nlike winter surfers and kayakers who spend significant time dressing and preparing for their trips on the waters surrounding Manhattan, the Coney Island Polar Bear Club is made up of brave men and women who enter the water wearing only their swimsuits. Needless to say, they don’t stay in for long.

"It’s about five minutes that you can last in [the water]," says Tom McGann, vice president of the club, and an avid winter bather for the last 10 years. He says he gets in the water about 25 times throughout the winter.

he Coney Island Polar Bear Club, established in 1903, is one of the oldest in the country, according to McGann. The club has more than 100 members, approximately 80 percent of whom are male, and swims are scheduled every Sunday between November and April. The annual New Year’s Day swim is the most popular, says McGann. About 120 people took part on Jan 1--some of whom just walked in off the boardwalk.

The history of the club is rooted in the European tradition of saunas and cold-water bathing. The Polar Bear Club, "was a reason and a way to keep the bathhouses busy at Coney Island," says McGann. These days, the bathhouses are gone but some swimmers remain.

umping in near-freezing water wearing little more than a pair of shorts takes a brave soul. When the producers of the movie "Suspect" were shooting in New York, they needed to find men willing to jump into a river in the middle of winter.

"The stunt guys didn’t want to do it," says McGann. "So they called us."

Members of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club on their way to the water.

Feeling Brave?

The Coney Island Polar Bear Club 'swims' every Sunday from November to April at 1 p.m. They meet at Stillwell Avenue and the Boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn.

For more information:
www.winterbathers.com