Andra Young endured chilly air and chillier water to ring in 2025 with a distinctly San Francisco custom, one that brought hundreds of naked cyclists and other brave souls to Ocean Beach on New Year’s Day for the annual polar plunge.
“This is such a classic San Francisco tradition,” she said after emerging from her quick foray into the frigid water. “The World Naked Bike Ride combining with crazies like us — it’s a great way to ring in the new year.”
The fourth-generation San Franciscan began taking part in the mass plunge to celebrate the city’s weirdness, but the event took on deeper meaning after she lost her house in a fire on Valentine’s Day in 2023.
“I lost everything,” she told The Standard while warming up after her derring-do dip on Wednesday.
Now, the plunge feels more symbolic, she said, a way to “cleanse all the negative out, to refresh and rebuild.”
Fellow San Francisco native Kathy Fitts-Smith, who now lives in Alameda, said the plunge helps her reconnect with the city that raised her.
“It’s just like my DNA is here,” she said, “so I feel like this is the best way to start the year off.”
Unlike some of the boldest plungers, Fitts-Smith was content to just get her legs wet.
Same for Todd Susi, a Lower Haight resident whose friends have been dragging him to the polar plunge on and off for years.
“There are several years between each time,” he said, explaining that it takes that long for him to “get the nerve up” to give it another go.
“Everybody should try it once,” he advised.
That’s what convinced Atreyu Hunter to do it for the first time Wednesday.
“I was volun-told,” he joked, adding that “a lady friend” talked him into it.
But he said he’s happy to check the experience off his bucket list.
Another first-timer, Marianna Luttmann said she relished the chance to appreciate the city’s beautiful coastline.
“Besides all the positive effects of cold water, I feel like this brings people together to enjoy the ocean and nature,” she said.
Sure, the water is “really cold,” she said, but if you — as she did — waded in surrounded by loved ones, “you’ll feel warm on the inside, and that’s all that matters.”