Every year we receive the requests – I’m in town on short notice or planning a trip; the Alcatraz swim is a bucket list swim I want do to; or I signed up for a race a few weeks away. Can you get me ready?
The honest answer is – it depends! What is your 100-yard pool pace? It depends on whether you have swum in open water before. Are you acclimated to the San Francisco Bay water temperatures? And it depends on whether you understand that showing up underprepared is not just a personal risk. It affects every other swimmer and every person on the water working to keep you safe.
23 years swimming in the San Francisco Bay. We pilot over 100 Alcatraz swims a year. Here is what we tell every swimmer before they get in the water.