Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

When Stewart Evans became the first individual to swim from the Farallon Islands to the California mainland in 1967, he wore a swim cap as others have done before and after him.

But looking back at historical photos of that cap, it appears to be a neoprene cap that would be outlawed for contemporary marathon and channel swims.

Upon further investigation, the swim cap turns out not to be made of neoprene, but a simple canvas swim cap painted orange for visibility as part of his safety protocols.

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