Whitby Boxing Day Dip 2024
Whitby Lion’s Boxing Day Dip is back for 2024! Are you crazy or brave enough to run into the North Sea on Boxing Day for charity?
It has become somewhat of a tradition in our beautiful little seaside town to enjoy a rather refreshing dip in the North Sea on Boxing Day morning. It’s certainly a unique and memorable experience that will raise lots of money for local charities. Fancy dress is a must, for many dippers, with prizes available for the best! In previous years, we have had some fantastic costumes such as dinosaurs, Batman and Robin, Christmas trees and even a team of traffic cones and a fancy dress wedding proposal! This years competition is being judged by England and local legend Beth Mead.
Following previous years successful Boxing Day Dip, participants need pay a £10 entry fee in order to participate in the event; this will be paid direct to Whitby Lion’s (See below for ticket details). Participants can still raise sponsorship for their chosen charity, with 100% of the money they raise going to the charity/organisation of their choice. Please note, that if the participants require a sponsor form, Whitby Lion’s will still issue one. However, unlike previous years the participant will fully be responsible for distributing their sponsor money to their chosen charity. Whitby Lion’s will not collect everyone’s sponsorship money and then distribute it. This new method of running the event work well last year, it means its easier for participants to enter the event and easier for the club to manage the dip.
This fun and frantic event has now been running over the last 49 years, originally seeing numbers soar from a handful of brave local citizens to over 160 eager individuals travelling from far and wide, desperate to run into the wintery ice-cold waves of the North Sea. Although as you’d expect, you are more likely to see the big numbers witnessing the excitement from the side-lines. The Boxing Day has become a traditional family friendly event with many families meeting up after Christmas Day to spending a lovely Boxing Day morning together.
Last year’s 2023 dip was the biggest ever with a record-breaking 329 dippers taking part, with the event raising an incredible £5,590.00 for the club! Which will support their work helping local organisations and charities. There was also amazing support from our local community with at least a thousand spectators supporting the event and joining in the fun. The dippers themselves would have raised many thousands of pounds for various local and national charities. During our 2019 dip, we also featured on national television with BBC Breakfast filming live at the event on Boxing Day morning. We hope for another successful event this year, thank you to the local community who generously support ourselves, our dippers and the many charities involved. Keep an eye out for our festive street collectors who will be giving away a chocolate sweet for every donation!
To register for the dip, please either sign up using the PayPal link below then we will email a sponsor form to you or you can register and pay at The Whitby Pet Shop,15 Station Square Whitby and collect a sponsor form. You can also register and pay on the day by credit/debit card or cash at the registration tent at the bandstand. To keep up to date for the latest event information please visit the Whitby Lions Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages.
The club would again like to thank everyone who enters, our volunteers and especially The Whitby Pet Shop for taking the time to register our dippers and Whitby Diving Club who help to ensure the safety of our dippers.
Tickets (Entry Fee)
Entry Fee Cost: £10 per person.
All dippers MUST be registered to take part as our insurance does not cover anyone who is not registered.
Tickets are available from:
PayPal: Credit or Debit card (See PayPal button below)
The Whitby Pet Shop: Cash at 15 Station Square, Whitby, YO21 1DU. www.facebook.com/whitbypetshop.
On the day: Credit, Debit Card or Cash at our registration tent.
Registration
After purchasing your ticket, you still need to register on the day at our registration tent. This ensures we know how many people are doing the dip for safety reasons and to cover you for insurance purposes. You can still sign up for the dip in the morning by going to our registration tent and paying the £10 entry fee by either credit/debit card or cash.
Registration opens at 10 AM on Boxing Day morning and is situation next to the Bandstand on Pier Road opposite the RNLI Museum, Whitby.
Event Address – Pier Road, Whitby, North Yorkshire, YO21 3PU. (Please see Google Map below).
Registration on the Day – If you have purchased your ticket via PayPal, please print your transaction page and bring it with you on the day. At our registration tent, we will ask to see your transaction details to confirm your name, date of transaction and the transaction ID, so we can confirm your entry.
Sponsorship Form – You MUST purchase a ticket before you request a sponsor form. Please read through the below event details and then see the sponsorship form request form at the bottom of the page.
Fancy Dress
Everyone is welcome to come in fancy dress, we highly recommend it!
Prizes are awarded for the best dressed:
Adult Female
Adult Male
Under 16 – Female
Under 16 – Male
Team
If you are lucky enough to win a category, please give your contact details to a Lion’s club member and we will either give you your prize on the day or post it to you.
Registration Tent Opens – 10 AM
Fancy Dress Judging – 10:30 AM
Immediately after the Fancy Dress Judging – Everyone runs into the Sea
Sponsorship
Unlike previous years, participants will not be automatically given a sponsor form. If you require a sponsor form, please either visit The Whitby Pet Shop to pay the £10 entry fee and collect a sponsor form in person or if you purchased your entry online, please complete the below “Sponsor Form Request” form and we will email you one.
Participants will fully be responsible for collecting and distributing their own sponsor money to their chosen charity.
Whitby Lion’s will not collect everyone’s sponsorship money and then distribute it to your chosen charity, unlike previous years. This new method of running the event worked well over recent years, it means its easier for participants to enter the event and easier for the club to manage the dip.
Changing Facilities
Unfortunately, there are no changing facilities provided this year due unforeseen circumstances. We recommend that dippers turn up in their fancy dress costume/clothes before the event. Please bring spare clothes with you so you can change into them after the dip. We recommend you a bring towel to dry yourself afterwards and a bag for your wet clothes. We highly recommend you do the dip in an old pair of trainers, as the wet sand can be very cold and there are rocks in the sea that can be dangerous.
Covid-19
If you have registered for the dip and you either have tested positive for Covid-19, you have any symptoms, you have been told to isolate or you are isolating, unfortunately, you will be unable able take part in the event for the safety of others. Further information of Covid-19 symptoms can be found at: www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/symptoms/.
If you are attending the event to watch the dip, again if you either have tested positive for Covid-19, you have any symptoms or you have been told to isolate or you are isolating, unfortunately, you will be unable to attend the event and please for the safety and benefit of others please stay away from the event.
Safety
Please be aware that everyone taking part in the event is doing so at their own risk and must be registered in order to take part, as this is for insurance purposes. Anyone who has not paid for an entry will not be covered by our event insurance.
Once you are in the sea, the volunteers from the Whitby Diving Club will form a perimeter and you should not in ANY circumstances go beyond this perimeter for your own safety. The event will also be watched over from the beach by the volunteers from the Whitby Coastguard Team and our Whitby Lion’s Club Members, who will be patrolling the event. If any incident occurs and a person requires assistance, these teams will get the individual out of the water and preform any first aid that is required. The whole event will be supervised and watched over by First Response Paramedics who can issue first aid as required.
All dippers should be prepared for the cold sea and air temperature of this time of year. Dippers can spend up to 20 minutes in the sea and can either go fully into the sea or up to waist height. Once the signal has been given by the diving team ALL dippers MUST get out of the sea.
Fancy Dress Costumes – Any fancy dress costumes must be suitable for the event, given you will be entering open water and must not restrict access for emergency first aid. Whitby Lion’s reserves the right to cancel anyone’s entry if their fancy dress costume is deemed not suitable for health and safety reasons. Unfortunately, BLOW UP or MORPH SUITES fancy dress costumes are PROHIBITATED due their high risk when entering the water.
Under 16’s
Under 16’s are allowed to take part in the event as long as they are supervised at all times by an adult who is also taking part in the event. As with all entries, under 16’s take part in the event at their own risk.
After The Event
Warm soup is provided free of charge to registered dippers to help them warm up after the event. In the days/weeks after the event you are responsible for collecting your own sponsorship money and sending to your chosen charity. Whitby Lions will not be able to do this for you.
Further Information
Toilets
No toilets are provided at this event. The nearest public toilets are located on Pier Road near the Whitby Bandstand which is short walk from the beach. Please note you will have pay in order to use these public toilets.
Car Parking
The nearest car parking available is either on West Cliff where there are two public car parks, on-street pay and display parking, or the Marina/Endeavour Wharf car parks which are located on Longborne Road opposite the Whitby Coop supermarket. Both of these public car parks are about a five to ten minute walk away from the event. Please see: https://www.scarborough.gov.uk/home/parking/car-parks for further details.
Watching The Whitby Boxing Day Dip
Everyone is welcome to come and watch our brave dippers enter the North Sea on Boxing Day morning, its become a Whitby tradition for nearly fifty years. The best view to watch the proceedings are from the West Pier and the Battery Parade. You can watch from the West Cliff Beach (tide depending), but please keep away from our dippers before they run into the sea for safety reasons. You can also watch the dip from the West Cliff around the Whale Bones.
Our street collectors will be mingling with the crowd spreading Christmas cheer, any donation received means you can help yourself to a Christmas chocolate! Thank you for your donation in advance, all the money raised goes to the Whitby Lions who support our local community and charities.
Contact Details
If you require any further information please contact us via:
Email: whitby.lions.club@gmail.com
Tel: Please ask for Lion Brian Harrison – 01947 897249
For further and up to date information especially on the day itself please check out our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.U
Event Location – Whitby Bandstand, Pier Road, Whitby, North Yorkshire, YO21 3PU.
