East Bay Native Breaks World Record In 30-Mile Swim To Golden Gate Bridge: Report

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — “Ok, let’s go!” Catherine Breed reportedly yelled out to her team when she finally caught sight of the Golden Gate Bridge in the early morning fog Tuesday.

With a new boost of energy and determination, Breed swam through chilly waters into the San Francisco Bay and under the bridge to break a world record. On Tuesday afternoon, Breed, 32, of Mill Valley, became the seventh person and the third woman in the world to complete the treacherous 30-mile open ocean swim between the Farallon Islands and the Golden Gate Bridge.

She completed the swim in a record 13 hours, 54 minutes, and 23 seconds, according to The San Francisco Chronicle, though the time still needs to be certified by an official record keeper. Assuming the time is correct, Breed completed the swim a little over 4 minutes faster than Joe Locke, another Mill Valley resident who set the previous record in July 2014. She left Southeast Farallon Island Monday at 10:45 p.m., and spent the entire night trekking through the notorious stretch.

There’s good reason only seven people have ever completed the swim: it’s not for the faint of heart. The swim is considered one of the most challenging open water swims. It’s significantly longer than the swim across the English Channel (21 miles), the Catalina Channel, (20.5 miles), or even the infamous 26-mile Molokai Channel between the Hawaiian islands of Molokai and Oahu. The frigid water is in the 50s, even in August, raging with powerful currents, and full of sharks. Breed even wore a Shark Shield, a battery-powered anklet that emits electrical signals that overstimulate sharks and turn them away.

Breed told The Chronicle she was “terrified” to complete her swim, but looking at her record, there was little doubt she’d complete it. She grew up in Pleasanton, and began swimming for the U.S. National Team when she attended Amador Valley High School. She then swam competitively at U.C. Berkeley, where she ranked among the school’s all-time top 10 in several events, in addition to several other accomplishments.

She is now a six-time world open water swimming record holder (pending verification of her latest swim) who has completed a long list of marathon swims across Lake Tahoe, Monterey Bay, the Catalina Channel from the Golden Gate Bridge to Half Moon Bay, and Lake Del Valle in Livermore. In 2016, the Marathon Swimmers Federation nominated her for Solo Swim of the Year after she swam the 21-mile Lake Tahoe in a record 8 hours, 56 minutes, and 16 seconds. In July, she swam 60 miles around Lake Tahoe.

All those swims pale in comparison to what she’s currently planning: an 840-mile swim across the entire length of the California coast, from Oregon to Mexico.

She’s powered by sheer grit. According to her friends, she loves to say, “Grit is your superpower.”

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