Open Water Source interviewed six incredibly humble men – good friends all – who used the all-encompassing power of positive thinking to swim 202 statute miles from Ventura to Santa Barbara to La Jolla, California over a 4-day period in water that ranged from 54°F (12.1°C) to 61°F (16.1°C).
“The six of us together, we were really strong as a group,” said lead-off man Jim McConica.
“It was pretty amazing. We had talked about it as a group ahead of time. We would not allow any negativity among the group during the entire swim. There is so much negativity in the world today and [negative] things going on around us during the swim. But we never ever broke down. I never had any doubts we would make the swim. It is an emotional thing – all of us [Mike Shaffer, Jim McConica, Kurt Baron, Tom Ball, John Chung, and Jim Neitz] together.”
Jim Martin and Scott Stankey beautifully captured that cohesiveness and positive spirit in their camerawork of the Ventura Deep Six:
The Ventura Deep Six team will appear in an upcoming Open Water Source interview in March.
Copyright © 2011 by Open Water Source