Uberman Swim from Catalina Island to Palos Verdes

On October 9^th and 10^th I had the opportunity to crew for Adam Sully-Powers on his Uberman journey for 2019. In 2015 I remember doing a similar activity with Joan Deitchman on her solo Race Across America journey where I had the opportunity to accompany her as a crew member and gain unbelievable amounts of intel and insight into how to manage the journey for myself the following year.

I met up with Adam, his brother Lincoln, and his good friend John Bartlett at 5:30 in Palos Verdes and we loaded up the minivan and headed down to San Pedro. We loaded our gear on the “Pacific Star” and by about 6:30pm were on our way enroute to Catalina Island. Our starting point was Doctors Cove which is the area where pretty much all open water swims start from Catalina Island and when you get to the cove the swimmer jumps in the water, makes their way to shore raises their hand and gets spotlighted and then the official timer is started. In our case that time for Adam was 9:31pm.

I started out on the kayak and the first hour was a bit of a learning curve… A few things to remember for my swim. The green glow sticks are amazing, get a giant pack of them and… Make sure you snap them on the safety kayaks before getting into the water. The small green blinking light on the swimmer and the safety kayakers are extremely helpful and also put a glowstick on the swimmer tied to their wetsuit zipper. In terms of skin lubricant Adams suggestion “passed down from Navy Seals” was Aquaphor, desitin, and then Tinactin spray. Another very helpful tool was whistles, especially for the kayaker who has a hard time getting the swimmer to hear at times.

The first hour was a bit rough getting our bearings. Once we had the glow sticks snapped, and figured out to turn off the headlamp for the support kayak which blinded the swimmer and made it tough to track the kayak for direction things started to smooth out. We had a minor swimmer collided with the kayak right off, and also a moment where Adam began taking an aggressive right turn and within a matter of about 30 seconds was 180 degrees in the water and heading back to Catalina. Thankfully these were short-lived and we hit our stride quickly. Adam ate every half an hour and pretty much swiched consistently between a bottle of Skratch and the following feeding a high calorie ensure shake. About two hours into the swim I was going to pass off to John however a few minutes before we transferred I managed to node off just a bit as a rolling swell came up and tipped my kayak over so I had my first and only experience falling into “the drink”. John was on the kayak for a half an hour to relieve me and I was just getting ready to swap out with him when he had his own encounter falling overboard on the kayak and we switched positions and I was back out next to Adam.

The first half of the night we were surrounded by small luminating tube like seaweed in the water which are about the width and length of your finger and an odd texture but not anything major to deal with just something that to make note of. As we pulled away from the island these long high rolling swells would come up frequently. They create a peaceful beautiful rhythm to me but I could see how in other situations or people could definitely mess with your equilibrium. Adam was extremely consistent, clear headed, and appeared comfortable in the water. Even with John and I having our own back and forth issues on the kayak it didn’t seem to throw him off and he was just grateful to have us out there by his side through the night.

John and I transferred back and forth, I would usually do two hours with the feeding breaks for Adam ever half an hour which helped us know that time was indeed passing, and then John was back on the kayak for a longer period each time. The first swap was half an hour, then an hour, then closer to an hour in a half and then short one early in the morning and finally at the last push John was by Adams side for the last two hours into the shores of Terranea at Palos Verdes

The middle of the night was tough for me as a kayaker. My neck started getting sore from looking left for the kayaker on as constant of a vigilance as I could muster. It was extremely helpful when we finally were able to keep ourselves just off to Adams right with him in the middle of the Pacific Star and the kayaker. I nodded off on the kayak at least three or four times quickly jerking myself back awake and immediately looking for the kayaker. This is usually when I was looking for John to take over in about half an hour and then I would fight the sleepiness until we could swap. John said he had a similar drowsy night and had to fight to stay awake through the rollers which almost put you to sleep with their rhythmic flow.

The Pacific Star can easily accommodate 15 or more people with bunks below, showers, two restrooms, and the crew stocks you with incredible snacks and a pot of coffee that lasted us through the night. We spent a great deal of time on the back of the boat which seems to be the place that affects you with sea issues the least. The weather and temperature were ideal and after the first time on the kayak I was of course in a T-shirt with my bare feet hanging out on the kayak and some gortex pants that I borrowed from Lincoln. Lincoln was vigilant straight through the experience supporting his brother and keeping his eye on the logistics of the evening. I have a feeling he’s going to play critical roles in the week to come as Adam traverses the cycling and running components of the course and our whole team had such a close comraderies which made for an extremely pleasant night with the only thing we were fighting being the sleepiness. Another friendly companion was the about three quarter full waxing moon shining through the cloud cover that we had most of the evening.

As we rolled into daylight between six and seven the sleepiness faded and tracking Adam in the water became immensely less difficult. He just slowly and steadily paddled away stroke by stroke. Around 9am the wind picked up a little and the small swells at this point had some choppy top water added to the mix which I could tell made it tougher on Adam but nothing outside of what he could handle. The last 4 miles our pace slowed down from approximately 1.5 miles per hour to about a mile an hour, not because of lack of effort from Adam but with the wind and the coastal current as you approach shore I think there is a combination that makes the finish one more hurdle to jump over in that last stretch. I ended up taking a long nap through about an hour of the last section as John accompanied Adam.

The last hour as we headed into shore my wife Kristin and daughter Kalea were on there way to meet us and get footage as Adam rolled in. With about a half mile to go I got into the second kayak and joined John on the water. We paralleled each other with Adam in the middle and as I looked up on the ridge of the hill by Terranea I could see Kristin making her way down and taking photos along the way of our group. As Adam made his final push up to shore Dan Bercu the founder of Uberman was on the shoreline to meet him and Adam timed the waves coming in to make his full emersion out of the water did a little happy dance, looking fresh as a daisy and after a few words and photos he jumped back into the water and swam back to our boat. His official landing time was 11:16 which put him in the water for 13 hours and 45 minutes which is well under his anticipated time of 15 hours for the swim.

For a guy who is not much of a swimmer and really has only focused on it for the past six months and this being the biggest question mark of the race, I think we can easily say he absolutely crushed it!!! The average channel swimmer we were told completes the swim in 12 – 14 hours so on his inaugural ocean swim he would fit right in with that rare and outstanding group of ocean swimmers.

Well done Adam, so grateful to be on your crew and cover about 60% of the journey with you in the water with John doing the other 40%. It was a privilege meeting John and Lincoln and the crew of the Pacific Star and I’ll be encouraging you and taking note of the journey ahead of you in the days to come. You got this!!!