In 2007, the long standing club known as the Catalina Channel Swimming Federation evolved into a non-profit 501(c)(3). As a newly formed organization CCSF began providing CPR and safety training for the organizations Observers and any crew interested in supporting channel swimmers.

By 2008, CCSF was in a position to staff swims with a minimum of two Observers, created training manuals and established training criteria for those Assistant Observers seeking Senior Observer status.

In 2009, Observer training was expanded to multiple locations, Automatic Defibrillators, AED’s were provided to the two primary escort vessels and the Dottie York Scholarship Fund was established; it was funded and began granting scholarships in 2010 to qualifying candidates.

As the 2011 season is upon us, CCSF will be adding additional safety equipment to regularly used escort vessels and Kayak Training will be available in two locations. Open water marathon swimming is a high risk sport that may contain unanticipated dangers to both the swimmer and support crew. CCSF continues to strive to improve safety in open water swimming today and for the future.

Copyright © 2011 by Open Water Source