I did the Treasure Island to San Francisco swim this past Saturday.
Highly recommended!
It is put on by the YMCA.
Photos from the YMCA web site (these must have been 2005 photos):
You are all taken out on a ferry boat that you jump out of. Friends and loved ones can accompany you on the ferry boat for $20 and then watch you swim.
Notice the much smaller field of swimmers compared to most of the Alcatraz swims. There were about 250 finishers. No elbows and feet. You basically have the Bay to yourself till the very end. It is a more grassroots and affordable event. It seems to attract the hard-core, regular Bay swimmers. Nearly half of the top 20 finishers were not in wetsuits.
This would also be a great “first race” in the Bay. It is the same distance as the swim from Alcatraz (1.5 miles), but waaaaaay easier to navigate! It is slack tide (high tide) and you simply parallel the Bay Bridge the whole way. The water was flat, and we had only some minor swells nearer to the end of the race. I’m not sure if this was just good luck, or if the water is usually flatter in this section than it is from Alcatraz. The water was about 60 degrees - summer temps. It does not get colder till the beginning of November.
You guys are so awesome for doing this race! The Embarcadero YMCA is my gym, tri club, and place of work (I’m the member services director). Thanks for coming out for the swim, and thanks for your kind words and the excellent plug for the event! We raised $5000 for our community programs last year (2005), I havent heard the most recent numbers from this year yet. I was the volunteer organizer for the event. All your feedback (positive and negative) about the event is really appreciated! The day was a great day - could’ve used more sunshine though
Glad that you enjoyed it - and if you do have comments, you could send them to my email at maxell@ymcasf.org… Congrats! Marissa
-whenever I see posts about these swims, I think of the Simpsons episode where they have to escape from Alcatraz, or something like that… there’s a few comments along the lines of
Lisa: Quick! Swim to San Francisco!
Homer: What?! We’re not made of money… we’ll swim to Oakland!
Yeah…similar to the Oakland story: Back in May there was a group of knuckleheads who decided to organize their own swim. They tried to swim from Alcatraz to Treasure Island! Now, that was an incredibly stupid thing to attempt on several accounts…The very long distance, the dangerous currents around Treasure Island, and, the ummm, how about that FERRY AND TANKER TRAFFIC!
…but in a real effort to secure the Darwin Award, the group did its swim, yes, on…an EBB TIDE, predictably getting swept out in exactly the wrong direction: Towards the Golden Gate Bridge.
Coast Guard rescued them and the open water swim community got really pissed, saying that these shenanigans make it harder to get Coast Guard permission for the credibly piloted swims.
60 degrees is WARM. These people swim without a wetsuit through the winter. It gets down to maybe 47 degrees in Aquatic Park.
I go without my wetsuit for the shorter swims. It is truly nice to feel no barrier between you and the water. It feels more like the real experience. You only feel cold for the first 2 minutes and then it’s fine. At least it is for me.
It seems funny now, but that’s the exact attitude of triathletes the first 7 years I did the sport, before wetsuits. It was pretty much imparative that you were a good swimmer to be a triathlete. Cold water, big surf, choppy swims, that was all part of the adventure. Been a definate switch in todays triathlete, most can barley swim a moderately tough course, in a wetsuit…And most RD’s will cancel their swims at the first sign of any wind, rain, or chop. Too bad, but good to see the real open water swimmers still clinging on to the spirit of the sport…Thanks
60 degrees is WARM. These people swim without a wetsuit through the winter. It gets down to maybe 47 degrees in Aquatic Park.
I go without my wetsuit for the shorter swims. It is truly nice to feel no barrier between you and the water. It feels more like the real experience. You only feel cold for the first 2 minutes and then it’s fine. At least it is for me.
Might be warm for the bay, but not for the human body. Do a little google of “water hypothermia” and you’ll see…
word is that there were better and more faborable currents. Also - the finish area was much more hospitable this year with the currents. We finished at rincon park last year (by that silly cupid’s arrow) - and that was a bit of a tougher swim what with the ebb tide pushing everyone north.
Might be warm for the bay, but not for the human body. Do a little google of “water hypothermia” and you’ll see…
South End Rowing Club and Dolphin Club are really old clubs…90% without wetsuits…and you never hear stories about hypothermia. At least, no deaths from hypothermia, that I know of. And a lot of these people swim year-round, when the water gets down below 50 degrees.
However, members have been killed by speedboats in the open Bay - and have had other odd things happen, like the occasional story of being charged by sea lions.
The clubs are the first to admit that a lot of their members are a bit nutty. I have had a lot of interesting conversations in both saunas and have yet to decide which club is nuttier. Probably Dolphin Club has a narrow lead, at the moment. But I need a larger sample size.
