A video surfaced of a Toledo man belly flopping into a puddle at The C.I. this weekend.
As snow peacefully blanketed the pathways of College Green on Friday night, Cole Snider belly flopped into a chilly puddle at The C.I.
Snider, a Toledo resident, was visiting Ohio University student Mikey Ranallo, a senior studying music production, Friday night when he made the aquatic feat at the bar, 32 N. Court St. Ranallo shot a video of the event in-action.
“Everyone kept (chanting) 'belly flop, belly flop,' and my friend looked at me and said, 'I'll do it for 20 bucks' so, I said, 'deal,' " Ranallo said in a Facebook message. "And he really went for it. I expected everyone to erupt with applause after, but everyone was silent just looking at him so appalled.”
Ranallo said the puddles in the bar caused some people to call it the "C.I. Swamp."
Cole Williams, a senior studying exercise physiology, hadn’t known about water collecting on bar floors but said he wasn’t surprised.
“I know it’s gonna be wet in there with all the snow you’re bringing in with your boots,” Williams said. “Some of the bars are older, the floors are uneven, there’s gonna be puddles.”
This past weekend, Athens was under a Level 3 snow emergency, which began at about 7:30 a.m. Saturday, according to the Athens County Sheriff's Office website. The snow emergency was in response to seven inches of snowfall in the area, according to OU's Scalia Lab.
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Jayde Sheeley, a bartender at The Crystal, 34 N. Court St, said both The Crystal and The C.I. saw water making its way through their doors due to the snow that some were trekking in with their boots.
“I don’t think we’ve had it like this before,” Sheeley said. “With all the snow, it’s gonna be a million times worse.”
She said The Crystal's staff tried to mop up the water, but because of how busy the bars were, they couldn’t get to it.
@_TheCI I didn't know you guys had an indoor pool pic.twitter.com/1tcKTaWqTp — Mikey Ranallo (@Flock24) January 23, 2016
The snow and cold, however, didn’t stop people from hitting the bars during the weekend. Some people claimed it was an added push to go out.
Dennis Disanto, a senior studying finance, was out Saturday and said he was trying to drink and “get a little superficial warmth going.”
“Any mother nature excuse pushes us a step further,” Disanto said.
Sheeley said if she didn’t have to work Friday night, she would have stayed home.
“I was really surprised by (so many) people on Friday,” Sheeley, a senior studying sociology and criminology, said.
Erin Reece, a senior studying organizational communication, said she was definitely not surprised by the bargoers on Court Street on Saturday night.
“We’re seniors, so we’ve seen this 40 million thousand times,” Reese said.
Hannah Carson, a junior studying communication studies and sport management, was not surprised to see people out Saturday evening.
“I think they make it more of a point to go outside when it’s cold,” she said. “They make it ... an excuse.”
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Andrew Cutshall, the director of the Assemblage art gallery in Athens, recounted a time last year where classes were canceled because of the cold, but students went out anyway, creating what some called “Freeze Fest.”
“Any excuse for these people to party, they’ll take it,” Cutshall said. “I feel like a lot of people in this town go out and just get way too trashed instead of really just talking to one another and trying to build a community.”
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