A rather large group of people, known as Super Plungers, plunged into the cold, cold Columbia River every hour on the hour for an entire 24 hours. Here's one of them on his way for the next-to-the-last time, right at 10 a.m. on Saturday, February 12. While it might be more exciting to start off with a photo taken as water splashes all around, I can't resist this one that caught this man in the split second that his entire body was off the ground, off the water. Super Plunger flies!
So, here he goes, plunging feet first into the current. There to the right of the photo, I have another Super Plunger flying. Although I missed the lower half of his body, surely nothing is touching the ground--look at how parallel he is with the river. Gee, if I had only pointed the camera just a little more to the south. Oh, well. Later on before the masses of teams plunged, beginning at 11 a.m., the event's announcer read off a list of safety rules, one of which was "Do not dive."
More Super Plungers ran into the Columbia River--these people raised a whole lot of money for Special Olympics Oregon, at least $4000 each. My favorite is the cheesehead. Go Packers!
The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office Dive Team waited in the water, in case of an emergency, thank goodness. Here four members celebrate the success of this next-to-the-last Super Plungers' splashdown. I wonder how many times each one of these had been in the river throughout the entire 23 hours. I know for sure these four were in the water for the 24th and last Super Plunge, a little over one hour later.
I took the photos of the Super Plungers from this small boat. No, I didn't stand up in it like this MCSO River Patrol Deputy who is also on the Dive Team. I sat on the seat right in front of that green, upright thing with the Sheriff's badge on it. Once the Super Plungers all got out of the water, he took me over to the Liberty, the larger boat anchored in the Columbia.
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