Grit and Gratitude During The 10 Miles = 100 Waves Challenge

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As the four pioneers walked from their staging point to the start of the new 10 Miles = 100 Waves event from Newport Beach to Sunset Beach in Southern California, organizer Hank Wise (58, USA, MSF bio here), an 8-time Catalina Channel swimmer, advised his fellow swimmers – Ben Brewer (28), Dylan Jones (29), and Brandon Samaniego (23) – to think deeply as they crossed the wide sandy beach before getting in the 22°C Pacific Ocean, “Let’s think deeply about what we have the privilege to do today. Not many people have this opportunity that we are about to embark on. Think about someone who you know – maybe a grandmother, a friend, or a neighbor – who you keep close in your heart. Think about them as we swim and be filled with gratitude.

And we will also need grit. This will be a great swim, but there will be times when it might be tough.”

And so the four swimmers embarked on a 18.2 km (total swimming distance, not point-to-point tangent distance) challenge from Newport Beach to Sunset Beach in Orange County. They walked into the Pacific in the dark at 5:33 am to catch the best possible northerly tidal surge. Their goal? To swim at least 10 miles and catch at least 100 waves. It was a new kind of 18.2 km ocean swimming + bodysurfing challenge in 3-foot (1 meter) surf.

Wise made sure to provide everyone with goggle leashes as more than a few times they caught barrels and airdropped a few of the larger waves. While marathon and channel swimmers are mostly focused on swimming from point-to-point, this particular workout was different. Much different.

Observer Steven Munatones recalls, “Much of the time, Hank, Ben, Dylan, and Brandon were swimming just on the lips of the 3-foot surf. But then they would suddenly eye a wave, and then take a 90° turn and take off on a wave. They would ride it in as long and as far as possible, and then swim out through the whitewater in the surf zone. They put in a lot of micro-sprints, both in catching waves and then fighting to get back outside so they could swim down the coast and keep catching waves. They always had to look out for [board] surfers, especially because of the big surf contest that was going on at the Huntington Beach Pier.

It looked fun, but it was definitely a tough workout.”

Pre-staging Feeds

The quartet met at 4:15 am and proceeded to pre-stage their feeds at three locations along the beaches. Wise brought a shovel and buried everyone’s feeds (hydration, bananas, bars, and Hydration I.V.) at Beach Blvd. and Seapoint Ave. in Huntington Beach and at Warner Ave. at the border of Bolsa Chica and Sunset Beach. “It was like they were burying hidden treasures. When they dug their fees back up, they all made it look so good,” observed Munatones.

With low tide is at 2 am and high tide is at 9 am, they started at 5:33 am and rode a great high tidal push along the northwards coastal course. They had to constantly be on the lookout as most of the time they were in the whitewash with waves coming an average of every 12 seconds.

Their swim distance, including all the lengths of all the waves they caught going towards shore and swimming back out was 18.2 km that took them a total time, including feeds, of 5 hours 1 minute 50 seconds. It was overcast at the start, but nice and sunny at the finish. A large pod of dolphins followed them for quite a distance in Newport Beach, but fortunately no stingrays or juvenile great white sharks were sighted or jellyfish encountered along the course.

With 3 Catalina Channel crossings planned for this summer season, Wise is putting in the mileage training. But it was clear that he most enjoyed catching waves.

Other scenes from today’s unique workout: