LOS ANGELES, California, October 8. FOUR Southern California swimmers attempted to make history this week in the Catalina Channel off California. Never before in the history of open water swimming have four consecutive channel crossings been attempted anywhere in the world – until now.
Four elite athletes, each swimming 22 miles in the open ocean amidst sharks, dolphins, and whales – at times in the dead of night – took on this ultimate endurance challenge to help raise money for Jay Nolan Community Services, California's leading provider of individualized services to people with autism and other developmental disabilities.
Lead-off swimmer, 49-year-old David Hartmire, hit the water in Palos Verdes at 12noon on Monday, October 4th, starting off the 48-hour relay. He completed his leg of the historic swim at Catalina Island in 11:52:10, handing off to teammate Mike Vovk.
43-year-old Mike Vovk (2nd Swimmer) faced treacherous seas pre-dawn on Tuesday and, after eight hours of courageously battling 5 to 7-foot swells and seasickness, was pulled from the water. A combination of six other swimmers brought that leg of the relay within a couple of hundred yards of the mainland and then Mike finished it off himself. Again, fighting 5- to 7-foot swells the whole way. Total time for this leg: 15:35:00.
25-year-old Jen Schumacher (3rd Swimmer) the youngest and only woman on the relay team — and ironically the only one of the four who had actually attempted and completed this Catalina swim before — finished her leg in 11:05:32, landing at Catalina Island at 2:38am on Wednesday morning, October 6.
That left 43-year-old team captain Chris Dahowski (4th Swimmer) to finish off the relay, which he did with an over-all time of 11:29:52, landing just north of Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro at 2:08pm yesterday.
Steven Munatones, the Editor-in-Chief of The Daily News of Open Water Swimming who was on the support boat that accompanied the swimmers, said this about Swim 22:
"These swimmers tried to accomplish a very arduous goal that had never been attempted before – anywhere, ever. They didn't achieve everything they wanted to achieve, but they gave it their absolute best shot. Amazingly three out of four completed their swims. The one who didn't make it was defeated by a small craft warning. That's something the Coast Guard puts out to get all boats out of the water because it's too dangerous for boats. The fact that a human being without a wet suit in a driving rainstorm was attempting to swim through all that – and lasted that long – is remarkable. They can be very proud of this achievement and of raising awareness and donations for a good cause."
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