English Bay Beach

The giant, rusted metal figures of Inukshuk stand on the sand near the water’s edge at English Bay Beach. This spot became Vancouver’s first official swimming beach in the early twentieth century, long before the high-rise apartments appeared. In nineteen forty, the city held the first Polar Bear Swim here, where ten brave swimmers plunged into the freezing Pacific. Ever since, hundreds of people run into the cold waves every New Year’s Day, regardless of the air temperature or the rain.