Tahoe Swimming History

emkhowleyemkhowley Boston, MACharter Member
edited July 2016 in General Discussion

After my Lake Tahoe crossing last week, my husband and I visited the local history museum in South Lake Tahoe and learned that Fred Rogers was the first swimmer to complete a lengthwise crossing, which he did in 19 hours, 6 minutes in 1955. The first woman and second person, Erline Christopheson Phillips, swam the length (using an unspecified 18-mile route) in 13 hours, 37 minutes on July 29, 1962. She was just 16 years old at the time. The museum has all of her gear (bathing suit, goggles, etc.) in its holdings and has a digital archive of local news coverage of her swim that they were happy to let us paw through. It was a really neat info gathering session for me that resulted in our speaking with one of the volunteers who run the museum about establishing a list of swims that the museum could curate. I offered to try to shake the marathon swimming tree for some info about historic swims of Lake Tahoe.

So if you have swum a length or width of Lake Tahoe, we want to include your swim in the museum's list. Please comment below with the date, start and finish times, route, total time, and any other information you may have including names of pilot and crew, weather and water conditions, water temp, etc. I've put my info below as an example.

Although the goal is to record every swim, I'm not sure we'll be able to do that--no doubt some are lost to history. But I'm sure we can assemble at least a partial list, and I know the museum will be thrilled to add this information to their holdings.

Thanks!
Elaine

Swimmer Name: Elaine K. Howley
Swim Date: July 5-6, 2016
Route: Camp Richardson to Hyatt-Incline (South to North lengthwise crossing, 21.5 miles)
Start Time: 8:57 p.m., July 5, 2016
Finish Time: 12:24 p.m., July 6, 2016
Total Time: 15 hours, 27 minutes
Pilot: Tom Linthicum, AKA Capt. Reptile
Crew: Mark Howley, Tiffany McQueen, John McQueen, Shannon House Keegan
Weather: Fair with a 10 to 15 mph westerly wind overnight, air temp dropping to 49 degrees F overnight and rising to 76 degrees F by mid-day
Water temp: 64 degrees F at start dropping to 60 degrees F after about an hour and rising to 66 degrees F in the last 2 miles

Stop me if you've heard this one...
A grasshopper walks into a bar...
https://elainekhowley.com/

Tagged:
IronMikeJaimierosemarymintJustSwimFlowSwimmerssusieLswimsDanSimonellidpm50[Deleted User]

Comments

  • IronMikeIronMike Northern VirginiaCharter Member

    Great effort @emkhowley! Looking forward to reading your book Wind, Waves and Sunburn part II in the future! ;)

    ssthomasmalinakaemkhowley

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

  • FlowSwimmersFlowSwimmers Polson, MontanaMember

    Don't forget to make it to Flathead Lake, @emkhowley !

  • ssthomasssthomas DenverCharter Mem​ber

    Facebook reminded me today of Craig and I's start times for our double! Most of this is off of memory- I can look up specifics and update later.

    Swimmer Names: Sarah Thomas and Craig Lenning
    Swim Date: July 18-19, 2013
    Route: Incline to Richardson to Incline
    Start Time: approximately 4 pm, July 18
    Finish Time: approximately 2:30 pm, July 19 for Sarah and about 4:30 pm, July 19 for Craig
    *I have my time listed at 22 hours and 25 minutes, with Craig right at 2 hours behind me
    *Lap one: 11 hours, 38 minutes Lap two: 10 hours, 47 minutes
    Pilot:
    Sarah: Jamie Patrick
    Craig: Jerry Walker
    Crew:
    Sarah: Becky Powell and Ryan Willis
    Craig: Jack Nuanes and May Spengler
    Weather: Fair; moderate headwind from about 5 pm to 8 pm on July 18. Flat the rest of the time.
    Water Temp: around 62-65

    I'll update this tomorrow if Facebook's "On this day" feature reminds me of more finish details. :-)

  • ssthomasssthomas DenverCharter Mem​ber

    There is this, but I'm sure you've already seen it: http://openwaterpedia.com/index.php?title=Lake_Tahoe_Swimming_Association

  • ssthomasssthomas DenverCharter Mem​ber

    Also- found note of this on here, while I was trying to refresh my swim memory:

    Darrin Conolly from the South End finished a fast solo on the 19th in great conditions

    We went by Darrin in the middle of the night our our first lap.

  • suziedodssuziedods Mem​ber

    Ok, me and my stories.. Take 47-- Dean Moser, a friend of Dave Kenyon( who was ( is?) my mentor and my pilot on both my crossings has a great database. I will make sure that his info gets to the museum.
    I swam with Fred on the master's team TAM in the early to mid eighties. I also swam with Fred on a Maui Channel relay team. Fred swam his 30 min.. in a giant circle. He could not or would not hear our pleas.

    A few weeks ago, I was getting bids on redoing the floor in my condo. Guy came by, measured, chatted bid and saw one of my postcards on my table. He asked.. " Did I swim?" ME; uh yeah.. I like to swim. GUY: Did you know Fred Rogers? ME:-- walking over to my mantle.. takes trophy Fred gave to me for my Sand Harbor crossing.. and showed guy..
    Well, evidently the guy and Fred used to shall we say "carouse" a lot together in their youth.
    Small small small world.

    gregocIronMikeDanSimonelliAnthonyMcCarley
  • emkhowleyemkhowley Boston, MACharter Member

    suziedods said:
    Ok, me and my stories.. Take 47-- Dean Moser, a friend of Dave Kenyon( who was ( is?) my mentor and my pilot on both my crossings has a great database. I will make sure that his info gets to the museum.

    Thanks, Suzie! The woman I spoke with at the Lake Tahoe Historical Society (laketahoemuseum.org) was Diane Johnson. I have an email address: laketahoemuseum@att.net and phone number: 530-541-5458.

    Stop me if you've heard this one...
    A grasshopper walks into a bar...
    https://elainekhowley.com/

  • SharkoSharko Tomales BayGuest

    I am encouraging Reptile to take control over Tahoe Marathon records and the history of Tahoe swimming since he is there and knows what's going on now. Build a website with all the stats past and present.

    IronMikesuziedodsDanSimonelli

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

  • Hi Elaine, Congrats on your swim! I am swimming the length of Tahoe with Reptile as my pilot next weekend, July 31, 2016, so hopefully I will be submitting my stats to you then. Thank you for sharing the water temperature. Very helpful. I am interested in learning more, so please email me your contact info at susielswims@gmail.com if interested in passing along some advice!

    In the meantime, I did swim the width last year. August 8th, 2015 ; Sand Harbor to Skylandia, which I think is 11.5 miles. Four hours, 53 minutes. Start time approx 5 am, finish time, approx. 9:53. Swimmer: Susie Lindstrom, Mill Valley, CA. Kayaker: Natalie Butler; Observer/Pilot: Mark Lutzker. The 2nd swimmer was Alicia Brasch, San Rafael, CA. She did the same route, same date, start time, but swam it in 5 hours and 25 minutes.

    Again, wahoo on your accomplishment. Susie

    emkhowley
  • And Asha Allen Roth and Vanessa Miller Sims swam it last year in 12 hours and 11 hrs. 45, also SERC members. I have their information if you need it, but theirs might be recorded.

  • bruckbruck San FranciscoMember

    Are there logs for these various swims? Or just, uh... scout's honor?

  • suziedodssuziedods Mem​ber

    I know I did not keep a log in 1988 or '89, didn't know enough to do so, it was such a rare thing that no one thought to cheat.
    I kept a log ( although I don't have possession of it , for Chris Greene's and will do so for Kat Filley and Mina Rhoden for whom I am crewing this Saturday. As there is no official organization ,beyond the tracker and the history at the lake, it probably is a good idea to start doing so.!

    IronMikeChrisgreeneDanSimonelli
  • DocScottDocScott Redwood City, CaliforniaMember
    edited July 2016

    Just completed on Saturday!

    Swimmer Scott Kaloust
    Date: July 21-July 22
    Route: South to North, Camp Richardson to Hyatt Incline Beach
    Total Time: 15h37minutes
    Pilot: Tom Linthicum
    observer: Dave Van Mouwerik
    Crew/Kayakers: Mike Fero, Lisa Sheeper, Jana Matena, and Makay Sheeper

    I'm waiting on observers log for details, but conditions were virtually no wind to 5mph and water temp 60-64 degrees.

    evmosuziedodsIronMikejendutgregoc
  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited July 2016

    @suziedods said: I know I did not keep a log in 1988 or '89, didn't know enough to do so, it was such a rare thing that no one thought to cheat.

    I get what you're saying, but just as a general point (and also in response to @bruck's comment): I don't think logs are about cheating (or preventing cheating). It's just good record-keeping practice.

    There's the basic premise, which I hope most of us agree with, that achievements in endurance/adventure sports should be documented. Logs are an efficient and well-proven method of documenting marathon swims.

    Logs don't prove a lack of cheating. Diana Nyad had "logs."

    And with the exception of Nyad, Darren Jaundrill, and maybe one or two unnamed others, I'd never expect cheating from a marathon swimmer anyway. It's just a ridiculous thing to do in a sport with so little money or fame at stake.

    But when the state of Lake Tahoe swim record-keeping is such that we're self-reporting our times on an internet Forum... it probably could use some tightening up. There's going to be more Tahoe swims this year than SB Channel swims, or Manhattan swims!

    It's a bummer that Jamie Patrick's "Lake Tahoe Swimming Society" dropped the ball. Now that Reptile has de-facto taken over, I'm happy to help out with a website, or organizing data, etc.

    suziedodsrlmDanSimonelli
  • suziedodssuziedods Mem​ber

    You are right, logs are not about cheating. I just didn't think to rephrase it. YES ! Please do.. organize and collate and .. document. LT is THE hot spot this year! YAY Reptile. God love him. ( who the heck is Darren Jaundrill??)

    evmo
  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited July 2016

    @suziedods said: who the heck is Darren Jaundrill??)

    Some fun reading from the Forum's early days:

    http://marathonswimmers.org/forum/discussion/359

    suziedods
  • IronMikeIronMike Northern VirginiaCharter Member

    evmo said:

    @suziedods said: who the heck is Darren Jaundrill??)

    Some fun reading from the Forum's early days:

    http://marathonswimmers.org/forum/discussion/359

    haha...that guy. Oh, the memories

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

  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member
    edited September 2016

    Along with Tom Linthicum and Simon Dominguez, I am interested in collecting and assembling facts about, and evidence of, past Lake Tahoe Swims. This has long been neglected, and it is high time that the Marathon Swim Community have this information assembled and available, in an authoritative, comprehensive manner. Dean Moser, Ken Harmon, and Tom Linthicum are providing a fair amount of information on past swims. Also, some information has been gleaned from OpenWaterPedia.

    Additionally, the Lake Tahoe Swim Society (LTSS) is being solicited for any records they have for swims between 2012 and 2015. That organization had some good intentions (http://dailynews.openwaterswimming.com/2012/02/high-and-live-on-lake-tahoe.html ) to provide guidance and oversight for Lake Tahoe swims. Yet they have been remarkably silent over the last four years, and now they have either disbanded or they have changed their mission substantially.

    If you have swum across Lake Tahoe (unassisted marathon swims only), please send in as much information about that swim as possible (see below). Or, if you know someone who has swum across the Lake, encourage them to send in information.

    1. Send information to swiminfo@laketahoemarathonswimfederation.org

    2. If you have an observer log of the swim, create a PDF or JPG of it, and email it to us

    3. Provide as much of the following information as possible:
      -Year of swim
      -Start Date
      -Full Name
      -Email
      -Phone
      -Sex
      -Age (age on swim date)
      -Country
      -Resides (in USA: city/state; outside USA: city/country)
      -Escort Boat
      -Escort Captain
      -Observer
      -Support Crew
      -Finish Date
      -Start Time (down to seconds if possible)
      -Finish Time (down to seconds if possible)
      -Duration (down to seconds if possible)
      -L vs W (length or width)
      -Direction (N/S or S/N or E/W or W/E)
      -Distance (in statute miles, down to tenth of mile)
      -Route (from/to place names; latitude/longitude of start and finish if available)
      -Notes (anything you’d like to add in the way of clarification)
      -Supporting Documentation
      (1 or 2 photos (not more than that); Link to a single video of the swim; Narrative that
      you wrote about the swim (JPG or PDF); Newspaper or magazine articles about your swim
      (JPG or PDF); URL to Blog or other online content that provides info on your swim.)
      -State the rules of the swim that you undertook; state that you abided by them (if you did!).

    It would be easiest for me if you copied the list above, and filled in the information in
    the order that it appears in the list.

    Note that you will not receive a belt buckle for providing this information.

    I expect to have a solid and comprehensive list of successful Lake Tahoe Swims by mid-November. At that time I will be emailing each person that is on the list to review and confirm the information that I have assembled. So it would be very helpful if, when you send in your swim information, that you provide your email address and phone number.

    Dave Van Mouwerik
    swiminfo@laketahoemarathonswimfederation.org
    davevm@att.net
    805-550-8028

    evmoJenAIronMikessthomasSharkoDanSimonelliAnthonyMcCarleyCathyInCA
  • DocScottDocScott Redwood City, CaliforniaMember

    Dave, thanks for helping to take on this challenge.
    I think you're familiar with my Tahoe Swim! If I recall, the observer completed a pretty detailed and very nice report!
    -Scott Kaloust

  • SharkoSharko Tomales BayGuest

    Dave...this will be very helpful as Reptile is a busy guy with his swim committments both at Lake Tahoe and at the South End...not to mention running a business.

    suziedods

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

  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member

    DocScott said:
    Dave, thanks for helping to take on this challenge.
    I think you're familiar with my Tahoe Swim! If I recall, the observer completed a pretty detailed and very nice report!
    -Scott Kaloust

    Yes, Scott! You're effort on the Lake this summer will take its place in the archive that we are constructing.

  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member

    I have been working on a master list of all swims that were successfully performed along the length of Lake Tahoe (first such swim was in 1955, and in 2016 there were six successful swims). Originally, I thought I would be assembling evidence for the width-wise crossings as well, but it turns out that it is a fairly large task just to document the length swims (at this time, I believe there have been 46 successful lengthwise crossings, but that is not an official number).

    In 2016 there were 8 length-wise attempts, resulting in 6 successes. However there were 14 width-wise swims in 2016, and I believe they were all successful. I will save the task of documenting width-wise Tahoe swims to some other, as yet unidentified, fine person.

    Of the 46 swims, I feel that I have adequately documented 23 of them. So I have 23 to go....(I'm nearly three months into this project).

    Let me take a moment to note that the extra-ordinary efforts of Tom Linthicum as escort boat owner and captain, is the sole reason that there have been so many Tahoe swims in 2015 and 2016. He has single-handedly provided a means for persons to swim Lake Tahoe. He has provided the services of a de facto Tahoe organization, after the Lake Tahoe Swimming Society shuttered its doors.

    I believe there are at least 4 lengthwise crossings planned for 2017, and likely several more will show themselves.

    Here's a call out for some help: I need to locate some solid contact information for Clark Bird. Clark swam the length of the lake in August of 2010. He may be from Merced, CA. If someone has his email address and his cellphone number, and could possibly provide me an introduction via email, I would really appreciate it.

    Also, in my treasure hunting, I was fortunate to make contact with Leonore Modell (there is a forum thread about her). She happens to live in Los Osos, CA, about a dozen miles from where I live in San Luis Obispo, CA.
    Leonore swam the length of Tahoe in 1963 (at the age of 13), went on to cross the English Channel in 1964 (and held the record for youngest crosser of EC for approximately 10 years). She then made a couple of hardcore attempts at the Farallon Islands in maybe 1965. She also is said to have swum a 66 mile swim in Lake Natoma, CA (near Sacramento).

    Here's the kind of stories Leonore told me: She had two rowboats for support on her Tahoe swim. They'd been rented down in Sacramento and trailered up to the Lake. They each had a 5 HP outboard motor on the back of them. In order to reduce the speed of the boats (so they would not have to be constantly shifting between FWD and NEUTRAL), they tied a bucket off of the back of the boats, to act as a sort of a sea anchor.

    One of the boats had a gas stove in it, to heat up soup for her.
    [I did a 6 man relay this summer involving a couple of the CA Channel Islands; we had a galley that was constantly pumping out food. I was forced into decisions like "Hmmm....should I have one more pork chop before I swim for an hour, or shall I wait until afterward....."]

    I will keep this thread occasionally updated, so that there is some ongoing status update on this project for anyone that is interested.
    Note that you can email information to the following address (like if you have interest in swimming Tahoe in 2017, or if you can get me Clark Bird's email address): davevm@att.net.
    (Note the email address mentioned earlier in this thread--swiminfo@laketahoemarathonswimfederation.org -- is not working right now, so please use my personal email address, and cc the other address.)

    END

    evmoDanSimonelliFlowSwimmersdc_in_sfKarl_Kingerybluemermaid9
  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin

    @VanMou said:
    Here's a call out for some help: I need to locate some solid contact information for Clark Bird. Clark swam the length of the lake in August of 2010. He may be from Merced, CA. If someone has his email address and his cellphone number, and could possibly provide me an introduction via email, I would really appreciate it.

    Hey Dave - not sure if you've seen this article in the Merced Sun-Star about Clark Bird's Tahoe swim in 2010:

    http://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/state/article3254764.html

    One passage in particular seems relevant:

    Danville's Ken Harmon, a familiar name in Lake Tahoe lore, is attempting to become the first person to accomplish a roundtrip swim without wetsuit -- 44.2 miles in all.

    Harmon is one of the four to have completed the 22.1-mile swim and has become a motivating force in Bird's pursuit.

    The two became fast friends on the Northern California open-water swimming circuit and regularly trade tips and news through e-mails and phone calls. Harmon's confidence, Bird says, is infectious.

    I think you know Ken Harmon -- seems like he might have Clark's email & phone.

    DanSimonelli
  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member

    Thanks Evan, I had seen another article in the Merced Sun-Star, but not this one. I've reached out to Ken H for Clark's contact information.

    As I go through various source documents for the swims (logs, blogs, newspaper articles, etc) there is much incorrect information for many of the swims. For instance, the two Merced Sun-Star articles report Clark as being the 5th person to swim the length of Tahoe based on "non-wetsuit" rules. At this stage of my project he is in fact the 7th person to have swum this specific route (between Hyatt Beach and Incline Village). And he is the 18th person to have swum any of the various "lengthwise" swim routes that have been documented since 1955.

    I will eventually be documenting all the routes that were performed prior to the established Hyatt Beach / Camp Richardson route (which is likely to be identified as 21.25 statute miles). Often, in those earlier swims, start or end locations included places like King's Beach, Pope's Beach, Tahoe Keys Marina, Regan Beach, Baldwin Beach, and Bijou. Virtually all of these were still essentially the distance of the Hyatt/Richardson route (within .75 miles of that distance.)

    A couple of the swims were appreciably shorter--they involved Dollar Point as either a start point or an end point, which resulted in swim distances less than 18 miles reported in one case, and less than 17 miles reported in another case.

    I have had a spate of swim documentation completions in the last 2 weeks. Currently 30 have been documented, and there are 17 left to complete.

    I believe that all successful crossers, except for one or two, are still alive.
    The hunt for evidence continues.....

    evmoDanSimonellisuziedods
  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member

    (Also, note that since my 12/4 post in this thread, the working number of likely successful swims climbed from 46 to 47. That would be the Mary Staples swim (she is from Georgia), in 2015.)

    DanSimonelli
  • @VanMou , I am one of those 'appreciably shorter" swimmers! If you need any details from me or my crew let me know. It was so long ago, I have forgotten alot and i don't believe there was an actual log.

    DanSimonelli
  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member

    @suziedods, thanks for reaching out; I will message you to get more information about your 1989 swim.

  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member

    @jendut, thanks for reaching out, I have messaged you requesting further information.

  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member
    edited July 2018

    Here is the first draft of an authoritative set of records of lengthwise swims across Lake Tahoe.

    Explanation of the attached file:
    1. Age denotes age on date of swim
    2. Times are local (Pacific time zone), and are in military format
    3. Typically swim records did not have seconds recorded for Start/Finish time. So in those instances I recorded “xx” for seconds.
    4. Some swims did not have Start/Finish times in seconds, yet the Duration shows seconds. This is because in several swims the Duration was recorded by a stop watch, but the Start/Finish times were only denoted in hours/minutes.
    5. Nearly all swims were from South to North; three were from North to South.

    I have investigated these swims extensively. I was able to draw upon records (skeletal, but well-researched) originally developed by Dean Moser and Ken Harmon. For every swim, I had meaningful back-and-forth emails with the swimmer, and often I spoke with them (at least once) by phone.

    I have assembled various files as evidence for each swim.
    The type of evidence varied with each swim, but each swim potentially included such evidence as blog or newspaper article(s), GPS track, observer log, photos, videos, screen captures of Track.RS maps and Track.RS stats, reference to MSF DOCUMENTED SWIM content, PDFs of email exchanges, PDFs of notes I wrote after having conversations with the swimmer or the escort boat pilot, and PDFs of responses from swimmers in which they answered questions to a ~20 question survey I provided them.

    I am fairly confident that these 37 swims were performed in accordance with “traditional, unassisted” swim performances.
    Every observer (or when no observer, then the swimmer or the escort boat pilot) was called on to note in a log or an email or a phone call any of these remarks:
    *Swimmer abided by MSF rules
    *Swimmer abided by SBCSA Rules
    *Swimmer abided by EC Rules
    *Swimmer abided by CCSF Rules

    I also used this description of an acceptable set of swim rules:
    *No insulation/propulsion devices
    *Dry land to dry land
    *No intentional supporting contact by swimmer with boat, kayaker, or another swimmer

    I still have 13 swims that I am investigating.
    I am in various stages of assembling information for those swims, so that I can vet them, and add them to the official list of swim successes. I fully expect at least 11 of these to be authenticated and included in the final list; I’m just working to establish meaningful contact with the swimmers.

    These days, the generally accepted lengthwise swim route is between Camp Richardson (west of South Lake Tahoe, CA; immediately to the east of the Camp Richardson dock), and the Hyatt Beach in Incline Village, NV (in front of the kayak rentals).
    This route was first swum in 2003 by Laura Collette (I am still authenticating this swim….). In 2006, Ken Harmon swam this route, and prior to his swim he researched historical swims, and put forth the case that the generally accepted lengthwise route should include Hyatt Beach and Camp Richardson as the endpoints of the swim. That route was cemented as the official route in 2009; since 2009, no other lengthwise route has been swum (as far as I know). [So, for instance, when I swam the length of Tahoe in 2011, I did not have to do much research to figure out what the generally accepted lengthwise route was.]

    Between 1955 and 2008, many other routes were performed, and were noted to be “lengthwise” swims.
    Endpoints for these swims included such locations as Tahoe Keys Marina, King City, Pope’s Beach, Dollar Point, Baldwin Beach, and El Dorado Beach. Over the next 3 months I will be developing a history of the swim routes and some of the pioneering swims, and will develop maps (including latitude/longitude coordinates for various swim endpoints) to depict the historic swims. Also, I hope to go into more depth in describing some
    of the early swims, most notably Leonore Model’s swim in 1963, which she accomplished at the age of 13. I’d also like to identify how the current route came to be, and discover if it is defensible to call this the official lengthwise route.

    I have not included Fred Rogers in this list of successes yet; I am still fact finding.
    He is likely the first person to have swum the length of the lake. He performed this in 1955; it took him 19 hrs, 6 minutes, and 6 seconds to accomplish this. He went from North to South (Kings Beach to “Bijou”). Fred is deceased, and I am seeking more information about his swim. If anyone can provide further information about his pioneering swim, please get in touch with me.

    Also, if anyone has additional information about these or other swims, please get in touch with me.
    Dave VM (davevm@att.net or 805-550-7271)

    evmoDanSimonellirlmAnthonyMcCarleyIronMike
  • DanSimonelliDanSimonelli San Diego CASenior Member

    Great work Dave @VanMou
    \m/

  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member

    [ Correction: In previous post I noted Ken Harmon's swim as being in 2006; it was in fact in 2005]

  • JustSwimJustSwim Senior Member

    Just in case you haven't seen this article.
    http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/sports/first-person-to-swim-length-of-lake-tahoe-reflects-back-on-1955-feat/
    Fun comments about his Fred Rogers' rival, Jose Cortinas.

    DanSimonelli
  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member

    Thanks for that link, @JustSwim. It's part of the Tahoe archive now.

    DanSimonelli
  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited January 2017

    That article posted by @JustSwim was discussed a few years ago in the context of the Farallon swim. Fred Rogers' claim in that article to have "become the first person to swim 29 1/2 miles from the Farallon Island to the mainland" seems likely to be... untrue. Not sure if/how that shades our interpretation of his Tahoe swim. Or maybe the reporter misunderstood somehow.

    In any case, here's an original newspaper article about Rogers' Tahoe swim from Aug 31, 1955:

    https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1243&dat=19550831&id=1GxYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CvgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5030,5472704

    JustSwimDanSimonelli
  • I knew Fred personally,swam w him on a Maui channel relay( he spent his 30 min swimming in a circle as I remember) I have a statue he gave me when I finished the Tahoe width and I met one of his drinking buddies this past summer.
    He was , a character, a 'lover of living life to the fullest ', an upbringing that would kill most of us and had a smile on his face every time I saw him. I'll bring the statue to the 24 Hr & see if I can reach his friend again.

    evmossthomasDanSimonelligregoc
  • JustSwimJustSwim Senior Member

    Is there anything on the Fred Hertlen attempt to swim the width underwater? Certainly sounds like a crackpot idea.

  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member
    edited July 2018

    Here is the second draft of the authoritative set of records of lengthwise swims across Lake Tahoe.

    I was able to add Sarah Thomas' double crossing of the lake in 2013. This counted as two one way crossings, reflected in the attachment. Separately, I am tracking this event as the first double crossing of Lake Tahoe.
    I also added Stephanie Curtis, who successfully swam the length in 2015.

    I am also locking in on Craig Lenning's double crossing in 2013, performed (mostly) in tandem with Sarah's swim. Once I've finalized Craig's records, his performance will also be recorded in the records.

    For an explanation of the spreadsheet linked above, see a previous post in this thread on January 13.

    So now there are 40 confirmed and documented crossings, with more to come.

    suziedodsAnthonyMcCarleyssthomasevmoDanSimonelli
  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited January 2017

    Document your swims, people!

    Someday, it will become a "thing." Someday, someone will make a list... and, do you want to be on it?

    Please, document your swims! :)

    MpolVanMouAnthonyMcCarleyrlmssthomasDanSimonelliIronMikephodgeszoho
  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member
    edited July 2018

    Here is Draft 3 of the solo one way crossings of lengthwise swims across Lake Tahoe.

    I was able to add Ernie Hoftyzer's 2013 crossing.
    Also added were Craig Lenning's 2 lengths in 2013, which were the individual legs of his double crossing. This brings the total number of single solo crossings to 43.

    And here is Draft 1 of relay and/or double crossings.
    This includes both Sarah T and Craig L double (solo) crossings in 2013. It also includes a relay (a double crossing) performed in 2014 by a trio: Craig Lenning, Jack Nuanes, and Annie Apple (Coloradans all).
    Also recorded here are the two single crossings of this threesome, which were the components of their 2014 double crossing.

    For an explanation of the spreadsheets linked above, see a previous post in this thread on January 13.

    Still more swims to get vetted -- potentially 10 more.

    IronMikeevmoDanSimonelliAnthonyMcCarleythelittlemerwookieKarl_Kingeryssthomas
  • DanSimonelliDanSimonelli San Diego CASenior Member
    edited February 2017

    =D>
    Great work Dave @VanMou

  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member

    The oldest person that has successfully swum the length of Lake Tahoe is Geoff Butler. When he completed the swim on 8/10/2016, he was 60 yrs and 136 days old.
    Geoff was born on 3/27/1956.

    Congratulations Geoff!

    evmoDanSimonelliIronMikessthomasReptile
  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member
    edited September 2017

    Here's an update on Lake Tahoe swims...

    Lisa (my wife) and I just spent a week in South Lake Tahoe, and I was able to observe two swims with Tom Linthicum on Ghost Rider, and also I put down a Viking Swim for myself. This swim was pioneered by Tom Linthicum, and is a succinct 10.5 mile swim between two natural endpoints (Cave Rock Boat Ramp next to Cave Rock, and Vikingsholm at the west end of Emerald Bay).

    As most of you are probably aware, this year's Lake Tahoe Swims are being announced on another forum thread, namely http://marathonswimmers.org/forum/discussion/1582/lake-tahoe-swims-2017#latest.

    The final lengthwise swim this year will be on October 5. Once it has been completed, I will update the lengthwise swim success list with the 2017 swims, as well as with a swim I just learned about by James Jonsson in 2015 (Thanks to Elaine Howley). Additionally, there are still a few "holdouts" (6 of them) that I am quite certain have swum the length of Lake Tahoe, but they have been difficult to reach. I have made repeated attempts to reach these folks, but have not had successful and meaningful contact with them, in order for me to feel that I have adequate evidence of their swims. Again, I am quite certain these 6 people have performed the swim, but I want every swim to be vetted to the same standards, and so until I have gathered satisfactory evidence of their swims, I am not going to include their names in the list of swim successes. I hope to get these swims added to the list this coming winter.

    Also I saw some traffic on Facebook about six weeks ago (on Tom Linthicum's page), that noted that the list I have published (see Feb 24 entry of this thread) was missing some names. This is true! and the explanation for why they are missing is what I stated above--I need to have meaningful contact with all swimmers before I put them on the list. (In fact I developed a "self-certification survey" which has been instrumental in gathering evidence of the lengthwise Tahoe swims--that survey can be found in a September posting of this thread.)

    Also, note that the Openwaterpedia site has an unofficial listing of 27 length-of-Tahoe swims. I reviewed each entry (http://openwaterpedia.com/index.php?title=Lake_Tahoe#Open_Water_Swimming ) on that page, and corroborated them with the evidence that I gathered (through personal emails and phone conversations with swimmers, boat captains, observers and crew chiefs; and through many conversations with the historic "stewards", namely Dean Moser, Ken Harmon, Dave Kenyon, and Tom Linthicum).

    I was not happy with the information on the Openwaterpedia page for a few reasons:

    1) It is simply a list...a list with no available backup evidence such as...logs, photos, movies, GPS and/or SPOT track coordinates, newspaper articles, personal reports, statement of the rules that were abided by, etc.

    2) The entry for Cliff Crozier had no indication of date or elapsed time associated with it. This fact caused me to look very carefully at every single entry in the Openwaterpedia list. By doing this, I was able to uncover evidence that was inconsistent with a couple of these noted swims.

    3) Erline Christopherson's 16.76 mile swim in 1962 was included as a lengthwise swim in the Openwaterpedia list. I am not convinced that this swim should be included as a bonified "length of Tahoe" swim. I understand there is a need to "grandfather" certain swims in to the lengthwise swims list, because everyone was doing things a little bit differently. But...16.76 miles is about 4.5 miles shorter than the generally accepted lengthwise route. Erline's swim deserves great applause---I have read about her accomplishment as chronicled at the South Lake Tahoe Historical Society Museum--but I am not convinced her swim qualifies as a lengthwise swim.

    4) The last swim recorded on this site was in August of 2012. After that, the Openwaterpedia list remained untouched. (Note that between 2012 and 2014/2015, there was an organization called the Lake Tahoe Swim Society (LTSS) that was overseeing swims on Lake Tahoe. In all my research and conversations, I was never able to get a single document or file or log of any sort from the LTSS. I spoke with a few swimmers that swam "under" the LTSS, and none of them had an observer log that was written up by this organization. I am of the opinion that either no logs were kept during these swims, or there were logs written, but they have been lost (no swimmer was able to produce a log for me from the LTSS). [If someone can tell me otherwise, and hopefully can produce some of the logs from the LTSS era, I would greatly welcome that!]

    5) I have looked at a lot of pages of Openwaterpedia, and much of it is uncurated. It can often be redundant, voluminous, disorganized...in short, Openwaterpedia does not seem to be a good "venue" for capturing and maintaining swim records for a specific body of water.

    Also, this winter I will be assembling a list of successful Viking Swims. Observer logs have been kept for every Viking Swim this year, so it will be easy to turn that into a list of successes. Also, I believe that Tom Linthicum is the only person to have piloted a Viking Swim, so I will have a "one stop shop" to get information for Viking swims in 2016 and 2015.

    I was very encouraged by the announcement by Evan Morrison of the California Triple Crown earlier this year. We have had 2 persons join the ranks of this grouping during this year, and it is likely that a third person will join later this fall.

    END

    evmoKarl_KingeryJustSwimsuziedodsIronMike
  • IronMikeIronMike Northern VirginiaCharter Member

    I am so glad to read this, @VanMou. Years ago I had contacted the LTSS trying to get info on swimming lengthwise, but never got answers. Glad to see you're here.

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

  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited September 2017

    @VanMou said:
    there was an organization called the Lake Tahoe Swim Society (LTSS) that was overseeing swims on Lake Tahoe. In all my research and conversations, I was never able to get a single document or file or log of any sort from the LTSS. I spoke with a few swimmers that swam "under" the LTSS, and none of them had an observer log that was written up by this organization.

    @IronMike said:
    Years ago I had contacted the LTSS trying to get info on swimming lengthwise, but never got answers.

    I'm actually glad, in an ironic way, for the brief LTSS episode in Tahoe swimming history. Through their utter failure to follow through on their promises, they highlighted the value that well-run sanctioning organizations can provide, and the significant work (almost all volunteer) that goes into running them.

    Teaching by negative example.

    IronMikesuziedodsJustSwim
  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member
    edited May 2019

    LENGTH TAHOE SWIMS
    2017 was a busy year for marathon swimming in Lake Tahoe. The swimming season stretched from July to October. There was concern that the heavy, drought-mitigating snows of the 2016/2017 winter would make for extra cold water temperatures in Lake Tahoe, extending well into and possibly through, the swim season. It turned out differently—water temperatures during the first swim on July 2 held steadily across the lake between 63 and 67 degrees. Water temperatures got as high as 70 degrees later in the summer.

    This year there were 9 successful solo lengthwise swims (6 women and 3 men, ranging in age from 24 to 60).

    Also, a solo lengthwise swimmer contacted us and submitted documentation from his 2015 swim, and we were able to review his information, and add him to the overall list of successful lengthwise swimmers. His name is James Jonsson; he resides in South Jordan, UT, and he swam the length when he was 53 years old.

    These successful solo swims have been added to the overall list of solo, lengthwise successes, and can be found here:

    This brings the total number of documented lengthwise solo swims to 53!

    [And note, as previously stated… “there are still a few ‘holdouts’ (8 of them) that we are quite certain have swum the length of Lake Tahoe, but they have been difficult to reach. We want every swim to be vetted to the same standards, and so until we have gathered satisfactory evidence of their swims, we are not going to include their names in the list of swim successes….”]

    We will pursue these 8 persons this winter, and hopefully get their achievements added to the overall list of successful solo lengthwise Tahoe crossings. So, look for another update to this list by the end of December 2017.

    Note also that the CA Triple Crown membership is growing. This year we were able to add three more swimmers to the list (Amy Gubser, Marcia Cleveland, and Ryan Utsumi). You can read about the California Triple Crown here: http://evan.marathonswimmers.org/california-triple-crown/

    There was also a successful lengthwise relay performed by the Machine Men. See this document for the complete records for relays and for double crossings.

    VIKING TAHOE SWIMS
    This year there were many (12 or so?) successful Viking Swims. These records have not been assembled yet; look for them on this thread later this year.

    THREE ICONIC SWIMS - TAHOE TRIPLE CROWN
    See the (below) depiction of the three Tahoe routes: the LENGTH (blue) the VIKING (green), and the WIDTH (orange). Note that the thin, vertical line represents the state line between California and Nevada, so each of the three swim routes cross state lines.
    We fully expect these three routes to be the globally known, iconic swim routes on Lake Tahoe for many years to come.
    3 routes

    END

    evmoKatieBunthelittlemerwookiesuziedodsJustSwimReptile
  • ReptileReptile Lake TahoeMember
    edited October 2017

    15 Swimmers successfully swam the 10.5 mile Viking swim this year. Alice Ma swam the first reverse from Vikingsholm Emerald Bay to Cave Rock. Check laketahoemarathonswimfederation.org website for more information. Its been a pleasure helping so many swimmers achieve their goals this year! If you are interested in helping crew a Tahoe swim next year please let me know. We could always use more support on the water.

    swimrn62IronMikeCathyInCA

    Best Regards,

    Tom Linthicum
    Lake Tahoe Marathon Swim Federation
    925-787-8291

  • VanMouVanMou San Luis Obispo, CASenior Member
    edited July 2018

    The Viking Swim records are being assembled. There are two 2017 swims and two 2016 swims noted so far. The remaining (13) 2017 swims will be added in November.

    CathyInCA
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