Open water no match for aquatic masters

Published 4:00 pm Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Two island ‘pods’ conquer Puget Sound in the inaugural Crossing for Kids.

ALKI BEACH, WEST SEATTLE – The emcee summed it up perfectly:

“They’re just practicing for when the ferry breaks down.”

Fourteen swimmers from Bainbridge Island, 10 of them from the Bainbridge Aquatic Masters club, made it to shore in the inaugural Crossing for Kids Swim on Saturday to benefit Junior Achievement of Washington.

More than 70 swimmers completed the 3.5-mile event from Restoration Point on Bainbridge Island to Alki Beach in West Seattle.

Two of the 10 “pods,” or groups of swimmers, were comprised mostly of islanders.

Pod 5, made up of Mark Bickford, Orlando Boleda, Steve Peterson, Brian Russell, Rick Stafford and Paul Webber, started the swim in the middle of the pack, but ended up finishing second overall, with a time of 1 hour, 53 minutes.

“It was a little rougher about three-quarters of the way across,” Russell said, recalling swells encountered in mid-channel and difficulty seeing landmarks on the far shore.

“It’s really hard to swim together as a group,” Russell said. “Everybody kept on saying, ‘Go over to the bathhouse,’ and you’re like, ‘You can’t see the bathhouse.’”

Pod 9, which included islanders Joanna Alexander, Rita Belserene, Ken Goodman, Linda Meyer, Meg Misenti, Bill Tiffany, Bill Miller and his brother Steve from Boulder, Colo., completed the swim in 2 hours, 20 minutes.

“I really enjoyed it,” Bill Miller said of the swim. “This is my first adventure in really long, open water.

“I usually swim the mile swim over at Lake Washington, but with the wetsuit you’re more buoyant, with the salt water you’re more buoyant, so you can put your head down and just go.”

Swimmers entered the water in groups in late morning, emerging at Alki over a 90-minute period in early afternoon.

They emerged from the water to cross under a balloon arch and pose for photographs on a red carpet.

The 85-degree weather drew hundreds of onlookers and supporters to the popular beach.

Bainbridge Aquatic Masters got involved when event organizer Kevin Rayburn of Seattle met with them in February after a swim meet in Bellevue.

The group took it up as a fitness challenge for the summer. Boleda and Webber were the first to sign up, as they had been bugging Lynn Wells, their head coach and “pod mother,” for months to do a swim across Puget Sound.

“I wanted to do one ever since I moved here,” Boleda said. “For next year, we’ll do there and back.”

Wells felt their success and camraderie came from the “endless hours of training” they did for several months, swimming out at Manzanita Bay in Port Blakely on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

“They come out of the water just high. The adrenaline flows,” she said of their spirited practices. “With this challenging swim came the process (of working together), and the process was an absolute joy. They were disapointed when they didn’t get a chance to swim.”

She also stressed the importance of teamwork within the pods, as they had to not only overcome 50 degree water and groups of jellyfish, but also unforseen circumstances that caused them to rework their game plan.

“The first key is teamwork, attentiveness and focus,” she said. “(Meaning, you are) being aware of first, where you are in the water in relation to the other people in your pod. It’s a give and take within the unit, and realizing that someone’s strengths might be someone’s weakness.”

Alexander, who wore a hat made by her husband with her nickname “Space Kat” on it after she completed the swim, said the practice paid off by illuminating their strengths and hiding their weaknesses.

“I think the biggest challenge for us was with groups of people. Some were fast and some were slow and when we practiced, it was pretty easy to stop every now and then and get together.”

Their togetherness was apparent as they finished as a group, with no one dropping out or moving back to a slower pod.

Wells feels they are a “huge motivation and inspiration” for herself and others for taking on this journey.

“When you watch someone swim two miles and then turn around and swim back 2 miles, their comrades come back to the pool and say, ‘Shoot, these guys swam 2 miles one way without stopping or getting a drink or taking a breath. I can get in the pool and swim 25 yards at 5:30 in the morning,’” Wells said. “They’ve been very motivational to the whole team.

“They’re raising the bar.”