Finding a swimming buddy

Sometimes you need to rally a crew in order to get yourself going

Coyote Point in 2010. My then-ten-year-old daughter, more intrepid than I, was already swimming there when I had only started thinking about it. Photo by Dylan

My first swim in open water, about ten years ago, was in the shallow, protected waters of Coyote Point, a cove halfway up San Francisco Bay. I was nervous, hyperventilating, wearing too much neoprene, and probably didn’t swim longer than about ten minutes. So how did I get from that point to being able to swim six miles in the open ocean without stopping?

Practice, practice, practice, as the old joke about Carnegie Hall goes. But first I needed to find a swimming buddy or two.

After that first swim, I knew I wanted more, but I was nervous. I didn't feel comfortable swimming by myself, and I didn't know anyone else who swam in the Bay, apart from a coworker at a previous job. He was notorious for swimming in the San Francisco Bay every morning before work. This guy was a member of the Dolphin Club, one of two century-old athletic clubs on the shore of Aquatic Park, near Fisherman’s Wharf, and he was rumored to be a fast and accomplished distance swimmer. At the time I assumed (wrongly) that the Dolphin Club and the South End Rowing Club right next door to it were accessible only to the brave, the strong, and the rich — and I was none of those.

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Finding a swimming buddy