by Steve Sakiyama –
Since the dawn of time, my top New Year’s resolution has been to “become fit.” This sounds vague and lofty, so I break it down into more achievable goals. For example, to become fit I can “go to the gym every day instead of watching TV.” Sounds good, but a more achievable goal is to “watch TV at the gym every day.” Or, instead of “stop eating doughnuts,” a more attainable yet still challenging goal would be to “stop putting butter on doughnuts.”
In the spirit of fitness, several years ago I had a brilliant idea to become fit: lose a zillion calories by doing the Polar Bear swim.
The day dawned grey and cold. A wetsuit would have been appropriate, but wearing one makes me look like a cross between a Ninja Smurf and an overstuffed Bavarian sausage. Not pretty. As it turns out, I would have fit right in with my fellow Polar Bears as many were wildly dressed in colourful paraphernalia – a commentary on the mental state required to fly headlong into ice cubes. While shivering beside the hula dancers, my resolve weakened at the sight of an ambulance parked nearby. But alas, before turning back the throng suddenly surged forward and carried me into the frigid abyss. OK, bring it on.
As I pushed into the roiling water a young lad in front of me suddenly stopped and crouched down, forcing me to dive over him head-first into the cold, foreboding sea. While wide-eyed and freezing underwater, in a rare moment of clarity I realized how bizarre all of this was when it looked like the legs of the hula dancers passed by. In my cold-induced delirium, the hypnotic song of mythical Sirens in the form of buttered doughnuts must have beckoned me back to shore.
Speaking of cold, during the winter here on the South Island we can experience frigid weather due to air from the far north. In the polar regions, the air is in contact with vast ice- and snow-covered surfaces that are in perpetual darkness during the winter, creating a massive icy blob of air (or “Arctic air mass”) surrounding the North Pole. Sometimes there can be a southward bulge in the air mass boundary, where the Arctic air extends through the Canadian interior and far into the U.S. – bringing frigid conditions to these areas. When this happens, very cold air sneaks into the interior of B.C. If it is deep enough it will squeeze through the coastal mountain passes, out the coastal inlets and continue over to the Island. This “outflow” condition brings strong winds, clear skies and frigid temperatures well below normal.
Well, are we in for very cold outflows this month? Maybe, but the long-range outlook shows a preference for normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation.
No matter what the weather is, I love February. It has Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day and Family Day. So this month do something for your overall fitness: resolve to go outside on each of these days and bring a crowd with you. On the count of three, take a deep breath of fresh air, run headlong and dive into the immersive natural beauty that surrounds us. It will, as they say, send chills up your spine.
~ Weatherwit
