`AMAZING ELEMENT'
Despite risks, open-water swims soar in popularity
Talk to anyone who's swum in San Francisco Bay, and you'll inevitably get a story that's meant to sound lighthearted but actually sounds rather petrifying.
“There was a dredger in the bay close to the shore that swirled up all these bottom-feeding fish. My friend said, `Something hurt my calf!'” said Conny Bleul, an open-water swimmer from Berkeley. “When she came back, her calf was bleeding, and she went to emergency. Luckily the doctor was also a diver, so he looked at the bite marks and figured out it was a `monkeyface prickleback.'”
“I was halfway across and a shadow just zipped right underneath me, and that was terrifying. It zipped underneath me again and it was like, `I'm getting out of the water because I don't want to be somebody's buffet breakfast,'” said Gary Emich, a Pacifica retiree who's swum from Alcatraz to San Francisco, Marin, Treasure Island and other landing points a staggering 1,065 times.
“Right about then, a little sea-lion pup breached in front of me — it was just being playful and having a good time,” he said.
Harrowing experiences haven't dented the popularity of bay swims, though. The Alcatraz swim, in particular, attracts roughly half a dozen commercial events each year, including the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon and the Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim, with people flocking from countries far and wide to test their mettle at the Rock.
Last month, Emich and Bleul helped organize an Alcatraz swim with athletes
"When the water's like 53 degrees, I can't stay in for more than an hour."
— Dave Horning, triathlete
from Germany, who dove into the 54-degree water just after sunrise. They ended at the South End Rowing Club, a San Francisco club that dates back to 1873.
The prison island once rumored to be inescapable has, in fact, been escapable since at least 1934, when a 17-year-old girl conquered the distance in 42 minutes. Today the list of successful swimmers runs the full age range, from preteens to senior citizens.
“My claim back in 2004 to 2005 was I swam Alcatraz 25 times while pregnant, including two roundtrips,” said Sylvia Marino, a member of the South End Rowing Club. “I was on my way to do swim number 26 the morning (my baby) was born, but she had other ideas.”
In the 1990s, triathlete Dave Horning's yellow lab Sunny became the first dog to swim from Alcatraz — beating human swimmers along the way. “I think her best time was 39 minutes,” said Horning, founder of Enviro-Sports in Stinson Beach.
That's not to say the swim is a cakewalk. Hypothermia can set in if you're not careful. Guideboat pilots, who accompany swimmers, will step in to ask safety questions: “What's your street address? Do you know where you are?”
“When the water's like 53 degrees, I can't stay in for more than an hour. My speech will get slurred, and you don't remember what's really going on,” Emich said.
It's not just the crossing that can be risky. Jumping into a hot shower right afterward can cause trouble.
“When you're swimming, your blood starts pooling around all your core organs to protect them. And when you start warming up, all that blood begins recirculating again and it can mess with your blood pressure,” Emich said.
“I have a friend who's been known on numerous occasions to have that blood-pressure drop and just pass out,” he said. “He wasn't so concerned about passing out in the shower or the sauna, but what was so disconcerting was when he'd come around and see 12 naked men standing over him, wondering if he was OK.”
Environmental conditions can change in an instant. Rajeev Char, a Sunnyvale swimmer with the nonprofit Team Asha, had to abort a swim last year after getting fogged out. “I could see a mere glow of sunlight over my left shoulder. But out front of us, the city was completely blanketed out in fog and behind us, Alcatraz, too, was blanketed out.”
Sharks aren't an issue; to them, humans don't look like food, and they don't hang around the bay much, anyway. But jellies can be an annoyance. “They come into our swimsuits and when we are under the shower and take the suit off — plop, plop, plop! — all these jellyfish come out,” Bleul said.
The biggest hazard is crossing a shipping channel populated with freighters.
“Those things are as big as a city block, and they go so fast. Even if you have the right of way as a swimmer or rower, they can't stop,” South End Rowing Club president Fran Hegeler said. “You have to contact vessel traffic, and they tell you whether to wait or if you're OK to clear it.”
So why do people flock to the open waters of the bay?
Hegeler thinks it's something about the medium itself.
“Water is an amazing element. It's luscious, it's brisk, it's crispy. It can be all these different sensations, right? Sometimes when it's dark and the sun comes up, the water turns pink — it's crazy.”
But, said Emich, who doesn't wear a wetsuit, “There's not once in the 30-something years I've driven to the rowing club going, `Yippee! I get to jump into this bone-chilling water and not see parts of my anatomy until next summer.' The first two minutes are just god-awful miserable.”
It's the afterglow that rewards, he said.
“All those endorphins just running through your body. When I was working for the postal service, I always felt so good that what I'd just done was so out of the ordinary. It's like, `There's no way anybody can push any of my buttons today.'”
“I definitely have a different mood when I come back,” said Char. “If I don't go for a swim in a few days, my wife pushes me out of the house and said, `You're getting a little crabby, go for a dip.'”
There's also the fact that the sport is amenable to people of diverse ages and body types. It's often older folks, people who know the tidal conditions and those carrying a few extra pounds of natural insulation who perform best.
“We've had the big, tough `Gonna do this — RAH` guys who jump in with wetsuits and then try not to whine and cry about how cold it is, while a 60-year-old woman in just a swimsuit is kicking their butt,” said Marino. “Open-water swimming can be humbling!”