Orca Bait Race Recap

The Orca Bait swim began in 2023 when Marc Abshire reached out to me to reinvigorate a Port Angeles tradition of swimming from near the coast guard base near Ediz Hook to either Pebble Beach or Hollywood Beach. Each year the race has had about a dozen swimmers that have braved the mile and a half swim as a part of kicking off the Maritime events in Port Angeles, WA.

This event has been supported and continues to take place each year because of the support of the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Nor’Wester Rotary, BRIX Marine, and the local volunteer community. This year fellow race director Emily Johnston joined me and Carmen Geyer who has supported the event in the past!

This year’s finishers included Doug Winters (30 minutes), Halden Petersen (33 minutes),Thomas Hershmiller (37 minutes), Almaz Faskutdinov (39 minutes), Troy Treaccar (39 minutes), Eric Ellefson (40 minutes), Duncan Wilson (42 minutes), Katie Blose (45 minutes), Leah Vaara (60 minutes), Xander Burley – Oden (82 minutes), and Rich DeCou (109 minutes).

The swim started off at 8am with much better weather than last year so we were able to utilize the standard course and the swimmers had to navigate straight across and steering to the left of the large tanker anchored in the harbor. The swimmers were accompanied by Doug Ahmann, the lead boat, a sweeper boat provided by sponsor BRIX Marine with Yara Una onboard for support and encouragement. We also had the usual dozen or so standup paddleboarders and kayakers supporting the swimmers as they made their way across the harbor.

Looking forward to next year with some more time in the water, a few more swimmers and steadily increasing this event with each passing year!!!