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Where The Crazy People Swim By Steve Walker


Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

Steve Walker released a book on marathon swimming, Where The Crazy People Swim: Outrageous goals, failure, and success.

“The book took about a year to write, although most of the writing was done a week here and there, with a big push over the last few weeks,” recalled the 4-time Oceans Seven swimmer (English Channel, Strait of Gibraltar, Catalina Channel, North Channel).

The book is about setting outrageous goals and failing a lot on the way to success.”

The entrepreneur from San Francisco explained how he went about writing the book. “Part of it was just keeping track for myself. When I realized I had enough for a book, I thought it would be a good way to raise some money.

The hard part was bringing it together and making it cohesive and interesting, rather than just a journal.

I hope I accomplished that. Going from writing articles and stories to a book, it is a lot harder to keep a thread consistent and interesting from beginning to end — it really takes a lot of effort. Hopefully it is an easy read.”

Amazon describes the book as follows, “Failure is a possible outcome in every swim, for every swimmer.

Why would anyone take on something like the English Channel or the Irish Sea or any of the Oceans Seven? What drives a person to attempt to do something that they are very likely to fail at, and possibly even die attempting?

Where Do the Crazy People Swim? lays bare the mind of a swimmer where he honestly and candidly describes his fears, his motivations, and his ultimate goal—not just in swimming, but in life. While covered by a veneer of swimming and honesty about failure both in the water and out, this book is really about setting outrageous goals, and the definition of success.”

All profits from Where Do the Crazy People Swim are donated to Zanmi Lakay, an organization that helps street kids in Haiti, including providing kids with scholarships to schools, meals, computer and photography classes using gently used computers and cameras, and help in setting up businesses. The organization relies entirely on donations with 100% of donated funds go to helping the children.

Cover photo shows Walker about halfway across the North Channel between Scotland and Northern Ireland that he crossed in August 2016 in 11 hours 19 minutes in 54°F (12°C) water.


Copyright © 2016 by World Open Water Swimming Association

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