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I have created The Adventure Swim contest to help someone with their dream swim. There is no catch, just money. You do not have to be an expert swimmer, just the desire and passion to live an adventure in the water. Please click the link below for more information. Winner will be announced on the daily news of open water swimming November 14th, 2011.
Life's an Adventure - Swim it!!!!
Tomorrow starts my hell week swim camp. I plan to swim 40 plus miles in 4 days. There will be 15-20 people coming up to our "Cottage" in Lake County California where we all plan to train and have fun.
I woke up feeling sick today and am worried how this will effect my planned 10 plus miles in lake. I will push through it and get it done. I plan to take the first few swims nice and easy to try and flush what ever I have out of my system.
We will be posting photos and videos of the weekend so come back to check out what is going on. 
I am sitting at my office a bit tired and struggling to get any work down. I leave for St. John USVI on Thursday with my wife and daughter. I will be racing The Beach to Beach 3.5 mile open water swim on Sunday and will be giving a clinic the day before to raise money for the National Park in St. John.
Last Thursday I kind of invited myself to do a swim with some amazing marathon swimmers including Jen Schumacher and Emily Evans. The swim was at Lake Berryessa in Northern California and would be about 16 miles. I tried to put it all together but the logistics were too much to organize in two days. Being pretty bummed that I was not going to be able to do the swim I decided I still needed to do a a long swim on my own. I elected to do an 18,000 yard workout in the pool. Yes that is 720 lengths in a 25 yard pool. Boring!!!!! Two good friends of mine – Mark Lukach and Greg Larson came down to swim a bit and doing some underwater videoing while I swam.
Last night I was all geared up to do this swim. I charged my swimp3’s and packed for swim. The excitement got the best of me and I could not sleep. I think I got a total of about 2 hours of sleep last night. Just as I was starting to get into a good sleep the alarm went off. I ask myself what should I do? Do I call Mark and Greg and cancel? I sat up in bed and came to the conclusion that I needed to go.
I drove into the city and met Mark and Greg. I was extremely shaky and in kind of a bad mood. I set out my gear, put on my suit and hit the pool. I then turned on my swimp3 and hit go on my Swimsence watch and off I went. I truly felt like **** as I swam through my first 1000 yards. I continued to swim and my mind and body began to change. I told myself this is what is all about. In August I am planning to swim through two nights with no sleep. I began to realize that I was supposed to not sleep last night. I was supposed to feel like crap today. The meaning of this swim became clear. I was supposed to be in a bad place and work myself out of it.
I ended up swimming 17,950 yards according to my Swimsence watch. The total time was 3 hours 41 minutes and averaged about 1 min 15 sec per 100 yards. Not bad for a cranky 40 year old.
Remember – the days that are the toughest are the days you get the most done.
DATE CHANGE
Due to the high number of emails about the proposed date of my 111 mile Sacramento River Swim, we have elected to change the date from August 14th to the 19th. The date has been changed because the Contra Costa County Swim Meet falls on the 14th and many want to attend the event. I will now begin the swim Friday August 19th and FINISHING Saturday August 20th
On a side note www.swimmingcalifornia.com has just reached 550 cities worldwide including 28 countries.
NEW SPONSORS
I am please to announce a few new sponsors. The importance of sponsors is key when preparing for an event like "Swimming California" A 111 mile wetsuit swim - down the Sacramento River. www.swimmingcalifornia.com. I am extremely excited about the latest companies that believe in me and have shown their support. By supporting them you truly support me. That being said having the right products that truly can enhance what I am doing is very important. Financial support is great, but more important is having sponsors that make you better. These two companies do exactly that - make me better. They both are totally different, but truly will enhance what I am going to do.
The first is Metabender. www.metabender.com. Metabender is the brain child of Morgan Christian . Morgan is creating an athlete portal that enhances the viewship of supporters, weather it be an athlete doing an ironman, an adventure race, or a world record swim. This technology allows supporters of the athlete to truly feel like they are there. No matter where they are they are in the world, they can follow their athlete with enhanced technology that will give real time data (location, speed, distance, chat, video, and much more).
The Metabender logistics and multimedia platform is a flexible content delivery base to allow us to bring the world closer to the athletes and the action on the race course. We work with the athletes and event coordinators to bring a fully brandable multimedia experience to the internet.
I am extremely excited about bring this technolgy and user interface to my swim.
It is not often that you get associated to a company that truly knows what the athlete needs. I am proud to announce e21 as my new sponsor. e21 is not only a company that has listen to athlete is also has created their products using all organic products.
As I build my swimming yardage up to 100,000 yards per week I will be faced with many issues related to my body breaking down. They key to training is to break down the body, recover and then repeat. If you do not recover properly then you are not gaining ground. e21 provides the necessary ingredients to assist the body in recovery.
The ancient Greeks in the province of Arcadia sought to bring harmony, balance and peace into their daily lives through the philosophies of natural medicines. Theirs was an ancient wisdom.
For the past five years their researchers at Arcadian Nutraceuticals have been seeking out rare and forgotten plants, herbs, algaes and seaweeds once used by indigenous cultures for their remedial benefits.
They are committed to providing natural and organic supplements and remedies for people of the modern world who also seek harmony, balance and peace.
Recovery e21 is the first of their products marketed in the USA They are currently submitting additional products to the FDA for its approval in 2010.
Leg cramps are usually caused by an electrolyte deficiency. Recovery e21 is the only product that provides an absolute range of electrolytes in adequate quantities of key cramp prevention elements in just one capsule.
Recovery e21 is organic, natural, bio-available and affordable. It delivers electrolytes in the right ratio and balance to ensure your body has the full complement of necessary electrolytes to prevent leg cramps.
Because its 114 elements are derived from a natural, single cell marine algae these elements are totally bio-available to your body when it needs them.
By comparison, synthetic electrolyte products require the body to break through the synthetic chain they create before the body can access them.
Thank You e21....!!!
Use "JAMIE21" for a 20% discount http://www.recoverye21.com
Click link below and vote for what you think I should do next.
http://www.wix.com/thetahoetriple/thenextbigone
Cheers - Jamie
As I prepare for The Tahoe Triple, I have started seeing a sports psychologist. We met for the first time yesterday. It is great to spend an hour with someone that thinks you can accomplish your goal. Beginning in March I will be coached by Steve Munatones. I am very excited at the knowledge I will receive from him.
I have tentatively put together some milestone training swims. This may change once Steve gets involved but I need to have a plan going forward. I have included a list of these training swims and looking for anyone who wants to partake in these adventures. Because each one of these is an event in itself, they must be planned out in advance. I am looking for friends and family to assist me in a number of ways. Even if you are not a swimmer or only a recreational swimmer, these events will be unlike your have ever experienced. These training swims are all long and sometimes at night. I am looking for people who want to swim with me (even for a little while) or Kayak. With a two man kayak, you can alternate swimming, swim for a half hour or just kayak. Anything will help. I promise it will be nothing like you have experience before. Thank you to those who have committed to help already. It should be an amazing time.
Here are the planned training swims.
February 20th (5) Hour Pool Swim – Truckee Community Pool 7am to Noon
March 20th 4 x 10k’s Hidden Valley Lake (each 10k will be on the 4 hr send off)
April 10th 12 Mile lake Berryessa Swim
May 17th 17.5 Mile Clearlake Swim (this will be the first ever)
June 19th 22 Mile Single Crossing – Lake Tahoe
July 17th Double Trans Tahoe Relay 22 miles (partial night swim)
Please let me know if you are interested. And again, Thank you to all who have committed to help.
jamiep@patrickandco.com
Peach – Out
Jamie
Truly – What have I gotten myself into? I caught myself drifting in a full visualization of The Tahoe Triple right before I had to give a big presentation to a client. Even as I was being introduced my thoughts were of raising my arms on the beach triumphant in my goal. This is why I do these things. Yes to cross the finish line, but more importantly the journey. My thoughts of training and preparation are so at the fore front of my brain.
I have arrived at our cottage in Hidden Valley Lake for a fun Valentines weekend with my family and our good friends the Larson’s. Greg Larson is one of my best friends and has crew for me on many of my adventures. Greg is one of the best swimmers I know. He just missed making the Olympics and has won many open water swims over the years. Greg and I plan to swim in Clearlake this weekend. We have mapped out an east to west crossing where we will swim a total of 8 miles. According to the Clearlake fishing report the water is 54 degrees. We will be swimming solo, without a guide boat so we must be very careful. Greg is always up for an adventure, except if it has to do with running.
In May, Greg and I will swim the length of Clearlake in preparation for The Tahoe Triple. The total distance will be 17.5 miles. As of total we have found no record of anyone swimming the length of Clearlake. We shall be the first. Not only will be the first, but we plan to do it overnight. This will give me some idea of how it will feel swimming the final length of Tahoe due to the fact that it will occur from about 10pm to 8am.
So far we have brought an amazing team together. Here is the team so far.
Terry Patrick – Wife and Manager
Steve Munatones – Coach and Liason
Greg Larson – Training Partner
Paige Dunn – Psychologist
Finis – Swim Equipment
Yardbark.com – Sports News and blogging
Martin Sundberg – Photography
Stay tuned for tomorrows blog on our swim in Clearlake
Today was my first ever photo shoot with the exception of my engagement photos, Junior Prom and Senior Ball. I had no idea what to do. I showed up at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge and met one of the editors and two photographers for Competitor Magazine. I spent a little over an hour with them taking various photos along the shore, and some swimming shots in the bay. The purpose of the shoot was for an upcoming article in the March edition of their magazine promoting my world record attempt, The Tahoe Triple - T3. I have been told that the article and photos will take up the entire back cover. Pretty cool....The Tahoe Triple is really picking up steam. I have three potential major sponsors. Being back in the water feels great and to have a goal makes the training that much more enjoyable. It truly is amazing the support from everyone. So far the website for The Tahoe Triple has received over 4000 hits in two weeks www.site.ultraswimmer.com. We will be launching the new site within the next two weeks. Watch out for the Competitor article in March. Peace - Out
Photo of the Photographer
My wife and daughter and I headed up to our vacation home on Friday. We call it The Cottage, as my wife has decorated it very shabby chic (this weekend we added to the shabby chic look a little more with several painting projects - my daughter's foot ended up in the bucket of paint at one point, but overall our projects were a success). It is about an hour and forty five minutes from our house in Lafayette, and is a beautiful drive through the wine country. The area is called Hidden Valley Lake, and our cottage is one street up from a 170 acre lake. According to google earth, one loop around the lake is about 1.25 miles - I have swam many miles there and love having it not only as our family vacation home, but also as an awesome place to train. Recently we have started driving up separately so we can turn a weekend getaway into three days - my wife and daughter will drive home together in the morning, and I will be up at 4:00 to drive into the city to work.
Yesterday - I went for my first open water swim in preparation for the Tahoe Triple. The air temperature was around 52 degrees and I expected it to be cold, but not as icy cold as it felt when I hit the water. I lasted 15 minutes. My Sailfish wetsuit and Barracuda hoody were great, but my feet and hands began to lose feeling so I figured I'd better get out. I later went down to the hardware store and bought a hot tub thermometer and returned to the lake. After about 4 minutes I pulled it out to find the lake to be 49 degrees. Holy S_____.
Until the lake gets into the high 50's I am going to stick to the pool. Next week I will be ramping up to about 25,000 yards in the pool. Stay tuned for an article in an upcoming issue of Competitor Magazine in which I will discuss the Tahoe Triple world record attempt. THANKS TO ALL FOR THE SUPPORT. Check out the website. www.site.ultraswimmer.com Peace out!!!!
HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE
January 1st, 2010 – The first day of the New Year. I have just finished a successful come back into the ultra sports world. Having just completed the Ultraman World Championships in Hawaii and finishing a respectable 19th place, I vowed to myself not to get back out of shape. Well it has been a month and I have put on 7 pounds. Time to ramp up again. Having done 15 ironmans, 2 Ultramans, and a Triple Ironman I told my wife that I want to focus on one sport instead of all three. Because, I have a swimming back ground I have decided to focus this year on swimming. I have been trying to figure out what to do. I have swam many 10K races so this did not interest me. I thought about swimming the English Channel, but hundreds have done that. What should I do? I need to do something that for me goes beyond what the mainstream considers a bit crazy. Something almost unattainable. Something that no one else has ever done.
In today’s world, this is almost an impossible feet. Someone has done almost everything at least once. Except for one thing. The Ocean’s Seven. What might you ask is the Ocean’s Seven.
The Seven Summits are the highest mountains in each of the seven continents. Successfully scaling these mountains is a mountaineering challenge attained by only the strongest. As of 2007, 198 climbers have achieved this expensive and physically demanding goal.
Open water swimming’s version of the Seven Summits is the Ocean’s Seven.
The Ocean’s Seven include (1) the Irish Channel between Ireland and Scotland, (2) the Cook Strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand, (3) the Moloka’i Channel between O’ahu and Moloka’i Islands in Hawaii, (4) the English Channel between England and France, (5) the Catalina Channel near Los Angeles, California, (6) the Tsugaru Channel between Honshu and Hokkaido in Japan, and (7) the Strait of Gibraltar between Europe and Africa.
No human has yet to complete the Ocean’s Seven.
Achieving the Ocean’s Seven requires an ability to swim in both very cold and very warm seas. It also demands the swimmer is physically and mentally prepared to overcome every condition known to defeat open water swimmers, from strong currents to stiff winds.
Like its mountaineering cousin, the Ocean’s Seven requires a tremendous amount of planning and expense and a multi-national support team of knowledgeable local experts.
A description of the Ocean’s Seven follows. Note the distances listed are the shortest straight-line distances from point-to-point, but the actual distance covered by swimmers is significantly greater due to the tidal movements and currents.
1. Irish (North) Channel (www.irelandtoscotland.com)
• Location: Channel between Ireland and Scotland.
• Reasons for Difficulty: Heavy seas, cold water, thunderstorms and strong currents are among the natural elements that must be overcome in the 33.7-kilometer channel (21 miles).
• Window of Opportunity: July through September.
• Hazards: Widely considered to be the most difficult channel swim in the world with the water temperature 54ºF (12ºC), normally overcast days, and tremendous difficulty in accurately predicting weather and water conditions. Swimmers face large pods of jellyfish if conditions are calm.
• Description: Has been attempted at least 73 times since 1924, but only 8 successful solo swims and 5 relays have been achieved to date. Most of the attempts have been abandoned due to difficult conditions and hypothermia.
• Additional Information: Swim crossings are governed by the rules set by the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association. First attempt was made in 1924 and the first success was 1947.
2. Cook Strait (www.cookstraitswim.org.nz)
• Location: Channel between the North and South Islands of New Zealand.
• Reasons for Difficulty: 16 nautical miles (26 kilometers) across immense tidal flows in icy water conditions among jellyfish and sharks are extremely stiff challenges for only the most capable and adventurous swimmers.
• Window of Opportunity: November through May.
• Hazards: 1 in 6 swimmers encounter sharks on their crossings. Sharks only come around to be nosey. No one has ever been attached during a swim. Both sides of the strait have rock cliffs. Cold water (14ºC-19ºC or 57ºC-66ºF) over 26 kilometers and heavy chop.
• Additional Information: To date, only 71 successful crossings have been made by 61 individuals from 8 countries. Hypothermia and change in weather conditions during a race are the most common reasons attempts fail.
3. Moloka’i Channel (or Kaiwi Channel)
• Location: Channel between the western coast of Moloka’i Island and the eastern coast of O’ahu in Hawaii
• Reasons for Difficulty: 27 miles across a deep-water (701 meters) channel with extraordinarily strong currents in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and aggressive marine life.
• Window of Opportunity: As conditions permit.
• Hazards: Extremely large rolling swells, strong winds and tropical heat and very warm salty water offset the incredibly beautiful views of the Hawaiian Islands and deep-blue underwater scenery.
• Additional Information: Deep-water channel with beautiful views of the Hawaiian Islands was first crossed in 1961 by Keo Nakama in 15 hours and 30 minutes and has only been crossed by 8 individuals to date.
4. English Channel (www.ChannelSwimming.net and www.ChannelSwimmingAssociation.com)
• Location: Channel between England and France with the narrowest point being in the Strait of Dover between Shakespeare Beach, Dover, England and Calais, France.
• Reasons for Difficulty: An international waterway of 34 kilometers (21 miles) at its narrowest point, cold water temperatures, strong currents and ever-shifting water and weather conditions.
• Window of Opportunity: June to September.
• Hazards: The world’s most famous channel crossing with nearly 1,000 successful swimmers to date, but thousands of failed attempts due to strong currents and tidal flows, strong winds and whitecaps caused by changing conditions and hypothermia.
• Additional Information: Considered to be the standard for channel crossing with the rules and traditions significantly influencing the worldwide open water swimming community.
5. Catalina Channel (www.swimcatalina.org)
• Location: Channel between Santa Catalina Island and Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
• Reasons for Difficulty: Cold water (especially near coast), strong currents, potential for strong winds, marine life and distance. Shortest point-to-point course is 33.7 kilometers (21 miles) from Emerald Bay on Santa Catalina Island to the San Pedro Peninsula.
• Window of Opportunity: June to September.
• Hazards: A deep-water channel that is comparable to the English Channel in terms of water conditions, difficulty, distance and the physical and mental challenges to the swimmer, although the water temperature is a bit warmer (mid-60°F water). Marine life seen on occasion, including migrating whales and large pods of dolphins.
• Additional Information: First successful swim was in January, 1927 when Canadian George Young won $25,000 in the Wrigley Ocean Marathon Swim in 15 hours and 44 minutes.
6. Tsugaru Strait
• Location: Deep-water channel between Honshu, the main island of Japan where Tokyo is located, and Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. Closest points are Tappi Misaki in Honshu and Shirakami Misaki in Hokkaido.
• Reasons for Difficulty: An international waterway, 19.5 kilometers (12 miles) at its narrowest point. Swimmers must cross a strong current, large swells and abundant marine life between the Sea of Japan with the Pacific Ocean. English and other western languages are not widely spoken in area. Water can be between 62-68ºF (16-20ºC).
• Window of Opportunity: July and August.
• Hazards: Swimmers are swept long distances due to the extraordinarily strong currents flowing from the Sea of Japan to the Pacific Ocean. Swimmers face large blooms of squid during the night. Swimmers are challenged by occasional patches of cold water that flow up from the depths and are caused by the screws of the large oil tankers from the Middle East travel through to the West Coast of the U.S. Only four confirmed solo crossings and one confirmed double-crossing have been achieved to date.
7. Strait of Gibraltar (www.acneg.com)
• Location: Strait between Spain and Morocco that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. Shortest point is between Punta Oliveros in Spain and Punta Cires in Morocco.
• Reasons for Difficulty: 14.4 kilometers (8 miles) across an eastern flow of water from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea with an average of 3 knots (5.5 km per hour). Heavy boat traffic, logistical barriers and surface chop confront swimmers throughout each attempt.
• Window of Opportunity: June to October.
• Hazards: Its boundaries were known in antiquity as the Pillars of Hercules. The currents remain of Herculean strength. Combined with the unpredictability of the water conditions and high winds, only 185 successful one-way crossings and 7 double-crossings have been made to date.
• Additional Information: Most attempts are made from Tarifa Island due to the influence of strong currents, a distance of 18.5-22 kilometers (10-12 miles).
Who will be the first to achieve the Ocean’s Seven? Who will be the first to try? There are a few who are in the process and have completed four. From what I understand they are going to try and complete the remaining over the next three years.
To be the first, need to catch up. Not only do I plan to catch up, I plan to attempt all seven in one year.
Stay tuned.. --- The UltraSwimmer
Ultraswimmer/Adventure Swimmer (Living Life at Water Level)
