8 Bridges | Hudson River Swim

2012 8 Bridges winner and record holder Grace Van Der Byl broke  Karen Burton’s 18 year old record when she swam across the Catalina Chanel in 7 hours and 21 minutes in October. Congratulations Grace! Grace has been nominated for open water swimmer of the year for 2012. You can vote for her here.

Last Saturday we did a second test swim of the Cold Spring – Bannerman’s Island 10.5K Return. This time it wasn’t just me and a kayaker, it was a party of people: David and his RIB Agent Orange, three paddlers, and nine swimmers. The idea was to start swimmers of different speeds on the flood [...]

Well, its nearly October. I saw a few leaves drop today… granted it was quite windy, but days are getting shorter; mornings are cooler; apples abundant and I am back to swimming mostly indoors. We (Rondi and I) are already deep into the planning of the third annual 8 Bridges Hudson River Swim which will [...]

Inspired by the pioneering efforts of my swim buddies who ventured the 20 miles across Cape Cod Bay this week, today I tested a new swim in the Hudson: Cold Spring to Bannerman’s Island return, a super scenic 10.5K trip timed with the changing current, so you swim north to the island on the waning [...]

Here’s a write up about 8 Bridges from Lisa Neidrauer on the LOST or Lake Ontario Swim Team webpage. Lisa not only swam Stage 2, one of the tougher stages of 20 miles,  she kept all the swimmers and kayakers organized on the water all the other days.

By Grace Van Der Byl Life is funny, as soon as you think you’ve got it all figured out and you have done all you can do with what you’ve been given; life throws you an opportunity to do more. You can take on the challenge or you can let it pass you by. When [...]

Today it’s hard to believe it’s all over. It’s certainly going to take a few days to digest the events of the past seven days. Right now I’m feeling somewhat stunned about all that just unfolded in the past week, and a mix of bliss and indebted gratitude to the amazing group of people that [...]

The final day of 8 Bridges is here and we have a great line up of swimmers: Martin Turecky from Delmar, NY John Reagan from Slingerlands, NY Amanda Hunt from Napperville, IL Patty Maysent from Solana Beach, CA Grace van der Byl from Solana Beach, CA Rondi Davies from New York, NY This is Martin, [...]

Wind Against Current is the name of an excellent blog by kayaker Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson. Today these words played over and over in my head as we battled 15 mph head winds with gusts of 30 mph, against a 2.6 knot ebb tide. There are so many times when I have looked [...]

Today’s Stage 6, a 15.7 mile straight shot from the Tappan Zee to the George Washington Bridge, is full of awesome chicks! Starting in the first wave at 10 am is: Capri Djatiasmoro* from Brooklyn, NY Kathleen Romano* (aka as the Lavender Menace) from New York, NY Caitlin Rosen from Brooklyn, NY [* Note that Capris [...]