Eric Hansen swims in open water. Photo courtesy of Eric Hansen.
By Stewart A. McFerran
Half the swimmers were missing team practice at the Civic Center pool in Traverse City. Masters swim coach Tom Lechota told me they were outside, swimming in the open water of nearby Grand Traverse Bay instead of the pool. Some call it “wild” swimming — unconfined by lane lines, concrete edges and chemicals. The water in the bay had warmed to 75 degrees. The warm water feels fresh to swimmers who often swim without wetsuits but don brightly colored safety buoys that trail behind them in the water.
Open water swimming is so popular, it has become an Olympic event. California-born-and-raised Haley Anderson, 31, is the only American to have won an Olympic medal (Silver in the 10K of the 2012 London Olympics) in open water swimming.
There is an open water swimming community in the Traverse City area. They take advantage of many fine shoreline locations in the Grand Traverse region and beyond. Tom Lechota is a swimmer and part-time coach for the Northcoast Masters. The group holds six practices a week at the Grand Traverse Bay YMCA pools (West and Central). The Michigan Masters is part of the U.S. Masters which is a competitive swimming program for adults. Kathy Coffin-Sheard is the head coach of the Northcoast Masters and an avid open water swimmer along with other coaches and members of the group.
Harriet Wall, a Traverse City octogenarian and a long-time swimmer, says she “usually swims three miles a day” at either the West or Central YMCA pools. When the water warms, she swims with a group at various locations in the cool waters of lakes and bays. “It is nice to swim outside if I can,” she told me. Her group generally stays near shore and sometimes has a safety boater who tags along, ready to assist.
Kathy Heikkila said she has been open water swimming for 15 years. She has crossed the Straits of Mackinac in the water under her own power. On the longer swims, her husband Kevin and her daughter are in a safety boat and her son often stands on a paddleboard alongside her as she swims. “We had an app that told us where the freighters were,” she said.
Heikkila once swam from the Sleeping Bear shoreline to South Manitou Island. She said the guy operating the safety boat called on a Tuesday morning and told her group, “Today is the day.” She said they all picked up and left. “That day we had low winds and a little push up my side all the way to Manitou.”
“All of us that I swim with, we swim in all kinds of water; we don’t just swim in flat water,” she added.
Heikkila weighed the pros and cons of wearing a wetsuit.
“I typically don’t wear a wetsuit,” she said. “I’m not swimming for speed. I just feel a lot better without a wetsuit on. There are times when I have worn a wetsuit in the early spring just because the water is cold.”
She explained that a wetsuit allows you to swim faster because you float on top of the water and “just glide,” swimming rather effortlessly.
“I like to swim without a wetsuit,” she continued, “because I can feel the water, and I have better rotation. When I wear a wetsuit, I feel constricted in my shoulders.”
Heikkila participates in an annual swim from Empire to Esch Road (Otter Creek Beach) that has attracted up to 15 swimmers at a time.
“It can be a little wavier in August,” she observed. “Whatever the wave conditions are, we go. I’ve swam that (location) where I’ve just been sailing down the shoreline. It’s just a peaceful swim; you are not going by a bunch of houses. There (are) no boats down there, really.”
Safety Around Water instructor and “Breakers” youth program coach Chris Corrado said that sometimes the longer open water swims become scavenger hunts. She said, “As you’re swimming, you look at the bottom. We always find golf balls and fishing lures; we seem to find Barbie Dolls a lot. I did find somebody’s scuba gear. It was, like, the tank and everything.”
Corrado and her friend Kathy Coffin-Sheard swim the “Big Shoulders” open water race in Chicago each year. It is sanctioned by the Chicago Masters and this year includes 2.5K and 5K swims at Ohio Street Beach on Sept. 9. About 1,200 swimmers will ply the Lake Michigan waters there, within sight of Chicago’s tall buildings.
Coffin-Sheard is the swim coach for Northcoast Masters and head coach of the “Breakers” youth program at Grand Traverse Bay YMCA. She attended the University of Georgia, where she swam very fast and won medals. She told me her favorite open water swim takes place in the Little Traverse Bay at Harbor Springs. It is organized by the Coastal Crawl Swim Club. Kathy expounded on the beauty of the clear water that allows a fabulous view of the steep drop-off into the deep, cold water of Little Traverse Bay. The 3-mile event takes swimmers around the point, allowing them to peer down into the deep. She said some find it disorienting and turn back.
Eric Hansen of Grand Rapids tries to swim in the open water three or four times a week and likes to train at West Olive. He also organizes an annual open water swim across the Straits of Mackinac. He said approximately 110 swimmers were expected for the four-and-a-half-mile course below the Big Mac Bridge this year.
“The Mackinac Bridge Swim is a nonprofit event raising money for first responders in Michigan,” Hansen explained.
In addition to the currents and waves of the Straits, there is a shipping channel that extends from the south to the north piers of the bridge. As race director, Hansen must obtain a permit for the event from the U.S. Coast Guard. If a freighter appears while swimmers are in the water, safety boats pick them up until the coast is clear. Swimmers then jump back in the water to complete the swim. There is also an 8-mile swim at Mackinac Island. Swimmers can stay near the shore, so no permit is needed from the U.S. Coast Guard.
Hansen’s wife Amy checked in with me the day before the big group swim.
“It’s a gorgeous morning on Lake Huron and Lake Michigan,” she said. “A group of a dozen or so are swimming the Straits right now, and the big group of about 106 swims tomorrow. The water is pretty glassy … Happy for them!”
Contact Kathy Coffin-Sheard about competitive swimming at Grand Traverse Bay YMCA: kathy@gtbayymca.org. Coffin-Sheard, Corrado, Lechota and others train both “Masters” for adults and “Breakers” for youth. The Breakers program is open to boys and girls ages 6-18. The team travels to swim meets all over the state and beyond.
As a youngster, Stewart McFerran participated in a Red Cross youth swimming program at a municipal beach on a lake near Muskegon. Swimmers were required to complete laps around a course marked by barrels in the lake. He is a certified swimming instructor and teaches Safety Around Water at Grand Traverse Bay YMCA.
