First off, GO BEARS!! A huge 4th place finish at NCAA’s. I am so proud of the team and of Sea Dreamers Program Director/ Cal Assistant Coach Maya Geringer who helped lead them to their highest finish since 2021.

What sort of things do you want to see in this newsletter? Send me any feedback!

After struggling with 2 weeks of a virus, 1 week of the flu, and a pulled back muscle I am please to say…I am BACK! Training volume is increasing and the weights are getting heavier.

It was easy getting back into the swing of things in Cabo. Huge thank you to Felicia Lee for bringing me on her Presidents Club trip, even though I interrupted every conversation to yell, “WHALE” because there were so many jumping and breaching whales.

We swam every morning and then spent time in the gym doing PT and gentle exercises to compliment the swimming and relaxing vibes of the trip.

My weekly yardage is going to be north of 20,000 this week, plus 2 hours of lifting. This will increase to around 60,000 with the months leading up to the swim.

Last week I hit my goal but finished the week off with three days of camping and 3 days of over 5 hours in the backcountry.

This week I will hit 35,000, two lifts, and a full day of ski patrol.

5-8 hour days on my feet is very similar to the physical load my body will experience with the swim. My goal over the next 3 months is to build muscle, gain fat, hit several weeks at 60,000 and to not feel mentally burnt out.

To keep up this level of training requires nutrition and supplements. Here are some items I have been loving:

Imlak’esh did give me free product to try but neither of these are sponsored ads, I truly believe and love this items. One thing you can trust is that I will not represent any brand I do not regularly use, consume or fully believe in,

I like to think of myself as a risk technician not a risk taker. Most of the activities I partake in have an aspect of risk, danger, injury and sometimes death. However, I firmly believe that if you do the training, read the forecasts, respect Mother Nature, and trust your gut you can most of the time be in this space safely.

Check out this interview with Alex Honnold…or just google Alex Honnold and Risk, his interview with Rich Roll is amazing.

Those of us that recreate in these spaces know the risk we are taking but we could not imagine life without these amazing epic adventures in Mother Nature. It fills our soul.

Mother Nature, the outdoors, it can heal and hurt. It gives and it takes away. But the reward getting across the channel, summiting a mountain or surfing a big wave—it is worth it 100% of the time. If done correctly—with preparation.

For example, I volunteer ski patrol at Palisades and my partner is a full time patroller often on avalanche mitigation routes. When there is high avalanche risk we travel with proper gear that we are trained to use, we stay with a partner, we avoid certain aspects, and we trust our experience.

When him and I, or any friends, are in the backcountry we employ this same mindset. We travel with the utmost caution and use every tool in our book to be safe and the most important tool we have is our intuition which has been honed over years in these environments. Knowing when to say, “today I will stay in”.

Ok so what does this have to do with Swim California? Well, everything.

Swim California is RISKY. I promise you I think of sharks and wind and rocky shores more than ANY OF YOU DO.

I also think statistically about what is the highest danger. Sharks are not it BTW.

Each concern we are addressing with an expert and creating a playbook that will have shark protocols, weather go/no-go thresholds, safe harbors mapped out, mental and physical health check in’s for myself and the crew, etc.

This swim is not like any other expedition swim that has happened because of our weather and wildlife.

There is a reason this has not been attempted before.

That does not make it impossible.

Each day, over the four months of this journey, will require laser sharp focus. Every time I get in the water my crew will have my life in their hands and their well-being is in mine.

This is serious stuff. This is what takes time to plan. This is what the funds we have raised pay for—hiring the best person for the job.

The goal is to have zero days where we think, “today we got lucky” and every day to wrap up with a “great job executing on our plan”.

The other week I got to meet the Manchester State Elementary school kids and they had so many brilliant questions.

One risk I wasn’t thinking about, that one student was very concerned about, was….

pirates.

😆

I appreciated the levity.

Jono’s swim is in some ways similar to Swim California. One huge similarity is the call to protect the ocean. For him, the mission has been about ending bottom trawling—check out the link above and sign the petition.

“His commitment reflects the urgency of the issue he’s swimming for.  

New Zealand is guardian to the fourth-largest ocean space on the planet and since we launched Live Ocean six years ago, we have called for New Zealand to step up and lead. Other nations are lifting their ambition to protect and restore the ocean, meanwhile, we’re still allowing one of the most destructive practices of all: bottom trawling. New Zealand is the only country in the world to still trawl seamounts in the South Pacific High Seas. There is no justification. “

Offshore drilling and the risk it incurs makes me so angry. We need to find better sources of energy. During Swim California, I will swim right by these areas and you bet we will be talking about it.

"This pipeline already failed once 10 years ago, caused one of the worst oil spills in California history," Alex Katz, executive director of the Environmental Defense Center. "The beaches were poisoned for miles up and down the coast. We had dead marine mammals washing up on shore. There's a real sense that we don't want to have another disaster here."

Behind the swim is a whole team and so I just want to shoutout the people who have made getting this far possible.

Each newsletter I am going to shoutout someone who went above and beyond. This week I want to shoutout:

💙 Felicia Lee

Felicia and I have been friends since middle school, starting as aquaintances on the pool deck at US meets, teammates Internationally, and then rivals when she went to Stanford and I committed to Cal.

Through being teammates at the Olympic Club we have become best friends and she is absolutely one of my favorite training partners, my ultimate cheerleader, a mentor, and a key person to keep me grounded and sane through this whole journey.

Love ya Flee!!!

I also want to thank all the donors who have come in and gotten us to 85% fundraised.

This isn’t just my swim; it’s a journey for all of us who love the ocean, crave adventure, and believe in trying something even when it feels impossible. Thank you for being here.

Donations are currently being accepted through my 501-c3 non-profit, Sea Dreamers. During Swim California we will be stopping and having various Sea Dreamers events to bring more women and girls into the ocean and create more awareness around ocean conservation—because I believe we fight for what we love and women fight pretty damn hard.