be crazy.”

Still picking sand out of her auburn hair long after, she said: “I didn’t know what I was doing here; somebody said, ‘Let’s go to the beach,’ and I said, ‘Why . . . not? ‘ “ she cackled between sips of warm brandy.

“Shoot, I got to come back next year . . . just to find my top.”

To add to the fun, the foursome also transposed the lettering on their white bathrobes to read “Laguna Bares.”

Mark Abrey, the official starter, had arrived in style. Wearing a blue swimsuit and a floor-length red robe, he pulled into the small cove just a few hundred yards north of Aliso Beach Pier on a small boat with an outboard motor.

Abrey also brought ice to throw into the surf because the reading of 58 degrees, taken just before the noon splash, was a bit warm, he joked.

“We just have to make it cooler . . . test the brave hearts,” Abrey said before giving the 1-to-10 countoff for the boisterous group.

To the natives, 58 degrees might not have seemed warm. But for Leslie Fotiu it was plenty warm.

Fotiu is the wife of Nick Fotiu, who plays for the Calgary Flames in the National Hockey League. Nick joined the team Monday on a road trip to the East Coast. It was 20 below in Calgary, so Leslie decided that if her husband was going east, she and the kids were going south. She came to visit friends and join in the New Year’s Day plunge.

“Believe me, this is much better,” she said after she emerged from the plunge. “The water is cool, but not like Calgary. The undertow, however, was pretty bad. I never experienced such a thing.”

For the record, no one stayed in the water longer than two minutes. Most were out in seconds.