Robin Michener Nathan The Times Scotty Johnson and his grandchildren, from left, Mason Spencer, 13, Christina Gilley, 16, and Amelia Ramsey, 9, attempt choreographed cannonballs into Lake Lanier during the 10th annual Polar Bear Swim on Monday afternoon at the Lake Lanier Olympic Center. Robin Michener Nathan The Times The Rev. Dr. Bill Coates, right, helps push, from left, Wade Beavers Jr., 7, Andrea Cook, Wade Beavers Sr., and Robert Wiley, 11, members of the choir from First Baptist Church on Green Street, into Lake Lanier on Monday afternoon. Their jump was the first of the annual Polar Bear Swim at the Lake Lanier Olympic Center. Robin Michener Nathan The Times Trevor Jones, 10, makes a snowman out of real snow brought in for the first Southern Winter Games, a new addition to the annual Polar Bear Swim at Lake Lanier. The games included penguin bowling, igloo building, cross country skiing relays and s'mores.

The chicken-with-ice curling. Bowling for penguins. The snowball toss. The extras billed as the Southern Winter Games offered fun Monday afternoon. But what truly drew the crowd to the Lake Lanier Olympic Center was summed up by first-time visitor Christine Cooper of Atlanta: "We want to see them jump in the water."

They did. The red-blooded, blue-skinned lineup ran 110 deep, a solid number to mark the Lanier Canoe and Kayak Club's 10th annual Polar Bear Swim at Lake Lanier. Club executive director Connie Hagler judged the crowd and jumpers strong.

All, Hagler said, "went very smooth."

The weather fit: sunny but chilly. A flag-snapping wind stirred short white caps on Lanier's Chattahoochee River arm.

This New Year's marked the first time the club held its fundraiser on the finish tower side of the 1996 Summer Games venue off Clarks Bridge Road.

The change took advantage of grandstand seating, and more space for the Southern Winter Games, a sideshow Hagler said Trish Stump of North Hall created.

Christine and Mike Cooper's 9-year-old son, Matthew, tried Southern curling, a local adaptation in which ice-packed rubber chickens were slid toward Olympic-like rings.

"You can't throw it too hard. You can't throw it too light," Matthew said afterward.

"He's going to be in training for next year," joked Mike Cooper, who grew up in Gainesville.

It took no training but plenty of grit to join the Polar Bear Swim, the event that helped convince the Coopers to spend part of their holiday at Lanier.

Some came in costume, including a Superman suit. Others simply came in swimsuits.

Friends Heather Lana of Suwanee, Maia Schoenberg of Dacula and Andie Stewart of Lawrenceville took the plunge together.

Only 10-year-old Schoenberg had before. "It's cold," she warned.

But Schoenberg sold Stewart, also 10. They met up with another friend and Lana, a member of a Canoe and Kayak Club program whose mother, Marcy, said she needed to "take one for the team."

Heather, 12, dressed in an "I Dream of Jeannie" costume for the occasion.

But no amount of magic could keep her and the others from squealing and rushing for towels, shirts and hot tubs after the dunk.

"When you get out, you can't feel anything," Schoenberg said.

Will they do it again? Marcy Lana asked. "No!" they yelled.

Others will. Jumpers, at $25 each or $50 per family, featured a repeat team from local churches, which first pushed in choir members saying prayers, and Ronnie Kotler and his yellow Labrador retriever, Mollie McGoo.

Kotler, of Auburn, was taking part in his seventh Polar Bear Swim. For Mollie, it was the sixth.

She made the most of it. She first landed on top of her master, who was underwater at the time.

Mollie then jumped uninvited with the next contestant.

Judges rated each contestant. Asked on what criteria, judge and Hall County commission chairman Tom Oliver said, "Style. Sincerity." Then he broke into laughter.

When the water calmed, winners included the duo Double Trouble for best jump, John DePalma for best jump in a polar bear costume and Gainesville Councilman George Wangemann, an eight-time participant, for best without his polar bear costume.

Wangemann's costume, made by Ragnhild Andersson-Bucht of Gainesville, looked the part but wasn't suited for water. He jumped without it.

Contact: rlavender@gainesvilletimes.com, (770) 718-3411

Originally published Tuesday, January 2, 2007