Simone Smith celebrates while running out of the water Wednesday while Lindsey Moon braces herself in a wave during an unsanctioned dip at Old Orchard Beach.


For the first time in its 37-year history, the New Year’s Day Lobster Dip in Old Orchard Beach was canceled.

The dip is a fundraiser for Special Olympics Maine, and 450 people had registered to run into the frigid ocean Wednesday. John Gilboy, chief of the Old Orchard Beach Fire Department, made the call to cancel the dips because of dangerous surf.

“We know this beach, and conditions are just too dangerous today,” he said.

He added that a primary consideration was how riptides have become stronger and more frequent at Old Orchard Beach after last January’s storms.

“I’m not going to lie, it’s disappointing that we can’t get into the water today,” said Ian Frank, president and CEO of Special Olympics Maine. “We have to be proud of the overall day itself and all of the support that we’ve gotten with the 450 dippers who raised a lot of money for Special Olympics Maine.”

Since dippers couldn’t go in the water, many posed for photos on the beach with the Lobster Dip sign. Simone Smith was part of a group of hospitality professionals who took an unsanctioned short run into the water after. Smith raised her arms in the air as she ran back out of the surf, shouting, “We did it, we did it,” as her companion, Lindsey Moon, braced herself for a cold wave.

– Photos by Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald

 

Rita Losee, right, takes a photo of Simone Smith, Hailey Flora, Clifford Smith, Karina Suszynski and Lindsey Moon, left to right, at the Lobster Dip sign on Wednesday.

While Solveig Torsvik watches on Wednesday with his hand on his head, Edward Torsvik looks up while he and Emerson Welch, Amanda Torsvik and Chelsea Fournier, clockwise from Edward, make sand angels on the beach in Old Orchard Beach.

Lindsey Moon tries to keep her balance in a churning wave on Wednesday during an unsanctioned dip in the ocean at Old Orchard Beach.

A man jogs by the Lobster Dip sign Wednesday on Old Orchard Beach, where normally hundreds of people would be standing on New Year’s Day.

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