I see a lot of surfing films. And many mountain climbing films. I also see many distance running and cycling films.

The surfers strongly support surfing films. The mountaineers strongly support climbing films as does the distance running and cycling communities in their film genres.

It is wonderful to see how all these extreme sports enthusiasts – pros and amateurs, young and old – come out to buy tickets to watch films about people in their sport – whether or not they come from the same country or are the same level of experience or expertise.

The open water swimming community has always done that, especially throughout the Commonwealth countries whether the movie was Vindication Swim or Young Woman & The Sea.

Now the American open water swimming community is being tested how they can show similar support of an open water swimming movie.

Swimmers like Anita Hartsock (37, USA, MSF bio here) demonstrated her support of the most recent swimming movie to hit American shores.

Hartsock drove more than 5 hours to watch Don’t Be Prey at this weekend’s Breckenridge Film Festival in Colorado.A veteran of the North Channel (13 hours 7 minutes in 2026), English Channel (15 hours 40 minutes in 2023), Lake Tahoe (18 hours 24 minutes in 2024), Lake Memphremagog (17 hours 56 minutes), 20 Bridges (8 hours 25 minutes in 2019), Catalina Channel (13 hours 17 minutes in 2022), she shown her support of the film about Mark Sowerby (52, Australia, MSF bio here) and his journey to the Oceans Seven.

Triple Crowner Hartsock clearly experienced the same conditions and situations as Sowerby did. Their efforts and dogged commitment to finishing their channel crossings mirrored each other.

After the English Channel, Hartsock wrote, “The swim from England to France was my third of the Triple Crown swims and it was the most difficult by far. The conditions were absolutely brutal. It was a fight the whole way across.

I was fighting to stay near the boat. I was fighting to not get slammed into the boat. I was able to get away most times, but I hit the hull several times and got tangled in the buoys placed along the sides.

I was fighting to breathe. At times, I’d take 2-3 strokes and never get my hands above water because I’d been completely swamped.

I was fighting to beat the ferry crossings in France before getting stopped by the French coast guard. My pilots told my crew that the conditions were right on the edge of too rough for solo swimmers,- my pilot had encouraged me to give my slot to a relay, but there wasn’t another viable window this week. So I took it. Only 5 of 12 boats even went out yesterday. Only 3 made it across. I was one of them.“

Across the North Channel, Hartsock wrote, “I made it, somehow. The lion’s manes are absolutely terrifying. Still not as bad as my English Channel, but close.

It was brutal.

I swam through a million jellyfish, got stung in the face and neck on the way to the wall, smacked it to “start the clock” and headed back to my boat feeling other stings along the way. The lion’s manes appear out of nowhere and there’s no avoiding them all. Even as I swam around one, I could feel others brushing against my skin. Over and over. Pinpricks of stabbing pain that magnified as the hours went on. Apparently I hit one face first on the underside of the bell, flipped over onto my back, bringing the entire jelly with me, screaming obscenities and flailing until it slid down my body back into the water, and I resumed swimming. I have no memory of this. None. I guess some things are too horrific to hold. I remember plenty of others though.

It’s a whole new level of pain.

I noticed my teeth were chattering and I was shivering whilst swimming. I have never experienced that before. I’m usually good with cold for long periods of time. I ran through my mental tricks-breathing as bellows to stoke my inner furnace, picturing warmth flowing down my arms… and I discovered that my inner furnace had gone out. I could not find the spark of heat in my core. There was just cold.”

Hartsock felt the cold and the jellyfish like Sowerby did. They fought through currents and waves in the same waters in completely exhausted states of fatigue.

Like Hartsock who served as a crew member for the 88.5 km 54 hour 28 minute swim of Caroline Block across Lake Memphremagog, she also supported the film about Sowerby and his journey facing business challenges and tough channels.

Hartsock described her experience after her North Channel crossing, “The ride back [from Scotland to Northern Ireland] was torture. The next several hours were torture. As soon as my skin warmed up it started to burn. And burn. Every exposed part of my skin was on fire. The cold had kept the intense pain of the jellyfish stings at bay, but it flooded back with a vengeance. Sleep was impossible. Antihistamines, pain killers and a super hot shower didn’t do much to cut it. Brutal. Fortunately, by the next morning it had subsided to an all over itch, and I started to feel human again.”

The 94-minute film Don’t Be Prey (@dontbeprey.film, IMDb here) dramatically shows similar scenes of marathon swimmers who face challenges like Hartsock. Other Oceans Seven swimmers like Bengisu Avci (28, Turkey, MSF bio here), Joanne Norman (54, Australia, MSF bio here, @jo_norman_swims), and Paul Leonard (52, Great Britain, MSF bio here, @paulsharkbite) appear in the swim to share their own personal experiences and challenges.

Throughout the film, renowned sports psychologist Jen Schumacher (40, USA, MSF bio here, @jenschumacher) and Red Top Swimming coach Tim Denyer (@redtopperformance) share their insightful wisdom and channel swimming advice with cameo appearances by The Chunky Dunkers of Donaghadee in Northern Ireland, Jamie Mackay (43, Great Britain, MSF bio here), jellyfish expert and researcher Angel Yanagihara (@angel_yanagihara), and a handful of others who spend time beyond the shorelines.

Film Festivals

The film has long been available from Australia to Ireland and the UK. The film launched its U.S. film festival run this week in Colorado.

• Breck Film Fest on September 19th in Breckenridge, Colorado [see here]
• Richmond International Film Festival on September 27th in Richmond, Virginia [see here]
• Chagrin Documentary Film Fest on October 7th and 9th in Chagrin Falls, Ohio [see here]
• Green Film Festival on October 16th in San Francisco, California [see here]
• Newport Beach Film Festival on October 17th in Newport Beach, California [see here]
• Awareness Film Festival on October 18th in Santa Monica, California [see here]
• Dana Point Film Festival on October 31st in Dana Point, California [see here]

The Awareness Film Festival describes the film as “an edge-of-your-seat adventure into one man’s fight to reclaim his life by taking on the world’s most dangerous marathon swims, the Oceans Seven. Featuring unforgettable characters, raw vulnerability and breathtaking ocean feats, it’s a gripping, uplifting journey of resilience, reinvention, and what it really takes to survive.”

The Breck Film Fest recognized Don’t Be Prey with the Best Human Spirit Award (Mark and Heidi Sowerby are shown above with the award).

Don’t Be Prey on IMDb is here. For additional screening details and tickets, visit www.dontbeprey.film/screenings.

Mark Sowerby’s Oceans Seven Journey

From his farm in the Gold Coast of Australia, the 52-year-old Sowerby became the 29th person in history to completed the Oceans Seven in June 2024.

• English Channel, August 2015 in 14 hours 24 minutes
• Molokai Channel, April 2022 in 14 hours 23 minutes
• Catalina Channel, October 2022 in 10 hours 43 minutes
• Strait of Gibraltar, April 2023 in 3 hours 24 minutes
• North Channel, September 2023 in 12 hours 12 minutes
• Cook Strait, February 2024 in 8 hours 3 minutes
• Tsugaru Channel, June 2024 in 10 hours 6 minutes

© 2026 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“

World Open Water Swimming Federation, an exclusively human-powered project