On Sunday, friends and community members came together to celebrate Earth Day — Isla Vista style.

UC Santa Barbara’s student-led organization The Plunge sought out to break the world
record for the largest ocean plunge.

The organization hosts their own smaller plunges every Sunday at Devereux Beach, but in honor of Earth Day, the group wanted to bring the entire Isla Vista community together.

In order to break the record, more than 3,400 people had to take part in the plunge, and all UCSB students and Isla Vista community members were encouraged to participate. The goal behind the plunge was to not only break the record, but to spread awareness for ocean conservation.

“I wanted to plan an event for our community to unite us, and to do some good for the planet,” said Lior Kishinevsky, a third-year psychological and brain science major who helped organize the event.

The plunge was also a fundraiser for the Marine Conservation Network, which had members on site handing out water to participants and providing information about trash population in the oceans. The plunge was free, but donations to MCN were encouraged.

“The ocean is our life support. That’s our air, our water, our medicine, our food and if we don’t protect it, it’s not going to be there in the future,” MCN Founder and CEO Kimberly Ray said.

The Plunge

The event had an original start time of 11 a.m., but swarms of people were still arriving to the beach by 11:30 a.m. and the actual plunge didn’t begin until around noon. Kishinevsky commemorated the crowd’s participation in the plunge.

“You being here and taking the plunge is the first step in making a difference,” Kishinevsky said, “because each one of us has the power to do so much good.”

An estimated 800 people made the trip down to Devereux Beach and took the plunge in unison.

While no record was broken, The Plunge will continue its efforts to celebrate the planet.

“From what it seems like, the talk is that we’re going to make this an annual tradition.” Kishinevsky said.

As students headed down stairs to the beach for the plunge, members of the Santa Barbara County Fire Department departed safety warnings to be careful around the cliffs.

On Saturday, the day before, 23-year-old Jacob William Aladar Parker, of San Diego, died after falling from Del Playa Drive cliffs to the beach below in Isla Vista. Parker graduated from UCSB last year and was visiting friends during the All Gaucho reunion weekend.