
California Pier Series Is Underway
Ray Meltvedt and Katherine Horvath has organized merpeople in California and the California Pier Series, a series of pier swims from San Diego to Southern California.
Ray Meltvedt and Katherine Horvath has organized merpeople in California and the California Pier Series, a series of pier swims from San Diego to Southern California.
Ray Meltvedt led the inaugural Fear No Pier stage swim along the California coast in 2013. 2021 will see version 2.0 with a 38-pier stage swim.
Photo courtesy of Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register, California. It is rare that open water swimmers get publicity in a front-page article of a major American newspaper, but Julian Rusinek (53), Ray Meltvedt (54), Scott Zornig (54), and Eric Peters (57) pulled it off in an article entitled 'Bad fish or bad PR? Shark attacks are rare, local experts say]
When Scott Zornig of Laguna Beach, California created the stage swim concept of Fear No Pier, he had a specific purpose in mind. He wanted to challenge himself and others in the open water with something new. He had done his share of channel swims, marathon swims, and coastal mass participation ocean swims. He wanted something unique and enjoyable;
Several swimmers attempted to swim around 27 piers in Southern California within 24 hours.
After a long night, an entire morning, and most of the afternoon swimming around 19 piers along the California coast, the 14 swimmers who started the Fear No Pier stage swim have been reduced to a handful. As predicted but in unexpected ways, the Fear No Pier adventure has not been easy. "We have almost walked as much as we have swam. We've had to walk
Up and down the coasts from Brighton to Busselton and many places between, piers dot the coastline of hundreds of countries. But there may be no other place on Earth that melds the sport of open water swimming and piers as well as California. From San Diego in the south to Santa Cruz in the north, the 770 miles (1,240 km) of coastline is punctuated with
Grace van der Byl kicked off the record era in the Catalina Channel last year with her 7 hour 27 minute crossing from Catalina Island to the California mainland. Now the As Seen On TV relay of Barbara Held, Marc Horwitz, Ray Meltvedt, Julian Rusinek, Lynn Kubasek and Roni Hibben set another record across the Catalina Channel. The sextet of masters swimmers
The English Channel has its Half Century Club, an exclusive group of individuals who have successfully crossed the English Channel past their 50th birthday. The Strait of Gibraltar also has its own Half Century Club as does the Cook Strait and Molokai Channel.In the Pacific Ocean, the Catalina Channel has its own Half Century Club, 25 swimmers who have