OCEAN CITY — The community will forgo swimsuits and march straight into the ocean in their business suits Friday as Ocean City continues its series of events to kick off summer 2023.
The Unlocking of the Ocean and Business Persons Plunge are scheduled for 11:30 a.m. May 26 on the beach next to the Ocean City Music Pier at Moorlyn Terrace.
This year will be the 20th anniversary of the event started in 2004, when John Walton, real estate agent for Keller Williams Jersey Shore, and Mark Soifer, former city publicist, were tasked with creating 125 events for the city’s 125th anniversary of incorporation.
“We figured Memorial Day was an important holiday at the beginning of beach season. We were already doing the Unlocking of the Ocean,” Walton said. “Let’s get together everybody and anybody, organizations and buddies. We can do a silly off-the-wall celebration.”
Walton said is started out “just as a Monty Python skit” but he “decided early on that this could grow legs, it could be something and each year I added to it. I added ‘Pomp and Circumstances’ and it just got bigger and better and more fun, and all the forces started to come together and it’s now what it is today.”
Attendees, fully clothed in business attire carrying briefcases, signs and tools of their trade march into the ocean as the Ocean City High School band plays.
“Whenever you see in the media a photo or video of the plunge, everybody is smiling, everybody is laughing, yelling, cheering, waving, and that to me is so satisfying. I can actually in the promo write ‘guaranteed fun,’” Walton said.
More than 100 business owners, mascots and organizations participate annually.
The resort’s royal ambassadors — Miss Ocean City Grace Oves, Little Miss Ocean City Lyla Clark and Junior Miss Ocean City Antonella DiAntontio will be in attendance. Natalie Ragazzo, former Miss New Jersey Volunteer, will sing the national anthem.
Many people dress up in wild and wacky costumes, with mermaids, sharks and other creatures of the sea common themes.
Other participants include Boy Scouts and the Ocean City Nor’easters soccer team, lifeguards and swim teams.
Visit ocnj.us for more information.
By CAMRYN SCHULTHEIS/For the Sentinel
