Dave Van Mouwerik - swim across Estero Bay, California

evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
edited February 2016 in Cheering Section

Dave Van Mouwerik is undertaking a very interesting 14.4-statute mile swim across the full width of Estero Bay in Central California. This is a quiet and unsung part of the California coast, just north of @AquaRob's former swim spot in Avila Beach. A place that sees some surfing and paddling, but very little open water swimming. We are not aware of any previous marathon swims in Estero Bay.

This will be an MSF Documented Swim, and I will be observing/documenting.

For more information about Dave's swim, see here:

https://esterobayswim.wordpress.com

The swim is scheduled to begin around 6am Pacific time, Sunday August 16. His SPOT tracker is here:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=02ISq7KIPZWTiWZouB80W7MomdWMbCtPb

Morro_Bay,_CA,_jjron_23.03.2012

Tagged:
MvGIronMikeloneswimmertortuga

Comments

  • IronMikeIronMike Northern VirginiaCharter Member

    Go Dave!

    We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams

  • ttriventtriven Senior Member

    Beautiful day for it! Looks like he is doing great. Go Dave!

  • SharkoSharko Tomales BayGuest
    edited August 2015

    Looks like he is landing at my old surfing spot at Hazard Canyon....Nice swim!!! Two Fins Up!!!

    "I never met a shark I didn't like"

  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin

    Sharko said:
    Looks like he is landing at my old surfing spot at Hazard Canyon....Nice swim!!!

    Close! We landed at Spooner's Cove, just down the coast from Hazards.

    Dave was successful in completing this unprecedented crossing; final time of 8 hours, 18 minutes, 24 seconds. He had excellent conditions (for this region) and an average sea temp of 60F.

    Screen Shot 2015-08-16 at 10.28.59 PM

    Additional details forthcoming...

    loneswimmerJustSwimIronMikeAnthonyMcCarley
  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited August 2015

    Some local news coverage of Dave's swim:

    http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2015/08/16/3765293_man-swims-across-estero-bay.html?rh=1

    http://www.ksby.com/clip/11769313/man-swims-estero-bay-for-first-time

    h/t @AquaRob

    IronMikesuziedods
  • suziedodssuziedods Mem​ber

    This is fabulous! Looks fun and doable.. uhmmm ..'wildlife'??
    Apprx cost for the boat?

    evmo
  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited August 2015

    uhmmm ..'wildlife'??

    Definitely :) But no different than what you'd expect, for example, on a Monterey Bay swim. We had a humpback whale spout and breach twice within a 100 yds of us. Dozens of porpoises, including a pair who swam within feet of Dave. A few harbor seals here and there. No elephant seal rookeries anywhere nearby, which is good.

    Apprx cost for the boat?

    Dave found a great boat and pilot based in Morro Bay, the Bonnie Marietta. The captain/owner was very professional, curious and respectful about open water swimming, and he figured out the art of escorting a swimmer within about 30 seconds. I'm hesitant to post a price quote publicly, but it was very reasonable. I wish he was closer to SB/Ventura, otherwise I'd get him to escort all our SBCSA swims!

    suziedodsIronMikeloneswimmerDanSimonelli
  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member
    edited August 2015

    suziedods said:

    uhmmm ..'wildlife'??

    I timed this swim exquisitely.

    http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2015/08/29/3783230_surfer-unhurt-after-shark-attack.html?rh=1


    surfboard

    evmoAquaRobDanSimonelli
  • AquaRobAquaRob Humboldt Bay, CACharter Member

    I "found" a better picture of the incident...

    DVM-Nope

    evmoDanSimonelli
  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin

    Here is the final documentation for Dave's swim across Estero Bay:

    http://marathonswimmers.org/swims/2015/van-mouwerik-estero-bay

    Enjoy -- for those of you who enjoy this sort of thing :)

    DanSimonellisuziedodsAnthonyMcCarleyIronMike
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