Dec. 21, 2022 to Mar. 21, 2023
Multiple atmospheric rivers brought heavy rains, severe floods, and damaging winds to the Bay Area in the winter of 2022-2023. Temperatures and overall weather conditions throughout the 2022-2023 Polar Bear season have not been seen since the 80’s. This season had a record breaking 35 days where combined air and water temperatures were under 100, while usually we recorded only 10-15 days in the past. Coldest combined temperatures were 89.8 on 2/23. The coldest water temp was recorded on 2/16 at 51.3. Another record was 17 straight days of under 100.
The temperature and weather conditions may have created extra challenge for the 300 dolphin swimmers who attempted this season’s Polar Bear, but still 162 swimmers were able to finish, many for the first time. In this season, Chris Wagner is the first swimmer to pass the 40-mile mark on January 7th, 2023, and Oliver Fader is the first to get to 100 miles on February 16th, 2023.
In honor of Joe Illick, who was unable to finish his miles due to his passing away, many swimmers donated some of their miles to his final tally. Rest in peace, Joe.
First Name | Last Name | Total Miles | OG/V | Notes |
Oliver | Fader | 190 | 100 on 2/16 | |
Joe | Illick | 167 | including all donated miles | |
Rich | Roth | 111 | V | |
Rick | Perez | 111 | ||
Chris | Wagner | 111 | OG | 40 on 1/7 |
Thomas | Neill | 101 | OG | |
Cesar | Manzano | 90 | ||
Christophe | Crombez | 85.5 | V | |
Mamoun | Alassouli | 80.5 | V | |
Randy | Edwards | 80.5 | ||
Peter | Cullinan | 76 | OG | |
Joe | Spallone | 65.75 | ||
Kati | Hopman | 64 | ||
Neal | Powers | 62.5 | OG | |
Michael | Thoresen | 62 | OG | |
Chris | Igo | 60 | V | |
Claire | Perry | 60 | ||
John | Stassen | 60 | ||
Bianca | Liederer | 58.5 | ||
Michael | Tschantz-Hann | 56.5 | ||
Ryan | Hedum | 55 | V | |
Ian | McColl | 55 | V | |
Renzo | Sereni | 54 | OG | |
Alice | Ma | 53.5 | SERC member | |
Pejmun | Haghighi | 53 | ||
Eric | Reed | 52.5 | V | |
Thorsten | Anderson | 52.25 | ||
Daniel | Handler | 52 | ||
John | Ottesberg | 52 | OG | |
Tatyana | Ovcharova | 51.5 | ||
Jason | Shaeffer | 51 | V | |
Kamran | Ataba | 50.5 | ||
Eliana | Agudelo | 50 | ||
Fasica | Alemayehu | 50 | ||
Steve | Carlson | 50 | 5th PB in a row | |
Lisa | Domitrovich | 50.5 | OG | |
Lawrence | Remstedt | 50 | ||
Jamie | Robinson | 50 | OG | |
Bobby | Tandler | 50 | OG | |
Ted | Tilles | 50 | ||
Caius | Vannouhuys | 50 | ||
John | Gibbon | 48 | ||
Pieter | Kruit | 48 | ||
Cort | Eidem | 47.5 | V | |
Jim | Barron | 47 | ||
David | O’Reilly | 46.5 | ||
Kalani | Leifer | 46.25 | ||
Morgan | Kulla | 46 | OG | |
John | Mervin | 45 | ||
Arnie | Oji | 44.75 | OG | |
Gary | Arabatyan | 44 | ||
Natazha | Raine O’Connor | 44 | OG | |
Tony | Payne | 44 | ||
Beth | Stein | 44 | OG | |
Carter | Seddon | 43.5 | ||
Johan | Duramy | 43 | V | |
Jeffrey | Wagner | 43 | first full polar bear | |
Jonathan | DePriest | 42.75 | ||
Amanda | Ernzer | 42.75 | ||
Sean | McFadden | 42.5 | ||
Joey | Murphy | 42.25 | ||
Ryan | Dalton | 42 | ||
Maria | Sereni | 42 | ||
Egon | Terplan | 42 | ||
Juan | Zinser Lopez | 41.75 | ||
Jeff | Citron | 41.5 | OG + V | |
Larry | Scroggins | 41.25 | OG | |
Alex | Buehlmann | 41 | ||
Karin | Christenson | 41 | ||
Kathleen | Duffy | 41 | OG | |
Vince | Huang | 41 | OG | 45 Consecutive PB |
Sean | Lavelle | 41 | ||
Kerry | LaBelle | 41 | ||
Lauren | Lesyna | 41 | ||
Tim | Melano | 41 | ||
Wafaa | Sabil | 41 | ||
Rebecca | Tilley | 41 | ||
Nihan | Tiryaki | 41 | ||
Rosa | Zapatero | 41 | ||
Joni | Beemsterboer | 40.5 | OG | |
Pia | Hinckle | 40.5 | ||
Catherine | Singstad | 40.5 | V | |
Elaine | Van Vleck | 40.5 | ||
Tom | Brown | 40.25 | ||
Sean | Badessa | 40 | ||
Peter | Bostelmann | 40 | ||
Eric | Boyle | 40 | V | |
Andrew | Braithwaite | 40 | ||
Eileen | Buckley | 40 | ||
Michael | Caniglia | 40 | ||
Charlie | Cross | 40 | OG | |
Jim | Frew | 40 | ||
Joe | Gannon | 40 | OG | |
Erin | Gasser | 40 | ||
Mark | Harrold | 40 | ||
David | Holscher | 40 | OG | |
Gavin | Jefferies | 40 | ||
Bobby | Lu | 40 | ||
Tor | Lundgren | 40 | ||
Sunny | McKee | 40 | OG | |
Camila | Pesce | 40 | ||
Derrick | Rebello | 40 | ||
Holly | Reed | 40 | OG | |
Jeff | Russell | 40 | ||
Dan | Ryan | 40 | V | |
Julian | Sapirstein | 40 | OG | |
Philip | Scarborough | 40 | ||
Christy | Simpson | 40 | V | |
Noah | Springwater | 40 | ||
Ben | Springwater | 40 | ||
Mike | Walsh | 40 | ||
Ken | Miller | 35.5 | OG | |
Gabriella | Cross | 34 | OG | |
Joe | Mannion | 31.75 | OG | |
Duke | Dahlin | 30 | OG | |
Kate | Matthay | 29 | OG | |
Julie | Marcus | 28.5 | OG | |
George | Robin | 27.5 | OG | |
Brian | Johnson | 27 | OG | |
Mickey | Lavelle | 27 | OG | |
Bill | Burke | 26.5 | OG | |
Diane | Campbell | 26.5 | OG | |
Keith | Howell | 26 | OG | |
Lolly | Lewis | 25 | OG | |
Kent | Myers | 25 | OG | |
Lee | Smithson | 24.5 | OG | |
Naphtali | Offen | 25 | OG | |
Stu | Gannes | 24 | OG | |
Steve | Hanson | 24 | OG | |
Elizabeth | Ozer | 24 | OG | |
Wolf | Richter | 24 | OG | |
Denise | Dugan | 23.75 | OG | |
Sal | Balistreri | 23 | OG | |
Dorian | Dunne | 22 | OG + V | |
Nancy | Lange | 22 | OG | |
Andy | Stone | 22 | OG | |
Anne | Hamersky | 21.5 | OG | |
Peter | Neubauer | 21.5 | OG | |
Krist | Jake | 21.25 | OG | |
Jon | Nakamura | 21.25 | OG | |
Daragh | Powers | 21.25 | OG | |
Lindsay | Casablanca | 21 | OG | |
Terry | Huwe | 21 | OG | |
Sergei | Khorochev | 21 | OG | |
Michaelynn | Meyers | 21 | OG | |
Rudeen | Monte | 21 | OG | |
Tom | McGraw | 20.5 | OG | |
Rory | Enke | 20.5 | OG | |
Joanne | Sakai | 20.5 | OG + V | |
Kevin | Shanahan | 20.5 | OG | |
Matt | Leffers | 20.25 | OG | |
John | Dugan | 20 | OG | |
Elspeth | Farmer | 20 | OG + V | |
Sue | Garfield | 20 | OG | |
Marlin | Gilbert | 20 | OG | |
Terry | Horn | 20 | OG | |
John | Hornor | 20 | OG | |
Heidi | Howell | 20 | OG | |
Aniko | Kurczinak | 20 | OG | |
Kevin | McAlea | 20 | OG | |
Will | Powning | 20 | OG | |
Deb | Sullivan | 20 | OG |