Swimmer Tries Channel Crossing
Jen Schumacher on a final training swim at Fisherman's Cove this past Tuesday before attempting a Catalina Channel crossing today. Dan Judelson, the kayak, and her father Steve, at right, accompanies her on most training swims. Jen Schumacher, a 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton graduate student who often trains off Laguna Beach, will swim the Catalina Channel solo today. She will cross a 21-mile stretch in water up to 4000 ft. deep between Long Point on the San Pedro Peninsula and Doctor's Cove on Catalina Island, raising money for the Surfrider Foundation along the way.
Due to shipping traffic and currents, Schumacher will begin at midnight, and is aiming for a time of 10 hours, though this depends largely on currents, wind, and swell. Avoiding hypothermia is a key challenge; wetsuits are banned under channel swimming rules. Schumacher's progress can be followed live; her dad Steve and her boyfriend Scott Arnold will be twittering from the support boat at channelswimjen.
In 1927, more than 100 swimmers entered the Wrigley Ocean Marathon, with a $25,000 prize, and only George Young of Canada finished, becoming the first to swim the Catalina Channel. Since then 164 people have successfully completed the swim, where the water temperature averages in the mid to high 60s and the average swim time is 12:19, according to the Catalina Channel Swimming Federation.
Schumacher is raising funds to pay for the costs of her swim, and because she is passionate about protecting beaches and oceans, she will give a portion of each donation to the South OC Surfrider Foundation, based in San Clemente.
Schumacher will stop every 25 minutes for one minute of rest, food and water, and to update Dan Judelson and Lenny Wiersma, Fullerton professors of exercise physiology and sports psychology, respectively. They are monitoring Schumacher throughout the swim for a study. The professors are tracking heart rate, core temperature, pain scale as well as the swimmer's perception of exertion, thirst, and warmth.
A long time swimmer with the Irvine club NOVA and a former coach, Schumacher is currently working on her master's degree in kinesiology. She has trained most of her life in the pool and for shorter ocean swims of less than three miles, but decided to train for the Catalina crossing last August after serving as a support swimmer for friend Dave Galli when he made the crossing. "I always had it in back of my mind…but that was sort of a turning point where said I can do this now," said Schumacher.
In addition to regular workouts in the pool, Schumacher kicked and stroked the seas throughout winter without a wetsuit. She recently completed a 17-mile swim between Dana Point and Newport Beach and jumped in for a late night swim which she tracks with a Garmin GPS unit strapped to the back of her swim cap. She has swum a total of 500 miles in the ocean and 350 miles in the pool over a year of training. Only in the last two months has she consistently taken a day off per week.
Schumacher's father, Steve, uncle, Dan, and sister, Katelyn will join her for several hours as support swimmers, and, although they cannot pace her or provide a draft, they will provide moral support in the long dark hours in the middle of the channel. "They get in and keep me company. It's just nice to know they're there," said Schumacher.
Schumacher's other sister Carly will be on a support boat, and her mom Barbara in a kayak. Judelson and Wiersma will be in a second kayak conducting their research.
When asked if she thinks about sharks in all that open water, Schumacher responded, "I try not to but every once in a while I do. I saw something today - I think it was a ray - but try not to think about it because the odds are very unlikely."
While Schumacher will swim alone, a support boat and swimmers can accompany her, though there can be no physical contact, according to channel swimming rules. For a crossing to be official, the swimmer must stand unassisted beyond the shoreline upon completion of the swim.
