Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Salem Pond celebrated its 10th annual New Year's Pond Town Polar Plunge with 300 participants.
- Nazaret Quintanillo and Rigoberto Quintanillo de Maria, originally from Venezuela, joined the event for a father-son challenge.
- Organizer Jefferson Chase emphasizes overcoming fear and starting the year with a mental challenge such as the Polar Plunge.
SALEM, Utah County — On New Year's Day, the temperature in Mérida, Venezuela, was 62 degrees Fahrenheit, typically chilly weather for the town's residents. But in the Utah County city of Salem, where two former residents waited to take their first Polar Plunge in the town's pond, 62 degrees seemed like the beginning of a heat wave.
Although organizers noted the warmer-than-normal 32-degree outside temperature, they highlighted the water's 42 degrees as something to temper the cold plunge.
The Quintanillos were not buying it, though.
Forty-two degrees was still cold, but that was the point. Nazaret Quintanillo and his father, Rigoberto Quintanillo de Maria, decided to participate in this Polar Plunge, coming down from Herriman to do so, to get in those cold waters.
Even though no one forced them to do this, their supporters said.
"I wanted to do this with my father, as a challenge to do," Nazaret Quintanillo said in Spanish. "We wanted to come last year, but we couldn't. So, we decided this year we'd do it. And I was excited. I was thinking: I'm from Mérida. I like the cold."
Rigoberto Quintanillo de Maria did not think much about the cold weather when deciding to plunge. He knew what was about to happen — he was about to get really cold — but he had better reasons to be there.
"I just wanted to do something with my son, to be with him," he said in Spanish. "Yeah, it's cold, but what are you going to do?"
Families from not only Herriman but also Salem, Provo, Tooele, Salt Lake City, Springville, Santaquin and more drove to the pond where they met with 300 or so other people to start the new year by leaving their warm homes to do something most people would not do: Willingly jump into cold water in the winter.
And do it together.
"There's nothing better to start the year than just shocking your nervous system, and then you get a fresh start," said Timbre Talfreynan, from Salem, who participated in her fourth Pond Town Polar Plunge. "Plus, it's a party! And you feel good after. It's a community thing, which is really fun."
The community party included adults, of course, but there were also dozens of children and teenagers ready to jump in the pond, come back out, and go back in — as if it were July and not January. Some boys were there to impress potential girlfriends; girls were there to do something that was kind of "weird"; and some children were next to parents, ready to jump into the waters that did not seem that cold to them.
Jefferson Chase, the plunge organizer, also planned to take a dip into Salem Pond on Wednesday, something he has done during each of the prior dips. When he and his friends started the Pond Town Polar Plunge 10 years ago, six people participated in order to challenge the mind, body and spirit.
Over time, the event grew to welcome 300-plus people of all ages with the goal of starting their year off by doing something difficult.
"The message that I always try to share is: If you can challenge yourself mentally to do something hard the first day, then whatever challenges come your way throughout the year, you can look back at Jan. 1 and be like, 'I was able to overcome fear,'" Chase said.
If you can challenge yourself mentally to do something hard the first day, then whatever challenges come your way throughout the year, you can look back at Jan. 1 and be like, 'I was able to overcome fear.'
–Jefferson Chase, Pond Town Polar Plunge organizer
Over the years, plungers have had to slide down a hill through snow to get to the pond, and then use other contraptions to get into those waters. Whether they walked to the jump-off point or slid along some ice — or walked and jumped in, as they did on Wednesday — fear did show up for many people, as in, "What am I doing here?"
But jumpers do not have to stay in the water for any time minimum, with many folks getting into the water and getting back out before they realized they were cold. Austin Knight, of Santaquin, holds the record of 15 minutes in the frigid water, but noted he is not trying to compete or stay in there longer. He's doing what he needs.
No matter how long any of the 300 plungers lasted in the 42-degree waters of Salem Pond, they probably saw Nazaret Quintanillo and his father Rigoberto doing pushups as soon as they exited the water, assumingly to stay warm. Or to get warm again before they jumped right back into the water, which they did.
Many people like to stay away from hard things, but the Quintanillos and others at the event have made it a part of the start of the year, or, for some, many parts of the year.
"This is about doing hard things on purpose," said Adam Hartshorn, who does two to three Polar Plunges a year with his friends and family. "I don't like being cold, so this is just something to help combat that a little bit. I feel like it's really good mentally."
