Link's Blog

Every new years day, Coney Island (which never cease to keep me amuse) hosts the annual New Year’s Day Polar Bear Plunge.

On that day, hundreds of people come to Coney Island, in the middle of the winter, at 1:00 PM, the national anthem is sang and MC announces that the plunge is officially on. At that point, hundreds of brave newyorkers jump in the freezing waters of the Atlantic.

There is a lot of excitement, and a lot of screaming and cheering.

My brother and I barely made it on time.

We got to the beach, strip to out swimming suits and run the long beach until we reach the water. We stop at the waters edge and encourage each other:

-“I will follow you brother!” – my little brother said to me. 
-“Ok, remember the trick: just keep screaming!” – I replied.

So we ran, full speed, into the water, screaming to the top of our lungs, just like everybody else was doing. People splashes water, tries to swim (unsuccessfully) push and play and make a lot of noise. Odd enough, we did not hear any swear words. 

The water is so cold. It feels like thousands of needles poking you from every direction. Full immersion was the goal, and we did it, twice.  

It feels great afterwards. The air feels nice, the sun feels so warm, and you cannot feel your toes or fingers. Very invigorating.

The weather was unusually warm (mid 50s) for a winter day, so it was a good year to do it for the first time.

Something more to scratch off my bucket list.

And again is the first day of the summer. And following my customs and traditions I was once again marching at the annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade.

The year before, my brother and I were lionfish. This year we were not sure what would be fish to portrait. I narrowed it down to two: An angel fish, and a white shark. Two sketches were created and after a quick meeting with my creative partner, we agreed on the white shark.

There were plenty of interpretations of sharks at the parade. Some are ok, some are just plain lame. Our idea was more artsy. More Cirque Du Soleilish.

In the middle of the creative process, we had an idea. Why not use stilts for the parade? We have never walk on stilts before, but after learning the hard way how to snowboard, we thought that it could not be that hard to learn. We got the stilts in the mail and headed to the nearest park to practice for a few hours. It took some time, but we got the knack of it. Just to be in the safe side, we decided to add long staffs to our costume.

THe day of the parade we got up early, and we still had to finish the costumes. My friend Jason was visiting from London. This was his first time in New York City. We invited him to join our group and he was happy to do it.

IT is always fun to see people’s reactions when we walk from my place to the subway, and all the subway ride to Coney Island in full make up. Grown ups try to steal little glances of us, while kids shamelessly look at us a point.

Finally, after an hour trip, we made it to Coney Island. Our time was very good, the parade started at 2:00 and we were there at 1:30. All the registration lines were done, and checking in was quick. We walked to the holding area and started putting on the costumes. As it happened in previous years, as soon as we starting pulling out pieces, we got swarmed by photographers. The cotume stated to get shape, and more pictures were taken. FInally, we got up on stilts, and place the final pieces. The great white sharks were ready to parade!.

The parade started rolling as soon as we were done out preparations. Last year we got in way to early, and we had to wait 4 hours, under the rain, before we could march. Before we roll, the speakers in the holding area reminded us that: “Do not stop for photographers! Not even if the ask you, order you, or beg you to do so!, You will slow down the parade if you stop! A photographer killed Lady Di! You don’t own them anything!”

Because of the perfect weather, the number of spectators was high. Also, the photographers were everywhere. From large professional cameras to small cellphone cameras, they will shot at us from every angle.

Walking on stilts, made our marching slower, which was good because we could play with the people watching the parade.

Our slow walk took us along the parade route, by the judges table, and finally onto the boardwalk. The people watching the parade in the baordwalk had a lot of energy, and they will cheer and clap at us constantly.

There were many reasons to clap too. Many groups of marchers have choosen the BP Oil disaster as inspiration for the costumes. From “Chicken of the sea, in BP Oil”, to “BP Black Mermaids” and “BP Oil Smeared King Neptune”, the general outrage about the disaster was visible.

Finally, after an hour or so of marching, we reached the end of the parade. But we were far from being done.

We would just stand in formation (Two stilt walkers in the back, and the last shark in front), and let us be swarm by photographers. After about 30 minutes of standin on that spot, we could walk a few feet forward and do it again. There was many people wanting to have their pic taken with us. Some would ask politely if they can do it, and some with shamelessly just walk in front of and  take the picture. There was not much we could do to stop them, so we just let them do so.

What I liked the most were the kids faces. The smaller the kid, the better the reaction. There were several times when we would walk by a stroller, and the kid’s face suddenly will change from a bored look, to a head turning, super interested stared Only once I found a kid (must have been 4 or 5) that was scared and started screaming when his mother (Who was tugging him along to walk faster) walked by us. I smiled at him, but he just screamed louder.

The sun was strong, but the wind was blowing. Our costumes had several flowing pieces, which added to the overall effect of walking on air.

Unlike past years, we had only one wardrobe malfunction. Our walking shark’s fin fell off its supports, but the fixing was very easy. Based on previous years experience, this year we took in account that the costumes have to be: waterproof, pushing and pulling proof, easy to fix & disposable.

After all was done, we peel off out fins, filled up the nearest trash can with out costumes, and headed home. 

Quoting my friend Jason: “We have nothing like this in England. This was bloody brilliant!”

This years Mermaid Parade was a success.