Snow Diving Videos Go Viral

What’s a bored person to do when they are stuck at home after a blizzard has dumped feet of snow around their homes? Put on bathing suits and dive into the snow, of course, at least according to social media. According to others, the snow-diving trend being displayed in plenty of videos on Twitter, Instagram, Vine, and Facebook could be pretty dangerous, that’s if the snow divers aren’t sure they’ve already checked the depth and area that they’re diving into.

As seen in videos like the one below, snow-diving is being called a bizarre new Olympic-type of sport that only those with cabin fever might undertake when snowed in. However, the dangerous nature of putting on a swimsuit and diving head-first into a pile of snow is something that folks shouldn’t duplicate at home.

People have been figuring out fun ways to put the snowstorm to good use, such as in the first photo above, with a snowball fight in full swing at Dupont Circle on Sunday, January 24, in Washington keeping people entertained. On YouTube, the video titled “Snowboarding with the NYPD” went completely viral, with Casey Neistat gaining more than 3 million views for his epic video, which shows a snowboarding jaunt across the streets of New York that one would rarely see so bereft of cars.

But back to the snow diving viral video, as seen via ABC News?. The video shows that two guys had the chutzpah to dive into snow wearing swimming suits, as if diving into a swimming pool. Then they swam as if they were swimming in real water.

According to NBC New York, the snow-diving trend spread all along the areas near the East Coast that were buried under enough snow for folks to dive into. Lots of social media posts can be seen of folks putting on swimming suits and diving or jumping into the snow. While some of the snow-diving is done from higher altitudes, like balconies, decks or out of windows — other people are simply diving into the snow from the ground level.

“They weren’t the only swimmers up for the challenge. Two members of the West Virginia University swim team donned suits and caps and launched into what appears to be at least 2 feet of snow while others cheered them on in a video posted by Chris McMahon. The trend made its way up the coast to New York City, where Steven Wu face-planted into a pile of snow in Union Square in what he called a ‘perfect swimmers dive.'”

On Instagram, the #snowdiving hashtag has 1,220 posts using that label as of this writing, which can be a troubling trend for a few reasons. Beyond the fact that folks are diving into an unknown pile of snow that could contain a dangerous structure, they are doing so whilst wearing very little clothes. The risk of injuries or harm due to exposure from the cold that can weaken immune systems doesn’t seem worth the risk of a cool video.

Nevertheless, people persist and keep diving into snow.

Storm Jonas: Bizarre snowdiving trend takes off as people make most of freak blizzard..????? Craziness https://t.co/a80TKrRf2D

— ~marlene~ ??? (@Septembers_Song) January 24, 2016

On Twitter, videos of the snow-diving are being tagged #snowchallenge by some, and like plenty of the challenges that have preceded this latest snow-diving madness, it’s one that you don’t necessarily want to undertake. A scroll through the failed social media posts of the Kylie Jenner lip challenge convinced plenty of people not to stick their lips in shot glasses and risk getting cut. Other challenges like the condom challenge, the cinnamon challenge and the dangerous challenge that found some people setting themselves afire were part of the dangerous trends that emerged online.

With millions of Americans experiencing the effects of a huge blizzard, it’s no wonder the snow-diving challenge would take off — but it may disappear as quickly as it emerged.

[AP Photo/Alex Brandon]