This was not Shirley Schwankl’s first polar bear plunge.

Dressed in a hula skirt and a coconut bikini to help celebrate her 55th birthday, Schwankl kicked a bit of snow and ice off her shoe and calmly offered a bit of advice to first timers waiting with her on a Driftwood Point beach usually closed at this time of year.

“You just have to run in screaming,” she said. “And you don’t stop.”

At a little past 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Schwankl let out a yell and joined nearly 100 other seemingly inadequately dressed people as they ran into the freezing waters of Lake Tapps to celebrate the dawning of 2011.

For most, the plunge was over almost as soon as it began. They ran in, screamed, splashed each other, horsed around and then most came screaming right back out of the frigid waters to huddle near the fire burning on the beach and grab a quick snack.

“It’s coooooooooold!” said a shivering Andy Mackay after wrapping himself in a warm towel and heading toward the fire pit.

Mackay said he has done three similar plunges near Port Townsend, but this was his first time jumping into Lake Tapps in January. How does it compare?

“It’s cold!” he said again. “But it keeps me young!”

Even in the summer, the glacier-fed Lake Tapps is not known for being a particularly warm lake. But after the recent rash of cold weather, ice was forming on the canal behind the beach making Saturday’s plunge even colder than usual.

Despite that, organizer Scott Thorsteinsen called the water “refreshing” and “lovely.”

For first time polar bears like the Snyders, however, the cold water came as a shock.

Branon Snyder, a Seattle firefighter who brought his family to the Lake for their first polar bear plunge said he heard about it from friends and decided to give it a try.

“It’s awesome to try, now that I can feel my toes,” he said with a laugh. “I suggest everyone should come next year because it was a blast.”

“It was pretty exciting, but then you just want to get out,” said Blake Snyder, 12, adding that the further in he went, the more he could feel the “weight of coldness” climbing his body.

Not everyone rushed out of the water, however. With a prize on the line for the person who could stay in the longest, three teenage boys tried to outdo each other while one teenage girl tried to show up all the boys.

After close to 10 minutes in the water, all four had a ring of redness around their bodies and organizers declared them all winners.

Afterward, Luke Andrews, 16, Michel Hickey, 16 and Michael Baber, 17 all huddled around the fire and cited “willpower” and “blind ignorance” as the keys to their ability to stay int he water.

As for Anastasia Vail, 14, who was visiting the Snyders from Colorado, she wasn’t sure how she stayed in so long.

“I don’t know,” she said laughing. “I’m crazy?”

For those who stayed on the shore in their winter coats, it sure looked like crazy was the word of the day, though everyone who dove in said they were looking forward to it again next year.

“It’s cruel, but it’s a good way to start the year,” Ravelle Snyder said.