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The Swim 22 Team included Jen Schumacher, Michael Vovk, David Hartmire and Chris Dahowski.
It was an audacious plan devised by Dahowski. The 129.2 km four-person, four-way channel swimming relay – called a Contiguous Solo Crossing Relay – presented a logistical challenge. The four-person Contiguous Solo Crossing Relay took over 55 hours for the four teammates to attempt. The event was a charity swim for the Jay Nolan Community Services that was the subject of a documentary film produced by Nick Gismondi of NBC Universal Sports.
Each swimmer started after being tagged their teammate who cleared the water on their own Catalina Channel crossing. Wherever and whenever their teammate landed is where they began their own Catalina Channel attempt.
Hartmire, the lead-off swimmer, first crossed the Catalina Channel from the Southern California mainland to Santa Catalina Island in 11 hours 52 minutes. He tagged Vovk, the second swimmer, who was pulled after a little over 8 hours in the Catalina Channel. The support crew (observer Steven Munatones) continued to swim and finished the aborted leg in 15 hours 35 minutes. They tagged Schumacher, the third swimmer, who crossed the Catalina Channel from the Southern California mainland to Santa Catalina Island in 11 hours 5 minutes. And finally, Schumacher
Chris Dahowski, the anchor swimmer crossed the Catalina Channel from Doctor’s Cove on Santa Catalina Island to near Cabrillo Beach in 11 hours 29 minutes.
Schumacher was interviewed by Carol Sing and Steven Munatones in today’s WOWSA Live.
The conditions were extremely variable as can be seen in the conditions of Vovk on the second leg and Schumacher on the third leg in some raw footage from the October 2020 relay:
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