WE ATTEMPTED THE DEADLY SWIM (Alcatraz to San Francisco)

What scares you more than anything in the world? Heights, public speaking. Spiders. Snakes. According to the Internet, these are some of the most common phobias. A phobia is defined as an extreme or irrational fear or aversion to something. Since I was a kid, swimming in deep, dark, murky water and having no clue what was swimming around me has been my biggest phobia. So today, I am facing my biggest fear and undertaking one of the hardest physical challenges of my entire life as Kara and I attempt to swim one and a half miles in cold open water from the infamous Alcatraz prison to the shores of San Francisco.

It's cold.

Wish us luck.

Why?

Why are we doing this? Whatever possessed me to think that this was a good idea? Those are the questions that I've been asking myself over and over again as this swim gets closer. And I've had to remind myself why I signed this up.

Wondering the same.

I actually have the email pulled up that sparked this entire idea. But before I read it, let me give you some context. So last year we set ourselves up for some physical challenges, like riding a tandem bike 450 miles across Iowa. Hey, Daddy. Climbing the vertical elevation of Mount Everest without sleeping and running my first marathon. So I guess that's what inspired this lady named Sarah to send this very simple email. It says, I have a feeling you may like this adventure. I can put you in touch with someone to organize a swimming Alcatraz to San Francisco, if you guys are interested. That was the first time I had ever heard of anything like this. I didn't know that people swam from Alcatraz to San Francisco. And my immediate reaction was to silently say to myself in my head, you could not pay me a million dollars to swim in those shark infested waters.

Heck no. I didn't say it silently.

But the more I thought about it, the more I started to get this sick feeling in my stomach because I knew that it was something that I needed to do to face an irrational fear head on. And for some reason, Kara agreed to do it with me.

I have no idea how you got me to agree with this.

So neither one of us are really looking forward to it. But I think we both know deep down that tomorrow morning we are going to come out of the water better people than we entered it. And it's that feeling and that personal growth that we're chasing to become better versions of ourselves. But sometimes it requires doing really uncomfortable things. So this morning I've been doing research online to prove to myself logically that we aren't in any real danger. According to the Australian Institute of Marine science, every year, 10 people are killed from shark attacks, but 150 people are killed by falling coconuts. So the chances of us getting eaten by a shark when swimming in the San Francisco Bay is pretty much zero. We were actually 15 times more likely to die from a falling coconut on the island in Panama. That actually did almost happen.

Oh, my goodness. We almost died.

Oh.

If I'm being completely honest, I didn't sleep good last night, and I feel kind of nauseous today. You ready?

We had a whole day in San Francisco before waking up at sunrise to attempt the swim. So we thought we'd go out and lay eyes on Alcatraz for the first time. For some reason. For some reason, we thought seeing the root leave be swimming might help calm our nerves a little bit.

This is the beach, and we're supposed to be finishing our swim on tomorrow. We're trying to visualize success. That little dot out there, that's Alcatraz.

I'm really scared. I can't decide if being here is making me feel better or worse. Since tomorrow's swim was inspired by prisoners who tried to escape Alcatraz, we hopped on a ferry to go see the infamous island for ourselves.

And if it looks warm out here because it's sunny, it's not. Mark Twain once said, the coldest winter I ever experienced was the summer I spent in San Francisco.

What used to be home to hundreds of America's most dangerous criminals has now been turned into a museum, visited by over a million tourists per year. The prison was closed in 1963, but it eerily feels like the last prisoner could have left just yesterday. I've never been in a prison before, have you?

No.

It feels surreal. After watching the movie Escape from Alcatraz looks just like it.

I started digging, so keep an eye out for the bulls. They probably filmed here.

They probably did film here.

We're learning about the prison. There's a audio tour in the bag.

This is the cell that they escaped from.

Three guys escaped in 1962, and they still don't know whether they lived or died.

Even though Alcatraz's history is fascinating, most of the stories about this place went in one year and out the other. All we could think about was the swim. But one thing was obvious. This would have been a miserable place to be locked up. And we could see why people would be willing to risk their lives swimming the bay for a chance at freedom.

For some reason, the swim feels way more intimidating from over here on the island than it did when we were standing over on the beach. I think I was visualizing being finished when we were over at the beach. And I'm visualizing having to start the swim here.

Okay.

This guy did an Iron man in Antarctica, so makes Alcatraz look easy.

Do you think anyone who has never worn a swim cap has attempted to swim Alcatraz before? Do you put your ears in or out? Probably out.

Surely in.

No, I think you put them out. No. Is that how you're supposed to wear this?

This is terribly uncomfortable.

Is that how it works?

So here's what we've got for tomorrow morning. A wetsuit, neoprene socks, body glide goggles, swim cap, and earplugs. That is everything that we'll be wearing on our body when we're in the water. We've never worn any of this before.

I asked people on Instagram for advice since we have no idea what we're doing, and I feel like we've gotten some really good stuff. I like this one. It's okay to pee in your suit. It will keep you warm. I'm totally peeing in my wetsuit. Smother yourself in Vaseline. That's a popular one. Be careful. They never found those escaped prisoners. Ah. This person says, keep your swim cap over your ears. When taking a breath, use crocodile eyes.

We're also. We're watching swimming videos. This is how you know you're unprepared at this point.

No amount of messages that I can read is gonna really change the outcome of this. Even though I feel like it will. I feel like I'm gonna, like, read enough that I'm just gonna have all the knowledge that I need to be successful. But we're either gonna do it or not.

See you bright and early in the morning.

Before we go any further, we want to say a big thank you to surfshark for sponsoring this video. Hopefully, this is the only shark we talk about today. Surfshark is the VPN Nate and I have been using ever since we heard about it over two years ago. If you've never heard of a vpn, it stands for Virtual Private Network, which helps keep you private and secure online by encrypting your Internet activity. This is especially important when connecting to random public WI fi's, which is one of the reasons we love surfshark, because that's pretty much our life. But a VPN can be used for more than just security. You can also use it to unlock content that isn't available in your area. So if you want to watch the Office on Netflix again, it's super easy to change the virtual location of your computer to access a whole new content library.

I am jetting off on an international business trip. Where you going? To Kanabda.

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Today's the day. Two hours until we swim.

I did not sleep well last night. Nate must have been extra nervous because I woke up three different times and he had pulled all the covers off of me.

I think I was just like, not in the.

It's. It's not warm.

But it's not windy. Thank you.

We're swimming from Alcatraz. So.

My first time on the Golden Gate bridge.

Fingers are already frozen.

To give you an idea of how cold it is, my ears hurt from being exposed.

Oh, man.

All right, we've come down to the marina that's just on the other side of the Golden Gate bridge to meet up with Brian, who is going to be the pilot of the boat that is going to make sure that we don't drown today morning. We are doing this under the supervision of professionals. We are completely unprepared. We did one ice bath. We swam for 15 minutes in the ocean, one dive. I swam laps in a pool once when I was in high school. We're completely relying on our mindset to get us through this.

Our number one priority is safety. So safety is absolutely fundamental.

Before Brian gave us a full safety briefing, I finally got to ask the question that had been burning in my mind since our visit to Alcatraz yesterday. Do you think that the guys who escaped from Alcatraz lived? Do you think they made it?

From our point of view, yeah. There's no question.

I already have the shakes. I'm so cold. I can't believe I'm wearing a puppy jacket. I'm about to get in the water.

Here we go.

Well, we're committed. We're in the boat. At least we made it this far.

Like, the next biggest challenge is going to be getting my body in the water when I'm already shaking. These people are crazy.

So if you look over here, those three buildings combined are called Fort Me. So that's Going to be our first sighting location. Pick one of the three of them. It doesn't matter which one. I just want you to swim toward them.

Water temperature right now is 53 degrees. Air temperature is about 52.

We just spotted a whale spout over here, and I've never been less excited to see a whale in my entire life. What are we doing? I'm not being dramatic for the video. I literally feel like I'm going to vomit right now.

This is Sylvia. She's gonna be our angel swimmer, and she's swimming without a wetsuit.

She also did the swim round trip pregnant.

Just to be clear, she's. She's a good kid. She's 17 now, and she's fine.

There you go. I don't know if it's the cold or my nerves, but I can't even talk without my voice shaking right now. Oh, my goodness. What are we doing?

All you got to do is swim. We got everything else for you. Oh, my gosh.

We're actually getting in this water.

It's cold.

I'm alive.

Focus on your exhale. You got this.

Fort Mason for you on the beach. Oh, my gosh.

Are you ready to start swimming?

I'm ready.

All right, let's go. Okay.

When we first jumped in the water, we were running on pure adrenaline. The combination of my heart beating a thousand miles per hour and the cold water made it almost impossible to catch my breath. It was everything I could do to make myself take a few freestyle strokes before I'd have to doggy paddle back up to the surface, put my head above water to try to catch my breath.

I had thought the cold would be the hardest part of this swim for me. Turns out it was the least of my problems. I began to panic because I could not catch my breath no matter how hard I tried.

Keep swimming. You're looking great.

Not to mention, it was pretty much the first time we had ever swam in open water. And the wind, the waves, and the current were not kind to us. Having never done anything like this before, it felt a bit like being in a washing machine. It was hard to see where we were going, and I'd take in a new mouthful of water every couple of minutes.

I just swallowed my first big gulp of water.

What are you doing?

I just worked. No controlling memory.

Brian had warned us about this panicked feeling, so I knew it was normal, but I needed to overcome it because he said he can tell when swimmers aren't okay, and oftentimes, for safety reasons, he'll pull them out of the Water until they calm down. But I knew if I got in the boat, there was no way I was getting back in the water. So even though on the inside I was ready to cry and just quit, I was still smiling at Sylvia and giving her a quick woohoo every time she looked at me, hoping to trick her into thinking I was fine. But I had a feeling she could see right through me.

They just kept encouraging us to do five more strokes, five more freestyle strokes and five breaststrokes with my head above water.

Keep swimming. You got this. Five strokes. Give me five. Keep going. Five freestyle, five breaststroke, Keep the freestyle going.

Just five more strokes.

We're about a third of the way right now, but they're looking good.

Keep swimming, guys. Five and five.

So the key on this swim for any swimmer is they have to keep going forward, crawl, or what we call freestyle, right? So they gotta keep swimming. They're going perpendicular to the current right now, which is perfect. It'll move them across in the fastest possible time.

Halfway across. Halfway there. You're making it. Keep swimming.

The cold water kind of shuts the brain down a little bit. They're not hypothermic or anything near it. They're doing great. As long as they keep driving forward, you'll be able to get right across.

Once we reach the halfway point, I felt like I was finally hitting a bit of a groove. My five freestyle strokes turned into 20. My heart rate started to slow down, and I finally felt like I had a little bit of control. And that was the first time during the entire swim that I thought about sharks. My eyes started wandering down into the deep, murky water beneath me, and I promise I started seeing shadows. I can't remember what stepped me out of it. It was probably swallowing some more water or something like that. But I knew I could not let my mind wander back there again.

You know, our job out here as pilots is to make sure that we've already managed traffic. We've already coordinated with the Coast Guard, We've got the course set, everyone's aw what we're doing here. And we're on the lookout non stop for any other approaching vessels. And we're within 10 seconds of them. If they need to get on the boat for any reason, they're doing really well.

Hey, you're pulling right. I need you to go left.

You're in the wreck zone. Quarter mile. One quarter mile to go.

I see the beach.

Let's go.

At this point, I finally felt like I was in a bit of a rhythm or at least I wasn't swallowing as much water as before, but then I realized just how cold my body had gotten. It felt like we had been in the water forever.

I had no idea how long it had actually been, but I knew I wasn't getting any warmer, and the beach still felt so far away.

Here's the most important key. Keep it up. You're gonna beat Nate. You're gonna beat him into the beach. Girl power. Beat him to the beach. You got this.

We were told that if we took too long to get across, we'd be forced to get back in the boat due to risk of hypothermia. Just as I was starting to have those thoughts, I heard the cheery.

We posted our potential finishing location on Instagram the day before. We didn't know if anyone would actually show up, but I cannot tell you how much we needed every single one of those cheers as we neared the end of the swim.

So.

Our brains and our phases were completely frozen at this point, and we were both feeling about half human. So in case we didn't say it in the moment, we want everyone who showed up on the beach to know just how thankful we were for the coffee pastries and puppy snuggles. We will never forget this feeling and this moment, and y' all made it so, so special.

Thank you.

I feel like I am a completely different person walking into this hotel room than I was when we left, like, just a couple hours ago.

That was the hardest hour of my entire life. Yeah, it was an hour of asking myself every 30 seconds if I was going to live.

It's not like, you know, we're trekking straight up a mountain and can, like, stop and take a breather. Like, there's no breathers.

You had to constantly fight through panic.

Yeah. I mean, I literally fought it the entire time, but there were at least least five times where the panic was definitely at another level. I would continue inhaling, but I felt like I could never fully just exhale. And I would just think about them, like, looking at me and knowing I wasn't okay and telling me to get back on the boat, and that just was not an option. And as soon as I thought about that, all of a sudden, I could breathe and I would start swimming again.

I don't think I swam like a normal person person until the second half of the swim. Also, I'm pretty sure I drank half of San Francisco Bay.

Yeah, that was the other hard part is as soon as I'd be like, okay, I've done the breath stroke for a Few times, I'm ready to go.

Water. And then you just kind of have to reset again, or so people would be like, why don't we try 10 more freestyles? I'd be like, but you don't understand.

I'm drinking the water. So I still have to swim in the three phases that I went through. The first half was just me fighting through panic, trying to figure out how to swim. Second half of the swim was me thinking that I was going to get too tired or too cold to make it. And then the last couple hundred meters felt like an eternity. It felt like I'd swim as hard as I could for, like, 20 strokes. And I look up, and I was no closer. And 20 more strokes, no closer.

I feel like I was the complete opposite of you. First five seconds, I'm in the water and my wetsuits filling up with water. I'm like, this is cold and terrible. But then as soon as we started swimming, I was like, it's not that cold. And, like, Sylvia was like, hype girl next to me the whole time. I'm like, we totally got this. At one point, I had the thought, I wonder if anybody has ever done the breaststroke all the way to the beach, because that's probably what I'm about to do. Phase two was, that's Alcatraz, and that's the beach, and I don't feel like I've gone anywhere.

At one point, they were like, turn around. Look how far you've come.

Look how far you've come.

I was like, oh, we haven't gone anywhere.

I'd say, for me, about halfway is when I started panicking. Like, I'm getting really tired. My hands were numb at this point, and I just kind of felt like I was just, like, slapping the water. And I wasn't actually moving anywhere.

Halfway through the swim, I was like, I'm not sure I've actually swam.

Then phase three, Sylvia's like, look, that's the beach. It's right under that dome. And I saw it. And all of a sudden I was like, we're here. Oh, the people at the beach. When I heard their screams, I don't know what came over me. I swear my last 20 strokes were the fastest the entire swim. I think it was, like, the social pressure. Like, I knew people were watching at this point, and I didn't want to look like a wounded animal.

I came out and I was like, yes, I made it to dry land. And then as soon as I came out of the water, I was like, oh, I can't feel my face at all. And it was so hard to crawl up those rocks.

That's probably, like, top three highlights of my life. But I literally could not feel my face. I was just in this permanent, like.

Thank you to everyone who came out. I'm sorry we couldn't spend more time there, but your cheers were greatly appreciated.

At the very end. I don't even know what.

As soon as I came out of the water, I thought Kara was gonna be happy, and she was just, like, sobbing on the beach.

It seems to be a theme.

And now we get to go drink wine in Napa Valley.

I need a nap first.

Take a bath.

I'm never taking you off this jacket.

I seriously think I'm going to turn the water on as hot as it'll go and draw a bath and soak in it.

You do whatever you want to do.

Okay.