Local dentist Dr. John Chung had the honor of swimming to Stearns Wharf Thursday evening before making the turnaround for the journey to La Jolla Cove, as the Ventura Deep Six Relay Team started its quest for the world record of the longest continuous swim by a relay sextet.
Chung, who works in Goleta and Santa Barbara, is part of a six-man group from the Buenaventura Swim Club and Ventura County Masters program that is attempting to shatter the record of 78.2 miles. They’re goal is 202 miles.
The Ventura Deep Six jumped into the ocean at Ventura Harbor Thursday morning at 6 a.m. and each person swam a one-hour leg in the same order up the coast to Santa Barbara. Chung reached Stearns Wharf at about 8:45 p.m.
The relay team is now headed for La Jolla Cove, which they hope to reach by Sunday afternoon.
The world record was a triple crossing of Lake Taupo in New Zealand in January of 2009.
The other members of the Ventura Deep Six team are Tom Ball (age 50), Kurtis Baron (46), Jim McConica (59), Jim Neitz (42), and Mike Shaffer (45). Chung is the youngest member of the group at 40. Ball is a former beach lifeguard in Santa Barbara County and Shaffer was a swimming All-American at UCSB in the 1980s.
