In June 2024, the Spirit Orcas competed a 23 km relay around North Pender Island in British Columbia, Canada.
Drew Sabourin, Aly White, Maria Sharock, Dixon McGowan, Meliah Motchman and Lisa Newell swam in that order in the 11°C water. Sabourin swam for an hour until White took over at 9:00 am. Then Sharock got in the water at 10:37 am and McGowan entered the water at 11:00 am with Motchman and Newell finishing up the unprecedented open water course with the help of support crew members Sandor Csepregi-thereal, Corey Teramura, Reg and Kristina Vanlierop, Jasmine and Peter Kremer, Richard Motchman, and coach Susan Simmons.
One year later on June 22nd, the Spirit Orcas, a group of athletes with intellectual disabilities, swam around South Pender Island in British Columbia. The swim started at Poet’s Cove and ended at Port Browning, a distance of 15 km in 12°C water.
Simmons interviewed each of the swimmers – Greg Hind, Maria Sharock, Dixon McGowen, Drew Sabourin, Meliah Motchman, and Lisa Newell – in the video below:
The Spirit Orcas face a number of challenges not common in the open water swimming community including autism, Downs syndrome, anxiety disorders, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, epilepsy, and blindness. But these have not stopped them. To date, they have completed relay swims in Lake Cowichan (35 km), Gunboat Pass and Hunter Channel in the Great Bear Rainforest (25 km and 20 km), and an 80 km stage swim from Brentwood Bay to Colwood.
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