Chilling Out : Jump Into the Ocean in December? Like a Walrus? Yup, That’s the Idea

Never one to buck tradition, Kent Berge, 62, of Costa Mesa celebrated Christmas Eve Friday by running nearly two miles, barking like a walrus, then plunging into the Pacific Ocean.

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Berge, along with 60 other men and women, braved the cold water and frosty early morning air to take part in the eighth annual Walrus Run sponsored by the Newport Beach Athletic Club. The event raised nearly $2,000 for the Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter for homeless families, but the walrus wanna-bes say they also took part for fun.

“It’s great fun; it’s invigorating,” said Berge, who had been wearing a knit cap, purple turtleneck shirt and running pants before he stripped down to a bathing suit for the dip in water, the temperature of which was estimated at about 55 degrees. “It feels great after a run.”

Mike Sullivan of Corona del Mar said he started the event as a spoof on the East Coast swimmers who call themselves the Polar Bears and take a dunk in near-freezing water during the winter.

“It started out as a joke, but then we found out pretty quick that the water here is pretty cold, too--but we decided to keep it going. It’s fun,” Sullivan said. He mentioned a motive, though, that has nothing to do with the sheer enjoyment of a cold morning swim: “There’s a lot of peer pressure to do it. No wimps allowed.”

Peggy Hamilton, a Newport Beach homemaker, shivered as she said she agreed.

“My friends were doing it, so I figured I should join in,” Hamilton said. She said she rarely goes in the ocean during the summer but that she was cajoled into taking her first Christmas Eve swim Friday. She vows she will be back next year.

The event began around dawn Friday at the Newport Beach Athletic Club, its entrance shrouded in white thanks to a Riverside County company that used a machine to turn blocks of ice into snow. Before and after the run and swim, there were the prerequisite rolls and the occasional lobbed snowball. The runners then made their way down Avocado Avenue to the beach, where they gathered for the group run into the water.

The event also attracts a lot of warmly dressed people who wince, laugh and shake their heads as the runners take the plunge.

Nancy Heaton of Corona del Mar had joined friends for a morning walk that included watching the Walrus swimmers. She said she couldn’t imagine anything that could lure her into the water in winter.

Gloria Sullivan, her feet firmly planted on the beach as she watched her husband and other runners bark their way into the ocean, commented: “Fun? If that’s fun, I think I’ll watch from here. I’m not that stupid.”

In past years, the hardiest swimmers would reach a waiting boat to retrieve a candy cane. On Friday, though, swimmers would not confirm or deny the rumored mid-ocean presence of a bottle of Peppermint Schnapps to help warm the way.

Organizers estimated the event raised $2,000 for the Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter, a housing agency that provides a temporary place for needy families to stay as they try to regain control of their lives.

Shelter spokeswoman Judy Cooper said there are an estimated 12,000 homeless people, many of them children, in Orange County.

“What makes this great is that it’s for a charitable cause,” Newport Beach mortgage banker Stan Loupe said as he toweled off Friday. “Plus it’s a lot of fun. Really, it is.”