NEWPORT — Organizers of Easton’s Beach annual New Year’s Day Polar Plunge confirmed this week that participants will be allowed to enter the Atlantic Ocean nude for the first time in the event’s history, a move organizers said was about inclusiveness, body acceptance, and “letting it all hang out.”
The decision was approved late Tuesday by the Newport Department Of Nudity Governance, which voted 4–2 to allow temporary public nudity during the plunge, calling it a limited exemption tied specifically to the holiday.
“New Year’s represents rebirth,” said event organizer Mark Walter Donnelly. “And what better way to symbolize that than allowing participants to enter the water in their natural state, just as we all entered the world.”
It was later revealed that the Aquidneck Nudist Advocate League had pledged a substantial donation to the event’s sponsoring charity in support of the change.
Asked about the size of the gift, a spokesperson for the association described it as “sizeable—much more sizeable than anything you’ll see during the plunge itself.”
Not everyone was enthusiastic about the change.
“This is supposed to be a family event,” said local resident Karen Marie Whitcomb, who said she has attended the plunge for years with her children. “I don’t know why rich naked people get to ruin everything.”
Organizers noted that the new rules will require all minors, both observers and participants, to be blindfolded throughout the event.
Local vendors expressed more immediate concerns.
“I’m just worried people won’t have much of an appetite after that,” said Mike Tomasso DeAngelis, a hot dog vendor who has worked the plunge for the past eight years. “After seeing all that, people might not really be in the mood for hot dogs. Or buns, for that matter.”