Cold-weather swimmers grin and bear it.

POLAR OPPOSITES: When the Cabrillo Beach Polar Bears pranced into the 57-degree surf off San Pedro on New Year’s Day to test their winter fur against the elements, surely a few of their compatriots elsewhere were praying for snow in Southern California.

For instance, those in New York, Alaska and England, where members of similar clubs dive into near-freezing water and surface wearing blue skin and icicles: Surely it occurs to a few of them, as they tune in to yet another sunny Rose Parade while they warm up, that their West Coast brethren are getting off lightly.

But even in the warmer South Bay climate, the swim is no picnic, said Cabrillo Beach Polar Bear Ray Falk. “It’s all relative. Any time the water temperature is colder than your body temperature, you’re going to feel cold.”

Falk, 74, used to swim in the polar waters of Alaska during a 21-year stint in the Navy. And now he’s among a group of the Cabrillo Beach club’s roughly 100 members who swim nearly every day.

Sunday’s event attracted about 350 swimmers, some of whom bodysurfed and frolicked in the water. “It surprised me how many stayed in,” Falk said. “It was a nice, pleasant day at the beach. You can’t ask for better than this.”

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ON TO WASHINGTON? Rancho Palos Verdes Councilwoman Susan Brooks has ruled out a court challenge to the results of her race against Democratic Rep. Jane Harman of Rolling Hills.

That leaves her just about one option to turn the race around: the U.S. House of Representatives.

Brooks, who has not yet conceded the race, said she is working with an attorney to take a challenge to the House Oversight Committee. The committee could investigate and force a full House vote to overturn the election results if it finds widespread voter fraud.

“It’s the House of Representatives,” Brooks said. “They can do anything they want.”

Voter fraud is exactly what Brooks is alleging. Two groups with ties to Republican supporters, the Committee for Election Integrity in El Segundo and the Voter Fraud Task Force in Orange County, say voters outside the district cast ballots and others listed vacant addresses when they went to the polls.

“On the face of it,” Brooks said, “it doesn’t smell good.”

The Harman campaign is unimpressed. “She’s a lot like someone going to Las Vegas dreaming of winning millions of dollars,” said Harman spokesman Roy Behr. “Then, after she loses all her money, instead of accepting reality, she stands there with a glazed look saying space aliens stole her money.”

Brooks maintains that it would be easy to walk away from the whole matter, but it wouldn’t be right. “From the information provided to us, there has been an injustice.”

Compiled by DAVE GRIMM