Suzie Dods of San Francisco (shown on left in San Francisco Bay) about her motto, “The world is 75% water, swimming is a unifier.”

“I guess it just comes from my experience. Through swimming I have traveled to all sorts of different places in the world,” explained Dods in an understatement given her extensive travels around the globe in all kinds of bodies of water.

“I have experienced local people doing what they do and been able to see parts of the world from a very personal level. I am able to relate to and communicate with people all over the world. I am able to connect with other people and help people connect. It’s always nice when you travel to have someone who knows what you like to do and can help you do it.

You are no longer a stranger…you are a friend.”

Dods has swum 14 miles across the width of Lake Tahoe in 1988 and its length in 1989. She was on two English Channel relays in 1992 and 1993 and swam 12 miles around Coronado Island in San Diego, California in 1996. In 2000, she swam across the English Channel and another solo of the Catalina Channel in 2010. In 2002, she traveled to Sicily, Italy to compete in the the 15 km Maratona de Due Mare in Sicily, Italy and to Switzerland to participate in the 26.2 km International Self-Transcendence Marathon-Schwimmen across Lake Zurich in Switzerland in 2004, a 9-mile swim in Tampa Bay, Florida in 2005 and a solo 8-mile swim around Pennock Island in Ketchikan Alaska.

Copyright © 2012 by Open Water Source