St Pete's Polar Bear Club!

It was 18 degrees (F*) on our thermometer when we got home from dinner. On the way home we were walking along the river, which as you can see in many previous pictures is quite frozen. As we approached a certain spot of the river Nikki exclaimed, Oh My Gosh that man is naked! Sure enough as we approached we saw a crowd gathered around a spot on the river. Now this spot has concrete stairs that go down the retaining wall into the river. Low and behold we see a wooden stair case going down into a cut out ice spot in the river.
Not wanting to miss a show we hang out for a minute and sure enough a young man is taunted enough by his "Friends" to strip to his skives and head for the water.

Here he is completely submerged.

And here he is quickly exiting the water.

Now what I find odd about this, besides the obvious, is that someone took the care to build and implace a wooden stair case over the stone one to facilitate this activity. As if the most paramount concern for safety is of someone slipping on the icy stairs when submerging in sub freezing temperature waters!!! Needless to say Nikki and I will not be swimming in the Neva anytime soon, but it was quite a sight to see.