Stewart Reid was up against some pretty stiff competition in the Semana Nautica 6-mile swim on Sunday.
But just like he has done in the weekly Reef and Run Series swims along East Beach, the former NCAA Division 2 All-Amerian from UC Davis stroked his way to victory in the race from Goleta Beach to Hendry’s Beach on Sunday morning
In a 36-swimmer field that included several experienced open-water swimmers, Reid came out of the water first in an impressive 1 hour, 43 minutes, 50 seconds.
“There were some very-well recognized names in our sport competing, so I was thankful to perform well against this strong field,” said Reid, who works for Green Hills Software in Santa Barbara.
Chip McDaniel of Venice placed second in 1:54.05 and Ventura’s Jim McConica finished third in 1:54.05.
The first-place woman was Santa Barbaran Isabel Dickinson in 2:19.37. The 21-year-old Wesleyan (Conn.) College swimmer and former State Junior Lifeguard distance swimming champion, was followed by open-water veterans Dorothy Thomas-Reid of Redlands in 2:23.54 and local Betsy Hanson in 2:24.30.
Race director and longtime ocean swimmer Jane Cairns was ecstatic about how the event came off.
“The race was awesome,” she exclaimed. “We had our biggest field of swimmers yet.”
Thirty-six swimmers entered the 60-degree water and 35 finished.
“The course was ‘fast’ this year. They had a good current running with them,” she said.
The conditions were so good that Dave Van Mourerik of San Luis Obispo, a friend of Cairns, swam the course twice on Sunday.
“He started at Hendry’s at about 5:45 a.m. and swam up to the start and then turned around and swam the race. He is training for the Anacapa Island crossing in a few weeks.”
Reid, who has won five 1-mile ocean swims in the Tuesday evening Reef and Run Series this summer, showed he can do greater distances, too.
“My strategy was to go out fast and try to hold on,” he said. “My paddler, Whitney Rodgers, spotted the final buoy as I was beginning to fatigue (about an hour and half into the race) and that was all I needed for a final push.”
Reid has worked tirelessly to become an elite open-water swimmer.
“I work out 6-7 days a week, alternating swimming with dry-land activities like Pilates, free weights, and yoga,” he said. “This routine gives me the right balance of cardio conditioning and strength … and I don’t have time in my schedule for much else!”
Last year he finished fourth in the 11.5-mile Olympic Club Trans-Tahoe swim in Lake Tahoe. He’s won the 1.5-mile Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim in San Francisco Bay and was first in his age-group in the La Jolla Rough Water Swim.
“I’ve always loved the ocean — being in and around it.” he replied when asked if he ever had a fear of swimming in the open water. “However, there definitely are moments when conditions are less than ideal or the headlines of the day can get in your head. What’s great about Reef and Run or local organizations like Moms in Motion is we have the opportunity to participate in safe, monitored events in which athletes can work through their fears.”
He entered the water Sunday with fearless watermen and women who have some impressive credentials.
One notable entrant was Santa Barbara’s Chip Blankenhorn, the fifth-place finisher in 1:57.33. He recently became one of the few people in the world to swim across the Strait of Gibraltar. Blankenhorn, 30, did the treacherous 26-mile strait with two other swimmers from Great Britain in three hours on June 14.
The Strait of Gibraltar Swimming Association Web site has a list of 265 swimmers that have completed the one-way crossing, going back to 1900. Blankenhorn was the 255th swimmer to do it.
“A lot of these swimmers have pretty amazing histories,” Cairns said. “There’s lots of Catalina Channel veterans, and other awesome feats of long-distance ocean swimming amongst these finishers.”
Among his long-distance accomplishments, McConica has done the English Channel, the Catalina Channel in both directions and Anacapa Island to Oxnard.
Cairns said McConica was part of a crew from Ventura that used the Semana Nautica swim as a training run for a big relay in September.
“They will be swimming 202 miles along the Southern California coast to try and set a world record. There are six on the team and they will swim from Ventura to Santa Barbara, flip turn at Stearns Wharf and then swim down to La Jolla,” she explained.”
Other entrants included English Channel crosser Eugene Hanrahan of Santa Monica; Steve Lowe of Pasadena, who has done the Santa Barbara Channel and Hawaii channel swims, Daniel Slosberg of Los Angeles, a frequent crosser of the Catalina Channel, and Bill Ireland of Venice, an avid open-water swimmer who does several long-distance events a year.
On the women’s side, runner-up Thomas-Reid, swam across the Catalina Channel and third-place Hanson competed in the FINA World Open Water Championships a few years ago.
Santa Barbara 6 mile Ocean Swim 2010 Results
overall
place name time
1 Stewart Reid—Santa Barbara 1:43.50
2 Chip McDaniel—Venice 1:50.08
3 Jim McConica—Ventura 1:54.05
4 Trevor Kosmo—Goleta 1:56.24
5 Chip Blankenhorn—Santa Barbara 1:57.33
6 Chris Dahowski—Santa Clarita 1:57.58
7 Ed Smith—Santa Barbara 1:59.26
8 John Chung—Ventura 2:00.59
9 Steve Lowe—Pasadena 2:01.18
10 Don Smith—Long Beach 2:02.18
11 Daniel Slosberg—LA 2:02.47
12 Eugene Hanrahan—Santa Monica 2:05.58
13 Bill Ireland—Venice 2:08.18
14 Rick Hayes—Santa Barbara 2:10.43
15 Tim Hayes—Santa Barbara 2:11.05
16 Tom Ball—Ventura 2:12.07
17 Dan O’Meara—Summerland 2:18.49
18 Isabel Dickinson—Santa Barbara 2:19.37
19 Matt Moore—Santa Barbara 2:20.35
20 Mark Anderson—Irvine 2:21.59
21 Dorothy Thomas-Reid—Redlands 2:23.54
22 Betsy Hanson—Santa Barbara 2:24.30
23 Edward Somogyi—SLO 2:26.15
24 David Pekerak—Pasadena 2:28.21
25 Michael Baham—Arcadia 2:30.34
26 Sarah Riley Fergot—Novato 2:32.09
27 Jim Neitz—Ventura 2:34.56
28 Natalie Merrow—Lon Beach 2:42.42
29 Kimberly Rutherford—Capitola 2:49.20
30 Mike Vovk—Castaic 2:55.44
31 Claudia Rose—San Diego 2:59.32
32 Don Van Cleve—Culver City 3:04.40
33 Diana Corbin—Beltsville, MD 3:16.59
34 Dave Van Mouwerik—SLO 3:28.14
35 Laure Weber—Pacific Palisades 3:48.04
36 Eric Taylor—Somis DNF
Women
place name time
1 Isabel Dickinson—Santa Barbara 2:19.37
2 Dorothy Thomas-Reid—Redlands 2:23.54
3 Betsy Hanson—Santa Barbara 2:24.30
4 Sarah Riley Fergot—Novato 2:32.09
5 Natalie Merrow—Long Beach 2:42.42
6 Kimberly Rutherford—Capitola 2:49.20
7 Claudia Rose—San Diego 2:59.32
8 Diana Corbin—Beltsville, MD 3:16.59
9 Laure Weber—Pacific Palisades 3:48.04
Thanks for the article about the swim. Jane put on a wonderful race as usual. Just wanted to clarify one thing, though: I've never swum the English Channel. The darn thing's way to cold for me. I've crossed the Catalina Channel a few times, but our little chunk of the Pacific can be downright balmy compared to the North Sea.
Thanks for the article about the swim. Jane put on a wonderful race as usual. Just wanted to clarify one thing, though: I've never swum the English Channel. The darn thing's way to cold for me. I've crossed the Catalina Channel a few times, but our little chunk of the Pacific can be downright balmy compared to the North Sea.