The words "no" and "wetsuits" are pretty innocuous, but when put together they take on a certain chill.
Quite often literally. If the event you're hoping to participate in falls in the wintertime, and involves water, and "no wetsuits" appears at the top of the announcement, you know you're in for a prolonged visit with every last goosebump your body can produce.
And there'll be nary a wetsuit in sight at the annual Surf City Splash, the jump-in-the-Pacific fundraiser that traditionally falls on New Year's Day. Place? Huntington Beach, as the name reveals. Time? The fairly brisk hour of 10 a.m. (A time that's likely brisker than the start time for previous years, a warmer noon o'clock.)
When we said "jump" into the Pacific before, we meant "run, sometimes ungainfully, while laughing and making faces for friends' cameras." It's a lighthearted day, meant to raise funds for the International Surfing Museum and stir up some community spirit.
Cost to participate is twenty bucks. The date is Tuesday, Jan. 1.
There's also a Lions Club pancake breakfast earlier in the day, if you want to carb up. Pancakes are good for the soul, but they still can't prevent goosebumps when skin meets salty water on New Year's Day morning.
