Catalina Channel

This swim couldn’t have gone any better. The weather was clear, the water was smooth and I was prepared. I had my Dad with me to crew and my best friend, Kyla, to crew and support swim part of the way, something I was so excited about. Aside from a misunderstanding on my part and a little chaos a couple weeks leading up to the swim, I had two phenomenal kayakers - Jax and Robin - who combined had paddled the Channel over 100 times and had each swam the channel themselves. (And to save anyone who is thinking about doing this swim some - get the professional kayakers, it’s 1000% worth it).

I felt good about the swim; felt like I had finally figured out a training plan that worked for me, my stroke felt strong and I didn’t have any major should flare ups (my biggest goal for this season!). But despite feeling good about my training and how I felt in the water, I was still very nervous. My training plan this year was a little unconventional, even though my weekly yardage was high, I didn’t have many “long” swims. I was a bit nervous my body wouldn’t respond well to 10+ hours of swimming all at once or my shoulder would crap out on me mid-way through the swim. I tried not to show it, but I think everyone could tell I was very anxious.

We arrived at our boat, the Bottom Scratcher, around 7pm, met the crew and kayakers and loaded everything up. I had a very experienced bunch with me. The boat captain had been piloting Catalina swims for years. I had the most experienced kayakers out there and even one of my observers was a triple crown swimmer herself. And I knew I was in good hands when they peppered me with questions, many that had never crossed my mind before. But within 30 minutes of our arrival we had a plan - I would feed every 30 minutes, alternating water and an applesauce packet with infinit drink mix. I didn’t want to know how far I was until I was halfway and once I reached halfway I wanted Kyla to jump in for the first 1hr support period.

Kyla and I on the boat ready to head to Catalina

It was such a beautiful evening

When we got to Catalina after the 2hr boat ride across the Channel, I was ready. Greased up, Desotin applied (thanks Kyla!) and lights on. I jumped into the water around midnight, swam to the pebbly beach on Doctor’s Cove (where I struggled to walk on the small rocks) and cleared the water. I heard the horn sound, jumped into the water and the swim started.

Right before I jumped in the water to swim to the island

The beginning of the swim wasn’t difficult by any means but was more challenging than the end of the swim. Before the swim, one of my kayakers, Robin, had told me swimming the channel was like swimming in a sensory deprivation tank and the first 4-5 hours of the swim felt exactly like that. The water was very comfortable at 65 degrees, I pretty much didn’t feel it. It was exceptionally dark that night, no moon and clouds covered the sky so it almost felt like I was just floating in space. If I didn’t have my kayaker and the boat for a reference I would have thought I was in a giant black box.

I have two modes when I swim. Either my mind is on rapid fire and I’m thinking about a million and five different things or it’s completely turned off and time just seems to disappear. The first couple hours of this swim was the latter. My mind shut off and I just swam. Almost like I was asleep and just cruising through the water. After a couple hours though, I woke up when I started running into a bunch of something. I couldn’t tell exactly what I was hitting but it felt like maybe seaweed or debris of some sort. I mentioned it to the kayaker at one of my feeds and they said “oh it’s likely just sea cucumbers, they tend to hang out near the island”. So I just shrugged it off and kept swimming.

Throughout the swim, I was counting feeds to try and keep track of time. At the 5 hour feed I crossed my fingers that my kayaker would tell me we were halfway and it would be time for Kyla to jump in. He didn’t say anything and I didn’t want to ask quite yet. At 5.5 hour feed same thing. Finally at the 6 hour feed my kayaker asked me, “Are you ready for Kyla to get in and swim with you?” I didn’t want her to come in until I was after halfway so I asked “Are we halfway yet?” The kayaker shook his head and said “Not yet.” I nodded, told him not to send Kyla in yet, and started swimming again.

After that feed, I was really disappointed. If I was at 6 hours and not even halfway yet, that meant I was on track for at least a 13 hour swim and while 13 hours wouldn’t be a bad swim, it would be a lot slower than I knew I was capable of. In fact, I was feeling strong during this swim. My stroke felt good and consistent. I took a moment to be upset and then decided to pick up the pace, push myself a little, determined to try and reduce my time from 13 hours.

At the next feed, Kyla jumped in the water with me for her first support leg! And I was so excited to see her. Kyla and I do pretty much all our training together, we can read each other's mind in the water and are just always in sync when it comes to swimming. This hour went by so fast and I’m sure my pace naturally picked up having her in the water with me.

It was also around this time that the sun came up. And suddenly, I could see what was lurking in the water below me. Jellyfish. Lots and lots of jellyfish. Most of them were several feet deep but there were some that it seemed I just barely skimmed over. As I watched the jellies float below me, I couldn’t help but wonder if that’s what I had been bumping into early in the swim.

The rising sun also brought in the marine layer and I couldn’t see anything beyond 10ft, which was probably a good thing so I wouldn’t even try to search for land. It forced me to only focus on keeping up my pace, which was feeling strong at this point. At around hour 9, Kyla jumped in again and helped give me even more of a boost. Shortly after she got in, I started to see the land and it looked close. I tried not to get my hopes up too high because it always looks closer than it really is but within 30 minutes we were on the shore! I raised my arms to indicate that I had cleared the water and heard the horn blow signalling the swim was over. Kyla came over and gave me a hug and then we jumped back into the water, swam over a massive kelp field and headed back to the boat. As we swam back, a couple of dolphins came to greet us. I didn’t see them but my crew captured this awesome video of them surfacing right in front of Kyla and I.

Finish photos

When we got back on the boat there was a bit of discussion about my finish. One of the observers said that I didn’t clear the “wet sand”, while the other observer said I cleared the water so I was ok. I’ll be honest, at the moment I was a bit dazed to really pay attention or care - all I knew is that I FINISHED the swim and heard the horn from the boat that confirmed they thought I was in the clear too. This was definitely a minor technicality and for a little while after I was a bit concerned they wouldn’t officially ratify the swim, but they did! And it proved to be a lesson - don’t leave any question about whether you cleared the water or not.

My final time was 9:43:57. I was extremely happy to not only be well under 13 hours I thought I was swimming and to also be under my goal of 10 hours. And I felt good. This was by far my best trained and best executed swim. I started out at a slow , even pace and built into the finish (I actually negative split it time wise!). When I finished, I didn’t feel nearly as bad as I have on previous swims. In fact I felt like I could have kept swimming. And most importantly my shoulder held up, making me elated that I could finish a swim with a strong shoulder the entire way through. My shoulder did eventually flare up a couple hours later but that was an expected pain.

The whole crew

As always there are so many people to thank. Thank you Bottom Scratcher for exceptional piloting skills and Jax and Robin for being literally the best Catalina kayakers. Thank you Kyla for endless hours of training swims, being on the boat and even hopping in the water with me for little bits of the swim. I seriously would not be the swimmer I am without you and Catalina would have been so much harder without those two hours of swimming next to you. And of course thank you Mom for cheering and being on on the beach when I finished and Dad for always enthusiastically volunteering to be crew chief.