From the Farallones to Santa Barbara, Catherine Breed Keeps Swimming

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This article was underwritten in part by the Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund for Social Justice, a proud, innovative supporter of local news. To make a contribution go to sbcan.org/journalism_fund.

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Waves roll under Stearns Wharf and a light breeze carries the smell of ocean salt on September 24. Swimmer Catherine Breed greeted a crowd of about 120 Santa Barbarans — parents and children, retirees, teenagers, and young adults — just outside of the Museum of Natural History’s Sea Center. Breed and her crew had arrived in the harbor earlier that day, after Breed covered her the latest leg of her 900-mile journey down the coast. 

The marathon swimmer is on her way to becoming the first person to swim the length of California, a feat she calls her love letter to the coast.

It was never about flexing her strength, Breed said. “It was about sharing how amazing this palace is, and to invite people to fall in love with it through this journey.” 

Breed documents her daily swims on the boat and in the Pacific through social media, and she makes stops in Coastal California communities in partnership with local environmental groups. Here, she teamed up with Santa Barbara Channelkeeper. 

Breed’s endeavor is the culmination of years of experience. Breed, who grew up swimming and competed for UC Berkeley for four years, said that after graduating from Cal, she was done staring at the bottom of the pool but not ready to give up the sport. 

A friend introduced her to the Dolphin’s Club in San Francisco, a historic organization with a focus on open-water swimming, in 2016. 

“I really quickly fell in love with the murky, dynamic cold water of the bay,” Breed said. 

With encouragement, fellow Dolphin Club members convinced Breed to complete her first marathon swim — the 21-mile length of Lake Tahoe — in 2017. She started the swim at 11 p.m., with a team on a boat by her side. 

“As the sun starts rising, I’m taking one stroke after another. The swim is going amazing,” Breed told the crowd. “I can see the East Shore. I can see stars and the crew is like, ‘Hey, Cat, you’re on pace to break the women’s record!’” 

As the morning pressed on, so did Breed. She broke the overall record, becoming the first person to swim the length of the lake in less than nine hours. 

“What I learned in that swim is it is a privilege to see how tough you can be,” she told the crowd. 

From there, Breed went on to complete other marathon swim feats. She swam the English Channel (another approximately 21-mile swim) in 2018, the North Channel, from Northern Ireland to Scotland (again, about 21 miles), and from the Farallon Islands to the iconic bridge in cold, shark-filled waters, to name a few. 

After that Farallon Islands swim — a 30-mile feat where Breed said she, for the first time, felt debilitating doubt in her ability to finish, but, with the support of her crew, she managed not only to persist but to break the record by three minutes — she sat down to have dinner with a friend. 

“She asked me, ‘So what’s next?’ I’m sure she expected me to say some other channel I wanted to cross,” Breed said. “And instead, I said to [her], ‘I think I want to swim the whole state of California.’” 

Breed said her friend did not tell her the goal was crazy or that she’d be eaten by a shark. She asked to be on her team. 

Without her team, Breed told the crowd in Santa Barbara, there would be no 900-mile swim. 

“As I get interviewed about the swim, I am often saying ‘we’ and ‘we are’ and ‘we’re doing,’” Breed said. “The interviewer will stop me and they’ll say, ‘Is this a relay? Who’s we?’ And I say, ‘No, this is just such a team event.’”

Breed’s crew members do a lot more than man the boat she uses as a floating home base. 

Maisie Bristow is captain of the Catalyst, the main boat for Swim California. The crew, she told the Independent, gets Breed to the start point for each day’s swimming using GPS coordinates. They help Breed get prepared to swim, making sure she eats and gets in the proper wetsuit for the water temperature. And they keep her fed in the water, handing her fuel every 30 minutes, whether that’s water with carbohydrates in it or gel designed for endurance feats.

Crucially, the crew ratifies the swim so that it will count on the record books.  

“Every 30 minutes, we take a photograph of her. We get a specific lat[itude] and long[itude] of where she is, exactly, in the water, which then connects to the GPS data on her watch,” Bristow said. 

The crew, Bristow said, takes care to make sure where Breed starts and stops is carefully documented. And of course, they keep the boat running and well-stocked.

Then there’s support outside the crew. Breed’s sister put together the meal plan she needs to swim for hours each day. Her mother, grandmother, and aunt cook meals for her and meet her at spots along the coast to deliver it. A medical team checks on her physically and mentally, she said. She has land and sea support team members, and folks helping her with promotion, fundraising, and documenting the swim, to name a few. 

Breed and Swim California make local connections to coastal communities, such as S.B. Channelkeeper and the Museum of Natural History Sea Center.

S.B. Channelkeeper Executive Director Ted Morton said that Breed, through the swim, was experiencing the ocean ― including its wildlife and its changes ― at a human scale. He thanked her for using her platform to uplift the stories of conservation groups along the coast. “And here in Santa Barbara, we have an important story to tell,” Morton said. 

Santa Barbara’s channel, Morton said, is one of the most biologically diverse and productive marine areas on earth. He said it’s also an area shaped by human activity, with the area’s first offshore oil well drilled off the coast of Summerland in 1896. Nineteen of the state’s 27 offshore oil platforms are in Santa Barbara’s Channel. 

Morton reminded the crowd of the 1969 and 2015 oil spill that polluted the channel’s waters. “These disasters killed and injured wildlife, closed beaches, shut down fisheries, and damaged coastal dependent businesses,” he said. 

Morton took the opportunity to bring up the oil company Sable, who is aiming to restart offshore drilling with the pipeline that leaked in 2015. SB Channelkeeper has been an active voice in opposing that plan; it’s one of several environmental groups challenging in court the permits Sable gained to resume offshore production. 

Along with platforming S.B. Channelkeeper’s message, Breed aimed to uplift young swimmers, especially young women, in her swim. Her nonprofit, Sea Dreamers, holds events aimed at getting women involved in ocean activities and conservation efforts. 

Breed said she sees women around her excelling at marathon swimming expeditions, setting records, and achieving difficult, daring swims. 

“I’m hoping that after this year and over the next few years, that people realize that women are amazing at these expeditions and endurance sports, and I don’t think it’s just because it’s physical. I think we have this mental fortitude,” she said. 

Reaching Santa Barbara was a milestone in her lengthy swim, Breed said. “I know we’re not done yet, but I do feel like it’s a little bit downhill from here,” she said.