Icy Kickoff to ’09 in Jacksonport

There’s nothing like a bone-numbing bath in Lake Michigan to wipe your slate clear.

“This was a rough one.” J.R. Jarosh

That’s how hundreds of fearless people kicked off the New Year in Jacksonport, taking a dip in the icy waters off Lakeside Park for the 23rd Annual Jacksonport Polar Bear Plunge on January 1.

"This was a rough one," said tuxedo-clad plunge founder J.R. Jarosh as he emerged from the rolling waves carrying ice to the shore. "This is the worst yet."

The first chilling steps.

Jarosh founded the event in his teens as the only participant, but has seen it grow in the ensuing two decades into the most notorious activity on the Door County winter calendar. Thousands gathered to see the plunge this year, a crowd that swelled with the news that an independent film crew would be on hand to get footage for an upcoming movie. Situated high above the shore on a boom truck platform, director Mike Matzdorff got a bird’s eye view of Wisconsin insanity.

Temperatures were in the low teens, and the water hovered in the mid-30s, perfect conditions in Jarosh’s opinion.

Agony and ecstasy at the Polar Bear Plunge.

"I was kind of embarrassed by how warm it’s been the last couple of years," he said. "People can be proud they were here for the plunge of 2009."

Matzdorff is in the early stages of production for his film, Feed the Fish, set on the peninsula and slated for filming in February. He was gathering footage for a pivotal scene in the movie, which will star Tony Shaloub, star of the television show Monk.

Jarosh, the last in and out of the waters, deemed the plunge a success as judged by his most important criteria.

“This was a rough one.” – J.R. Jarosh.

"Everyone who came in, came back out."