For a certain set of New Yorkers, New Year’s Day involves wading into the icy Atlantic Ocean for an annual polar bear plunge. But for a small, dedicated group of local dippers, confronting the cold water is a daily ritual.
Jen Mahmoud has been making the trek from her home in Flatbush, Brooklyn to Rockaway Beach every day for more than a month to make the plunge. She said it melts away the stress of daily living in New York City.
“ Today makes day 36 of me dipping every day,” Mahmoud said.
The 53-year-old dog walker is a member of the New York Dippers Club, a group of cold water enthusiasts who make a daily pilgrimage into the Atlantic Ocean all winter long. The club is in its third season, and while not everyone shows up every day, a handful of people like Mahmoud say they reap daily benefits from the ocean and the community they’ve built around plunging into it.
“ It's a fairly calm day, not like it was yesterday with the waves,” said Mahmoud, walking from the Rockaway Beach boardwalk towards the beach. “The waves kicked our tails yesterday, so this is actually nice,” she said.
The New York Dippers have been experimenting with a sunset dip on Fridays.
The New York Dippers started when British painter and cold plunge evangelist Graham Cullis was visiting the Rockaway Peninsula in the fall of 2022. He made a video of himself jumping into the ocean in October and invited people to join him the next day.
First, one person joined him. More came the day after that. All the while, Cullis was looking for someone who could take over his spot leading the group when he returned to the United Kingdom at the end of the year.
“I go places. I start things and then I get out there and leave it with someone,” Cullis said.
Cullis found Kate Ragazzino, a retired U.S. Marine who was attracted to the cold water as a form of mental and physical therapy. She began joining him daily about a week after his first social media post and became a reliable presence on the beach. Captain Kate, as she’s known to the group, sustained a traumatic brain injury while deployed to Iraq in 2004.
She and her co-leader, Mike O’Donnell, serve as the group’s welcoming committee and logistics coordinators. They will call off a plunge if the ocean conditions are too hazardous, during storms or extreme high winds.
“Safety is paramount,” Ragazzino said.
O’Donnell maintains the group's social media accounts. There are before and after selfies, and photos of members who hit personal milestones, whether it’s someone making their first plunge or their 500th.
The New York Dippers take a selfie before their plunge.
His own cold-water journey began as something he did intermittently a few decades ago. Then it became a more regular part of his life during the COVID-19 pandemic, when like many people, he struggled with mental health issues. He found that trips to the ocean helped him feel grounded. At that point, he made a commitment to himself to take a dip at least once a month.
It was just two years ago that he discovered the power of dipping daily, during a moment of crisis with his family. He and his husband have two teenage sons through the New York foster care system. “One of them fell into substance abuse and it was beyond my capacity to help navigate it,” O’Donnell said.
The experience strained his marriage and his parenting. One thing that seemed to help was taking his daily trip into the water.
“ Like imagine what a better person you would be if every morning all your stress is released,” O’Donnell said, “so the only stress you're carrying is that day's stress and no cumulative stress.”
O’Donnell said he doesn’t pressure those who are dip-curious. But he said he does have a standard answer for those who say they would never try the cold plunge.
“What I tell everybody is don't be a ‘no.’ You don't need to be a ‘yes,’ but don't be a ‘no.’ Be a ‘maybe someday,’” said O’Donnell.
On a December Friday, the temperature in Rockaway was 34 degrees, but the real feel was about 20 with the wind. On the beach, the members stripped off their layers. Coats, hats, shirts and shoes piled up on the sand.
They each strode towards the water on their own time and took the plunge. At least nine went into the ocean, squealing and laughing. They stuck it out for at least five minutes.
When Mahmoud got out, I asked her how it was. “Refreshing, exhilarating,” she said, beaming.
