Alcatraz swim by 9 yo boy

I saw that on the news the other night. What really amazed me was the boys coach. He was swimming right alongside sans wetsuit. If the kid said he was cold I can't imagine what it must have been like for the coach.

The water is warm in the Bay! :) On the radio the other day, they interviewed an American Indian boy who attempted the swim. He got half-way and ended up getting pulled from the water. He said he will try again next year. But then, I think he was about 135 pounds...

On July 16, 2005, 9-year-old Wyatt Oerman of Centennial, Colo., completed the 13th annual Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim in 39 minutes, 39 seconds, placing 29th out of 800 participants. According to David Horning, executive producer of Enviro-Sports Productions, which conducts the event, Oerman was the youngest participant ever -- and swam without a wet suit. Wyatt is the son of Voni Oreman, a masters swimmer with the University of Denver masters swim team. She swam the English Channel in 2002. Voni paced her son without a wet suit. Again he swam it without a wet suit.

www.sfgate.com/.../article.cgi Also, a 10 year old girl did the swim on September 10.

True inside the SF Bay....However, at the mouth of the Golden Gate, Great White Sharks have been seen....and a sad note to this is found in the fact that just around the point from the Golden Gate a surfer was eaten off his board a few months before I swam there in 1997. Many Marine Biologists state that they do not know if Great White Sharks are in the SF Bay.... and.... many think they are with the recent success of bringing back the California Seal.

I saw the spate of articles 1 or 2 weeks ago. But some of the articles included pictures and the pictures seemed to show the swimmer WITH a wetsuit. It's a huge accomplishment, and more than I could do, but I am surprised to learn that there was no wetsuit.

In 1997 when 19 Texas Masters Swimmers went to San Francisco to swim both events....all 19 swam sans wet suit. Matt could not/would not hear of wearing a wet suit when we swam them together the following year in 98. Heck, I even got grief from some of my fellow Master Swimmers for allowing Matt to swim these events without a wet suit and the water was a bit colder in 98 then 97. As things turned out he wasn't in the Bay long enought for the water to have had a real bad result. He got a bit of the shivers when he got out after 49 minutes on the Golden Gate Bridge Swim, but some hot drinks and a warm blanket fixed it pretty fast.

Originally posted by Tom Ellison ...and there are Great White Sharks in the area. In fact, the largest population of Great White Sharks in North America are located in and around the Farallon Islands 26 miles NW of the Golden Gate I watched a show last week on Altcatraz and they said this is actually one of the longest running urban legends, that of large predatory sharks in SF Bay. They said that the sharks around alcatraz are actually small and harmless. However, knowing there are great whites 26 miles away would be enough to scare me.

Over the past few years quite a few young kids have swam both Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. Many have elected to swim them with wet suits and some without. In August 1998 my son Matt and I swam both events in the Non-wet suit division (Matt won the 10-19 year old age group). Matt was 12 at the time and according to Dave Horning at Envirosports Ltd., Matt was (at that time) the youngest person to RACE across the Golden Gate without the assistance of a tender boat specific to that attempt. Having swam both events twice (1997-1998) it is a tremendous accomplishment for any kid to swim these events and I highly regard the courage and dedication it takes for a youngster to make these swims. The currents are swift, the water is cold and there are Great White Sharks in the area. In fact, the largest population of Great White Sharks in North America are located in and around the Farallon Islands 26 miles NW of the Golden Gate (www.greatwhiteadventures.com/farallons.html.). This is an off the chart accomplishment for these youngsters!

Originally posted by aquageek I watched a show last week on Altcatraz and they said this is actually one of the longest running urban legends, that of large predatory sharks in SF Bay. They said that the sharks around alcatraz are actually small and harmless. However, knowing there are great whites 26 miles away would be enough to scare me. I bet there are great whites within 26 miles of where I am sitting at the moment. Doesn't scare me one bit. :) From what I've heard, the sharks in the Bay tend to stay in the southern portion where the water is warmer (this is their nusery after all). There are many large sharks in the Bay, but they are of the non-aggressive type. And again, the water in the bay is not that cold. For us cold-adept people, 59 degrees is quite nice...