While the area’s beaches may be most associated with warm-weather swimming, come every Jan. 1, two of the hottest beachside events are always the coolest New Year’s events on the shore.
Exercise Like the Eskimos and the Fenwick Island Freeze will again bring winter splashers and plenty of spectators out on New Year’s Day, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2008, and all for good causes. 
Coastal Point • FILE PHOTO
The Exercise Like the Eskimos event in Bethany annually draws a crowd.
The 12th Annual Leo Brady Exercise Like the Eskimos will bring teams and individuals together in competition for the coveted Iceberg Trophy again in 2008 — only in this new year there will be two big prizes instead of just one.
Organizers at the Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce added a second category of competition for the highest number of team members entering the water on Jan. 1 in Bethany Beach, after the team from the Cottage Café eclipsed previous records with 85 splashers in 2007, with traditional front-runners Team Neptune rallying a strong but out-of-the-running 32.
Therefore, in 2008, the Iceberg Trophy will come in two flavors: commercial and non-commercial. That leaves an opening not only for competition between area businesses such as Cottage Café and Coastal Point (which fielded seven swimmers in its first year) but also for traditional family and other non-commercial groups to outdo each other in collecting members and funds for the beneficiaries of the annual event.
Though comparatively small in its first year, Team Coastal Point finished second in funds raised, right behind Team Neptune. Proceeds from the Eskimos event this year will go to benefit the Quiet Resorts Charitable Foundation, which provides grants for area charities and non-profits, as well as scholarships for local students and other beneficiaries.
Helping Team Cottage Café register 95 team members last year — 85 of whom went in the water — were ongoing recruiting activities through the weekend leading up to New Year’s Day, with 30 additional members registered by the team that morning. Team members were also invited to a post-swim open house and pig roast, where the recruiting for 2008 quickly began.
One of the advantages of team membership is the allowance to wear a team T-shirt, which can help fend of potential cold weather, if not the chill of the wintertime sea. No wetsuits, sweatsuits, business suits or other kinds of suits are allowed beyond swimsuits and team T-shirts, the Chamber noted.
For those who haven’t already signed up, the registration fee is $30, or $15 for those 18 or younger, as a team member or solo. (Spots are still available on Team Coastal Point.) Pre-registered splashers are guaranteed a commemorative towel. For those registering later, or at the event, towels will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration forms are available on the Chamber Web site at www.bethany-fenwick.org.
On the day of the event, check-in will be at the Garfield Parkway entrance of the Bethany Beach boardwalk between 10 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. All swimmers must check in, even if they are pre-registered. Each participant is allowed one “buddy” in the preparation area on the beach. All participants will get a wristband, and “buddies” will also need a wristband to get into that area. Those without a wristband will not be allowed into the preparation area.
Participants and their buddies will need to report to the roped-off area on the beach near the bandstand by 11:45 a.m., with both their buddy and their towel.
But they won’t be the only ones on the beach this year. With the newly reconstructed beach and dune line, Chamber Executive Director Karen McGrath said, “The big wide beach will enable all spectators to come onto the beach if they’d like. This is a great opportunity to get out there and see the new beach.”
“Only ‘splashers’ and their designated buddy will be allowed in the small roped-off area, but we’re encouraging everyone to come over the dune onto the beach elsewhere to watch,” McGrath added.
At high noon, when event namesake and area legend Leo Brady gives the signal, the swimmers will splash into the ocean. How they exit the water is their choice and is half the treat for spectators, who get to witness everything from rushed dips in and out of the wintery waters to those who languish there as if it were the peak of summertime before retreating to the sands and the towels and warm clothes held by their buddies.
Pets ready to strut their stuff
Leading up to the Bethany event again in 2008 and providing entertainment for those preparing for the swim will be the annual Hometown Pet Show — the seventh such event organized by the Chamber.
The pet show features a variety of local pets and their owners competing in several categories: Best Pint-Sized Pet, Best Gallon-Sized Pet, Looks Most Like Owner and Best Costume.
The emcee for this year’s pet show will again be Coastal Point Editor Darin McCann, who will therefore, unfortunately, be ineligible for the Looks Most Like Owner competition with pug Bailey and Shar Pei-mix Guiness, for which he might have been a shoo-in.
Judges will include Bethany Beach Mayor Carol Olmstead and Chamber member Monte Wisbrock.
Registration for the show will begin at 9:30 a.m. and run until 10:30, with a cost of $5 per animal. Each animal may be registered in more than one category of competition.
Proceeds from the pet show, which is sponsored by Intervet Inc., will go to Bethany Town Cats for support of its efforts with the area’s feral cat population.
All registered pets will receive a commemorative ribbon. Ribbons will also be awarded to first-, second- and third-place in each category. And the People’s Choice (best overall) will be awarded a trophy.
Fenwick ‘Freezers’ have broken the ice
About the same time the pets start to strut their stuff in the Hometown Pet Show, swimmers in nearby Fenwick Island will strutting, jogging, whimpering, whining, moaning, shivering and plunging their way into the chilly waters of the Atlantic, for the annual Fenwick Freeze.
Rain, shine, snow or sleet, participants will dip off the Bayard Street beach in Fenwick Island at the newest of the area’s New Year’s ocean splashes on Jan. 1, 2008, at 10:30 a.m.
The event has been a big hit in the town, with a huge turnout in its first year under balmy weather and with a roaring bonfire that almost wasn’t needed. Despite successive years with decidedly chillier temperatures, the event has continued to draw a big crowd in the small town and has established itself as a new tradition for those in Fenwick Island on New Year’s Day.
Registration for the Freeze costs $20 through New Year’s Eve, with registration taking place at town hall from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on both Dec. 30 and 31. Registration on the day of the Freeze costs $25 and will take place from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Registration forms are also available on the town Web site at www.fenwickisland.org.
All registrants receive a commemorative beach towel, and additional towels can be purchased at the event.
Proceeds from the Freeze go to a different charity or charities each year, with past beneficiaries including the Fenwick Island Lighthouse. All proceeds this year will benefit the Sussex County Paramedics and the Fenwick Island Lifeguard National Competition Fund.