Do you like cold water? On the first day of the year you can, together with thousands of Dutch people, take a New Year’s Dive into the North Sea. Everywhere in Holland, there are New Year’s Dives organized. Most of them are on the beaches of the North Sea and the Wadden Sea but also by towns or villages near lakes, rivers, or canals.
Traditional New Year’s Dive
Since 1959 the traditional New Year’s Dive started with only 28 people on the beach of Zandvoort. Nowadays thousands of people gather together by the seaside on New Year’s Day. Nearly 45.000 people take a cold water dive on the 1st day of the year. They are all shivering from the cold, waiting together on the beach for the starting signal to go. After the starting signal is given they all run together into the very cold North Sea water and back again. It’s a very jolly and happy event. Afterward, everybody is very proud that they had the guts to take the New Year’s Dive. In wintertime, the water of the North Sea is extremely cold.
Since the beginning of the traditional New Year’s Dive, it only happened once that it didn’t go through because of the extreme cold weather.
And if you don’t want to make a New Year’s Dive? Be part of the crowd that is looking. Just looking is a lot of fun.
Sign up for the next New Year’s dive: New Years Dive – Den Haag – Scheveningen
New Year’s Dive locations
Places where you must be to take a New Year’s Dive on the first day of the year.
North Sea Beaches
Scheveningen
Zandvoort
Bloemendaal
Wijk aan Zee
Egmond aan Zee
Bergen aan Zee
Wadden Sea Islands
Texel
Terschelling
Vlieland
Ameland
Schiermonnikoog
IJsselmeer
Hoorn
Medemblik
Hindeloopen
Lemmer
Inland
Amsterdam Gaasperplas
Amsterdam IJburg
Amsterdam Sloterplas
Starting times
All the New Year’s Dive starts around 12.00 / 14.00 pm, so be on time, you don’t want to miss this.
Nudist New Year’s Dive
For nudist. There are three nudist New Year’s Dive organized. You can find one of them at the beach by Zandvoort. The other two are in the country, one of them in Oostzaan Twiske and the other in Leeuwarden in the province of Frysian.
New Year’s Dive in January
There is also New Year’s Dive organized on other days in January, mostly on Sundays associated with another event.
Utrecht, on the 2nd Sunday in January there is a so-called Culture Sunday with a New Year’s Dive.
Charity
This event has been adopted by Unox, this is a manufactory for soups and sausages. If you sign in by Unox you pay 3 Euros and you’ll get a goody bag with an Unox cap and after the dive a cup of soup. This soup is a traditional Dutch soup called Erwtensoup made of peas, leeks, and beef. The money made by this event goes to a charity cause.
Often there are local charity causes where people can join in.
Corona – no New Years Dive in 2020, 2021 and 2022
In 2020, 2021, and 2022 there was no New Year’s dive due to the Corona crisis.
Organized New Year’s dives could not take place due to the corona measures. Despite the fact that it was strongly discouraged, many people went into the water on their own. On the beach of Scheveningen, it was quite busy with people who ventured a New Year’s dive and in other places, people also went into the water.
During Covid, the government advised that the New Year’s dive was canceled with the request not to go to the beach because there would be no lifeguards present. Some actors have made this hilarious video about this exceptional situation.
As a consolation and to create a form of New Year’s dip at home, you could order a can of seawater, a can of pea soup, and 2 Unox hats for free.
2023 | Hopefully, Corona will be in 2023 a thing of the past.
Will you be there on January 1, 2023? Dive into the new year with your friends and family!
