Montecito Polar Bears Swim NY2019

The annual Polar Bears Swim in Montecito was held New Year’s Day 2019 at Butterfly Beach on a gloriously sunny day, high tide, with ocean waters at 57 degrees Fahrenheit matching the daily highs of 60 degrees, and a wind-chill on shore making it feel like 32.

Holding her place as the longest ranking active member of the Montecito Polar Bears New Years Day swim is Maxine Filippin, who still swims daily at the local SB Swim Club. For the 2019 ocean plunge she brought swim club friend, Diona Fulton, P.E. teacher for Marymount School Santa Barbara. Fulton, a competitive athlete, is a long-distance road and trails runner originally from northern Massachusetts, and named after her great aunt, fashionista legend Diana [pronounced Diona] Vreeland. She had no qualms about the ocean temperatures here.

In her priceless email reply to my annual reaching out to round up the Polar Bears, Maxine wrote to me, “For whatever it’s worth, I call myself the Chairman of the Board of the, I’m Never Gonna Die Club. At 84, I don’t wanna miss out on any of it (life). I have been participating for over 30 years as a Polar Bear, and am still working at real estate for 47 years. And certainly don’t want anyone thinking I’ve lost my groove!” For certain, we would not Maxine!

She started doing the NY swim in the 1980s at East Beach, and then due to her love of all things Montecito (including the Montecito Journal), Maxine joined the Miramar Beach and Tennis Club. Richard Payne was the manager from 1987 to 2000 and huge supporter of the annual polar bear swim. When the Miramar Club closed in 2000, Payne was a consultant to Ian Schrager for several years. With the buying and selling of the Club, Payne worked with its new owners to support the annual New Years Day tradition up through 2013. For NY 2014, Maxine gathered the swimmers and it was held at the usual Miramar beach location. In 2015, we had it at Butterfly Beach, 2016 and 2017 it was cancelled, 2018 we fledged on and reconvened the swimmers at Butterfly Beach despite the Thomas Fire.

Here’s a huge shout out to the Montecito Polar Bears who have appeared off and on in my column since 2002 in addition to Maxine and Richard: Jerry and Julia Springer, Hugh and Christel Snyder, Shelly Harmer Plumridge and Adam Plumridge, Joan Wells, Sally and Hank Kinsell, Byron Ishkanian, Peter and Marion Freitag, and Judy Alexander.

411: Open call for all Montecitans to join in the 2020 New Years Day Polar Bears Swim. 

Contact Maxine at Keller Williams cell phone: 805-689-7140