We’ve had all kinds of records set this year for Lake Ontario Crossings… most number of aspirants in one year… all LOSTies… youngest swimmer to make a Crossing… 2 LOSTies complete the LOST Route from Port Dalhousie to Oakville… the largest swimming race ever held in Lake Ontario, the LOST Race with 94 swimmers… the first MSC 10K National Championship… so it’s nice to see that open water swimming and marathon swimming has been revived and is alive and well in Lake Ontario! The cool thing is that open water swimming and marathon swimming are also growing almost everywhere else in the world too! Check out the newsletter from my friend Scott Zornig, who runs the Santa Barbara Channel Swimming Assoc. (near Los Angles)…
Cheers,
Rob
An exciting independent documentary film about marathon swimming is currently being filmed. The film strives to capture and depict the many remarkable aspects of the sport by chronicling the experiences of three swimmers who are attempting swims this summer from SBCSA islands. The producers, a team of two Santa Barbara area locals, have committed themselves to telling this remarkable story, and they have already invested countless hours following and filming these water warriors and interviewing some of the living legends of the sport.
This project is currently in the heated stages of production, with two of the three featured swim crossing attempts already filmed and the third scheduled for mid-September. The website www.marathonswimmovie.com has been set up to provide updates, and the producers endeavor to launch a full fundraising campaign in early October to cover the costs associated with post-production. This is a film about marathon swimming for marathon swimmers, and as such, the producers are relying on the full support of the swimming community to turn this vision into reality … so stay tuned. More updates including trailer previews are scheduled to come soon!
August Successes!On Saturday, August 18, Mike Hird and Walter Bean Scott, both of San Diego, successfully executed a tandem swim from the east end of Anacapa Island to the Silver Strand Beach in Oxnard, just south of the Channel Island Harbor. Mike and Walter completed their swim in 5 hours 48 minutes and 9 seconds. This is only the second tandem swim successfully completed off of Anacapa Island. Catalina and Anacapa are the only two California Channel Islands which have had successful tandem swims.
Mike and Walter enjoyed 66 degree water and lake like conditions for their swim. Congratulations to the dynamic duo on a very fast performance. This season’s first tandem being safely escorted across the water by another tandem. On Saturday, August 25th, first time marathon swimmer and mother of two, Cherié Edborg, swam from Anacapa Island to Silver Strand beach. She completed her swim in a time of 8:20:32. Cherié had optimal conditions for the better part of her journey although she did encounter some adverse currents as she approached Ventura. As on most Anacapa swims, there were the usual sea lion and dolphin sightings. With the warmer water this year, she also saw an abundance of salps, jellies and rays while having a surprise visit from a half dozen mola mola’s (aka, the marathon swimmers friend). Mola mola’s are one of the few fish who dine on jellies. Cherié Edborg next to the Tuna Thumper. Photo compliments of Rob Dumouchel. Cherié’s performance is made more amazing by the fact that she only started swimming as an adult, less than four years ago. Congratulations Cherie and thanks for demonstrating that you do not have to have a swimming background as a child to become a marathon swimmer. Below: a mola mola on the water’s surface |
