Nearly four months ago, Catherine Breed, a 33-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area, set out to become the first person to swim the entire coastline of California – from its northern-most tip to the border with Mexico.
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Breed → set → Mexico
She and her support team prepared for encounters with sharks and storms.
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She → prepare → sharks
They hadn’t anticipated completing the marathon swim during a year of historic super El Niño weather.
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They → anticipate → weather
But after dodging hurricanes, wildlife and 8ft waves in an unusually volatile Pacific Ocean, Breed finally celebrated the end of her journey on a beach in San Diego on Monday.
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Breed → dodge → Monday
Breed joins a group of elite ultra-endurance swimmers who continue to set new records for long-distance swims, including swimming the entire coastlines of Ireland and Iceland and one side of New Zealand’s North Island – all journeys of close to 1,000 miles (1,600km).
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who → join → miles
Breed spoke to the Guardian this week about living onboard the Catalyst, the sailboat that accompanied her, her physical and mental preparations for her 111-day swim, and what she thought about while spending more than 15 weeks in the water.
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she → speak → water
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
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conversation → edit → length
On your website, you talk about the desire to be part of “an elite group of humans who have been the first to accomplish a monumental feat”.
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who → talk → feat
What does that feel like now that you’ve done it?
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you → feel → it
Like, I know I’m the one who did it, but there are parts of me where I feel like I’m along with the audience, watching this thing happen.
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thing → know → audience
I think I’m still trying to grasp what I’ve done.
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I → think → what
How did you get the idea to swim the full length of California, which no one has ever done before?
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one → get → which
Other people showed me that the model was possible.
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model → show → me
Ross Edgley swam around Great Britain.
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Edgley → swim → Britain
Sean Conway and Jasmine Harrison swam the length of Britain.
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Conway → swim → Britain
[In 2022] I did a swim down the California coast from the Golden Gate Bridge to Half Moon Bay, and it made me realize how much fun I had during that, and I was like: I want to try to do this with the coast.
What did you think about while you were swimming four to five hours a day?
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you → do → hours
In college, my coach used to say you only get so many energy units per day.
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you → use → day
Overthinking or excessive thinking or negative thinking – that can take some of that energy you have.
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you → overthinke → energy
During these marathon swims, I try to keep my thoughts very focused on the task at hand.
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I → try → hand
When the conditions were really rough, there was a lot of thought around my technique, because I really had to adjust how I was swimming to not wreck my shoulders in the big waves.
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I → be → waves
What could you hear as you were swimming?
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you → hear → What
I had earplugs on, so I couldn’t hear the crew.
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I → have → crew
But one thing I could hear very clearly was dolphins.
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I → hear → ?
And so there were many occasions where I would hear the dolphins before the crew could see them.
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crew → be → them
And I would look up and I’d be like, you guys, incoming, there’s dolphins.
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I → look → ?
At points, you were swimming through 6-8ft waves, which you have described as feeling like you were in a washing machine.
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you → swim → machine
What is it like to swim in those conditions?
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it → swim → conditions
If I’m swimming into the swell, it feels like you’re swimming up a hill.
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you → swim → hill
But if it’s behind me, then it’s actually very fun because it feels like I’m surfing.
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I → ’ → me
So it really depended on the conditions.
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it → depend → conditions
When you’ve got a lot of wind and a lot of swell, the waves can crash on you from the back or the side or the front.
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waves → get → back
And it does take a lot of effort to keep my body in the right position.
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it → take → position
One day a wave picked me up, and I landed on my butt.
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I → pick → butt
How do you train for swimming in those kinds of waves?
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you → train → waves
I grew up swimming, I grew up sailing.
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I → grow → ?
So those moments, they’re difficult, but I’m comfortable.
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I → ’re → ?
I surf a lot.
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I → surf → ?
And so I think surfers are comfortable with waves and they understand kind of just wave mechanics and moving with the ocean.
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they → think → ocean
I think the challenging part of the swell was not so much as swimming, but that there’s no chance of recovery [with living on a boat].
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part → think → boat
Getting ready to swim is really hard – like you’re trying to make breakfast and you’re falling over, your coffee’s spilling.
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coffee → get → breakfast
…and 59 more, not listed.
The Aporia
