Coupeville Sports

It’s like a choose your own adventure … with beards.

To beard or not to beard. That is the question.

Today was Day 170 in Penn Cove, a venture that started in mid-April and has now hit Oct. 1. Halloween would be Day 200 and I am actually thinking of trying to go through the start of the year.

Without a wet suit.

Wet suits are for fancy lads and tourists. End of story. If you can’t stand the water, you probably shouldn’t be in Penn Cove in the first place.

Which could explain why no one else is ever down there swimming with me…

Anyway. Now, as I sit two days away from a haircut, the more pressing matter is this — where do I go with the beard?

Do I keep it a semi-trim goatee, fully shave it, or as I head into three months of (slightly) icy hell, do I go full on mountain man beard, let the sides grow in and emerge Jan. 1 ready not for a Polar Bear Dip, but for a Grizzly Bear Dip?

So I turn to you, the readers. Tell me. Grizzly or no grizzly?