Skimming the surface isn’t typically how Jessi Harewicz does things. Even when she’s swimming across the Strait of Georgia as the third woman to ever complete the 30-kilimetre open water crossing, the 33-year-old is immersed in an autodidact’s quest to learn, explore and constantly improve.
She learned about the sport — which defies wetsuits — by reading about the men and women who endure 12-degree water, stinging jelly fish and nausea at sea for the little-heralded pursuit of solitude and endurance in exchange for a vast playground of ocean, underwater vistas and playful seals.
Harewicz calls these adventurers “her people” and takes note when they share what they’ve learned because they got there the hard way.
“We do this to say this is a sport that can be done,” she said Monday after a successful crossing from Sechelt to Nanoose Bay north of Nanaimo. Her swim on June 25 took 11 hours and 20 minutes.
“In B.C., we’ve got what we need. We don’t even have sharks. I see the seals and they hang out with me now.”
Her father, Richard accompanied her on the crossing and paddles along in a kayak when she trains for more than two consecutive hours in Howe Sound or Indian Arm. She has swum around Bowen Island in under five hours, meaning her training that day continued along the shoreline because she needed to log a minimum amount of time in the water. She supplements open water sessions with lap swimming at the Aquatic Centre.
On a long-distance swim, she tries to consume 300 calories an hour, with less than half coming from solid food. She eats energy gels and is experimenting with everything from peaches to peanut butter and jam sandwiches. She also drinks warm liquid to regulate her core temperature. The nutrients are packed onboard her father’s kayak, which she isn’t allowed to hang on to for support at any time.
Forgoing the ferry to swim to Vancouver Island was a test for legendary European venture, one she jokes “is the most expensive way to travel from England to France.” Harewicz is registered to swim the English Channel next summer, depending on the weather at some point between July 26 and August 4. The distance, as measured in a straight line, is 32 kilometres but currents, tides and tanker traffic can alter the course. Harewicz hopes to swim it in 14 hours.
“It’s colder and longer and more miserable,” she said, comparing the Channel to the Strait. “But I love swimming in the clouds! My body reacts so much better than to sunshine.”
She can tolerate water temperature as low as 12-degrees Celsius and in warmer water tends to overheat if she wears more than her typical swim cap and one-piece lululemon bathing suit.
She last wore her wetsuit for the Bay Challenge across English Bay last July, hosted by the Vancouver Open Water Swimming Association. She swam an 11-kilomere route from the North Shore to Kitsilano Beach and when she reached the sand, unzipped the neoprene suit and hasn’t put it back on since.
“I finished the swim and ran back into the water to get wetsuit off because i was really hot,” she said. “My mother though I was swimming back to North Vancouver.”
She just might.
@MHStewart
