Andy Seretan was born in New York City, but raised in Long Beach, California.
The multi-talented 70-year-old is a former age group swimmer, businessman, and lifelong musician who began his aquatic career with the Pacific Coast Club and Long Beach Aquatic Club under the coaching of Frank Sullivan and Ted Ackel. Later, he swam at the University of California, Riverside and did numerous ocean swimming competitions in Southern California.
He remembers collegiate competitions with Pomona-Pitzer’s renowned Catalina and English Channel record holder Dr. Penny Lee Dean. Seretan recalls, “I remember icons in the sport like Penny Dean and Jim McConica. They were both so good.
Penny lapped me two or three times in the 1000-yard freestyle when we had a dual swim meet against Pomona-Pitzer. She swam on the men’s team and was their distance ace. Penny [who recently received an honorary degree from her alma mater Pomona-Pitzer] still holds the overall Catalina Channel crossing record after setting it in 1976 and is still the second fastest woman in history across the English Channel, after all these decades.
And, Jim McConica, what a swimmer he is. He was a senior when I was a sophomore in high school. His high school, Buena of Ventura, won the 1971 CIF Southern Section Championships. In those days, there were no divisions as all schools throughout Southern California competed together. He was great then, and he has continued to set world masters records at every age division since. I remember Jim just missing out on the Olympic team by .01 second for the 1972 Munich Olympics.”
But Seretan himself is setting an ambitious goal. At the age of 70, he continues to swim 6-7 days per week, week in and week out, with only a very rare miss. While his home base is at the Los Cab Sports Village in Fountain Valley, California, he will occasionally swim in several other pools if he has to travel.
“I go to Belmont Plaza pool, and Alpert JCC pool or any 24 Hour fitness pool if I cannot make it at 5 am to Los Cab. It’s good to have backups in case one pool is down or I need an indoor pool in case of an electrical storm.”
He is always 10 minutes early for the morning workouts that always starts before sunrise. Once he jumps in the water, he swims relentlessly back and forth, and back and forth. Without breaks, he always keeps track of his distance and pace within a very close tolerance to his goal pace. “I usually swim 1:30 per 100 yards in a 25-yard short-course pool or a 1:37 pace per 100 meters in a 50m long-course pool. I use an Apple Watch 8 to record my distance and times, and always post on the US Masters Swimming Go The Distance Program.”
Seretan has been in the top 15 overall since he started to record and post his daily swim mileage. “My goal is to continuously increase my total annual mileage, every year for the foreseeable future.”
Last year in 2022, he swam 1,512 miles (2,433 kilometers), averaging 6,666 meters per day, even accounting for the days that he had an eye surgery. “Since my doctor said that I couldn’t swim, I just went to the shallow pool and walked back and forth for two hours. I could not walk as far as I normally swim, but I was able to get in 5,000 yards during my aqua walking workouts. When my eye completely recovered, I started swimming again and I felt like I had not lost much being out of the water for 9 days. I was back to my normal 7,600 yards within three days.
Over the decades, Seretan has keep fairly detailed records of his total cumulative distances.
He describes his charting of his mileage, “When I bought my first Apple watch in 2017, it was a game changer. I found that previously my all sport watches did not count laps and gave me good splits without me touching a button. This led to distractions during my swims. My new Apple watch from 2017 gave me more interest in my fitness levels – for example, my heart rate, calorie burn, and speed for the distances swam during my session. It also sparked discussion among other lap swimmers at my pools about our progress with our fitness levels.
I plan to keep up my swimming goals and want to increase my mileage annually until I cannot anymore. The goal this year is to beat last year. I am on plan to do this as of today [early July].
Swimming makes me feel great in the water. After I have completed the two hours in the water, it also makes me become more aware of how much I sleep and what I eat. It has given me a greater appreciation for keeping active. Swimming has also opened up new friendships with fellow swimmers as we wait for the pool to open at 5:00 am.
Among the most prolific pool swimmers in the world, Seretan’s total time in the water is comparable to marathon swimming icons such as Abílio Couto, known as Pai das Águas Abertas no Brasil (Father of Open Water Swimming in Brazil), who swam an estimated 40,000 kilometers during this career, and the venerable long-distance swimming guru Jim McConica.
But Seretan has his own certain goals, “I aim to stay healthy in both mind and body. Swimming gets me going to start my day.“
Seretan gets out of the water after his morning workouts, and then remains active throughout the day. He volunteers his time to delivering senior meals, performs ambassador and community outreach at two area airports, and plays the violin in the local Long Beach community orchestra.
Stroke by stroke, lap by lap, kilometer by kilometer, Seretan enjoys his swimming day by day.
© 2023 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
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