really crazy swimmers who, despite the freezing temperatures, insist on stripping down and jumping into the nearest body of frigid water. never understood this, but yesterday in coney island, one group did it very good reason. here s matt cotar from wnbc. it s a brand new year reporter: if you didn t know it was new year s, you might think it was halloween if you were on the coney island boardwalk. unbelievable experience. reporter: popeye, cleopatra and this guy are here to plunge into the atlantic, part of the coney island polar bear club. but this year s annual new year s day swim takes on a special significance after superstorm sandy badly damaged coney island and its famous boardwalk. money raised from the swim will go to a nonprofit called coney recovers. what we re aiming to do with the funds raised today in partnership with the polar bear club is help out not for profits in the area. reporter: as for these arctic