Tag: swimming

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Ridgewood teen’s record-setting swim has family and classmates cheering

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Ridgewood teen’s record-setting swim has family and classmates cheering

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014, 5:11 PM    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014, 10:49 PM
BY STEPHANIE AKIN AND CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITERS
THE RECORD

In a matter of hours, she would make history by becoming the youngest person ever to achieve the Triple Crown of open-water swimming — completing a swim across the English Channel after circumnavigating Manhattan in June and swimming the Catalina Channel off the coast of California in August.

But as Charlotte Samuels, a 16-year-old from Ridgewood, crept through choppy, frigid water Monday afternoon, that goal seemed impossibly distant. She could see the French coastline. But the land didn’t seem to be getting any closer, she shouted to her mother, Suzanne, who was cheering her on from a tracking boat.

The team on the boat began reading her messages from supporters, Suzanne said in an email. A message from her swimming coach told her to “Keep her head down and keep swimming.”

Related: Ridgewood teen becomes youngest to complete Triple Crown swimming attempt

And so she did.

She sang songs in her head. She thought, at times, that she was sleeping. And she faced swells of 4 to 6 feet that forced her to sprint the last two miles, her mother said.

By the time Charlotte scrambled onto the beach on the French shore around 5 p.m. (11 a.m. New Jersey time), all that seemed like it might have been a dream, she told her mother later. Not only had she reached her goal, she had done all three swims in just over two months, perhaps the shortest span that anyone had ever completed the swimming trifecta, Suzanne said.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/ridgewood-teen-s-record-setting-swim-has-family-and-classmates-cheering-1.1083476#sthash.4mIjLGmR.dpuf

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Ridgewood teen seeking record with swim across English Channel

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Ridgewood teen seeking record with swim across English Channel

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014, 1:19 PM    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014, 3:08 AM
BY CHRISTOPHER MAAG AND JIM NORMAN
STAFF WRITERS
THE RECORD

She spent the night alone with the water and the moon. Somewhere behind her in the darkness was a small boat, which carried food, and her parents, and a captain hired to keep her safe.

But nine hours into her swim across the English Channel, this is what 16-year-old Charlotte Samuels experienced as she lifted her mouth from the water to breathe:

Wind hitting her in the face at 8 miles an hour. Waves nearly a foot tall. The lights of the Nord de Calais, a 520-foot passenger ferry, passing at 20 miles an hour directly in her path.

And the water, always the cool salt water, pushing and tugging her in a zig-zagging S-curve across one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

If she crosses the Channel successfully, Charlotte won’t simply break a world record. She’ll shatter it. At 16 she hopes to become the youngest person ever to complete the Triple Crown of open water swimming, coming in two years younger than an 18-year-old Australian who broke the record just last month.

Click here to follow Charlotte’s swim in real time (via her guide boat Anastasia’s GPS) https://www.lovechannelswimming.com/swims


– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/update-ridgewood-teen-seeking-record-with-swim-across-english-channel-1.1082700#sthash.fOEx55Qy.dpuf

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Ridgewood’s Graydon swim team well-represented at county meet

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Ridgewood’s Graydon swim team well-represented at county meet

AUGUST 15, 2014    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 2014, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW BIRCHENOUGH
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Fresh off winning the Lake League championship, a group of swimmers from Ridgewood’s Graydon swim team performed a worthy encore at their last meet of the summer season in the New Jersey Pool Managers Association (NJPMA) county championships.

Ashleigh Afromsky starred for Graydon with a first-place finish in the girls 13-14 50-meter backstroke, earning the team’s only gold medal in the meet final held last Saturday at Stonybrook Swim Club in Hillsdale. The preliminaries and finals were held at various venues from Aug. 4-9.

Afromsky was one of 13 swimmers from the Ridgewood team to participate in the county meet, and one of eight to take part in an event final.

“It’s a fun experience for them and it opens their eyes a little bit,” Graydon aquatics director Dan Burzinski said Wednesday. “When you’re the big fish in a small pond, you don’t realize what else is out there.”

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/top-swimmers-thrive-for-graydon-1.1067972#sthash.exiaaWTF.dpuf

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Lessons go beyond swimming

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Lessons go beyond swimming

AUGUST 8, 2014    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, 2014, 12:31 AM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER

“I’m tired…”

“No, you’re not,” said my patient Graydon Pool swim instructor Ryan Martin. “It’s all in your head.”

I tried to calm down, but my facial muscles were tense, and my treading arms were moving in frantic circles. As the water moved closer to my mouth, an irrational thought started to circle through my head.

I’m going to drown. I’m going to drown.

I’m not one to give up on things, but put me in a body of water over 6 feet and watch me freak out in five minutes.

I’m 24 years old, and I can’t really swim – but thanks to my recent adult swim lessons at Graydon Pool, at least I’m now on the right track.

So, how did I get to this point?

I took lessons at the YMCA as a kid, but I abruptly stopped, for unknown reasons, after mastering “airplane, chicken, soldier” floating. I’ve since mostly avoided swimming. Thanks to friends, I learned the basics of freestyle, but I never became skilled enough to truly enjoy swimming.

I know I’m not alone, but it often feels like it: In my experience, people who can’t swim generally are too embarrassed to liberally share that information, even if, like me, they want to swim.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/lessons-go-beyond-swimming-1.1064506#sthash.f1bFQztT.dpuf

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Ridgewood’s Graydon swim team surges toward championship meets

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Ridgewood’s Graydon swim team surges toward championship meets

JULY 25, 2014    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JULY 25, 2014, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW BIRCHENOUGH
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

GLEN ROCK — When Ridgewood’s Graydon swim team was in the water last year, success was always within reach. Unfortunately, it was the one time its swimmers were kept out of competition that overshadowed the team’s great season.

The squad attained some major achievements in 2013, including a dual-meet victory over Wyckoff and a second-place finish in the Lake League championship meet.

But the summer was marred when the New Jersey Pool Managers Association (NJPMA) ruled the team ineligible to compete in the county meet because a representative from the Graydon program had not attended the requisite four out of five NJPMA meetings.

The Graydon leadership has made sure no such penalty will be levied this year.

“Our head manager has gone to all the meetings,” said aquatics director Dan Burzinski shortly after his team’s 198-150 win over Glen Rock on Tuesday.

“That was a really tough thing. We were kind of penalized with our programs based on something that really sort of has to do with the lifeguarding,” he added. “I’m hoping that the kids that want to swim counties will have an opportunity this year, and we have a coaching staff to guide them and to cheer them on.”

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/graydon-going-strong-into-final-meets-1.1057139#sthash.drh41937.dpuf

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Ridgewood teen ready for 20-mile open-water swim in California

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Ridgewood teen ready for 20-mile open-water swim in California

JULY 13, 2014, 5:00 PM    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, JULY 14, 2014, 8:06 AM
BY LINDA MOSS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

RIDGEWOOD — Charlotte Samuels, 16, has literally swum around Manhattan, around Cape May and from Battery Park to Sandy Hook. But her open-water event next month will be quite different from those races: She’ll have to contend with sharks and whales, and will start swimming at pitch-black midnight.

Samuels, who will be a junior at Ridgewood High School this fall, is going to the West Coast to swim the 20.2-mile Catalina Island Channel in California on Aug. 4. Earlier this year, she completed the long Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, a 28.5-mile course.

The brunette teenager is also hoping to get a slot to swim the English Channel this fall, 21 miles. The Manhattan Island, Catalina and English Channel are the “Triple Crown” of open-water events, Samuels said, and she’s aiming to conquer all three.

“If I do it in the next four years I’ll still be the youngest person to ever do it: The youngest person right now is 20,” Samuels said.

On Sunday, Samuels returned to her home in Ridgewood after spending several days at a swimming camp at West Point, N.Y. Open-water swimming is her passion, one she has pursued since she was 12 and her paternal grandfather, Herb Tanenhaus of Eureka, Calif., gave her a copy of “Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer” by Lynne Cox.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/ridgewood-teen-ready-for-20-mile-open-water-swim-in-california-1.1050649#sthash.PRbFTTrJ.dpuf

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YMCA Junior Summer Swim Clinic

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Junior Summer Swim Clinic

YWCA Program
Registration is open for the YWCA Bergen County’s section 2 session of summer swim lessons. Classes run from July 21 through August 16, 2013, and offer American Red Cross swim instruction for ages 6 months to adult. YWCA members can register at www.ywcabergencounty.org, by phone, or in person. Summer classes include Junior Swim Clinic for ages 8 to 16, which teaches advanced swimmers the butterfly stroke, swimming starts, turns, and many other competitive skills. The Synchro Stars Swim Clinic provides the opportunity for swimmers to learn synchronized swimming skills such as sculling, underwater skills, and figures. After completing the Synchro 1 perquisite, Synchro 2 students continue to strengthen their skills, learn routines, and even qualify to enter a competition with the YWCA Synchro Stars. Private swim lessons are also available with one-on-one instruction for ages 4 to adult. The YWCA offers dozens of other fitness, wellness, and enrichment programs for kids, teens, adults, and seniors. Drop-in child care is available at the 112 Oak Street, Ridgewood facility. Visit www.ywcabergencounty.org for details or call 201-444-5600 for a free brochure.

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Graydon Pool Memberships

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Graydon Pool Memberships 

The Village Council and the Ridgewood Department of Parks and Recreation are excited to announce memberships are now on sale for the upcoming summer season and all are invited to join the Graydon Pool facility as season members for the 2014 summer season. Come enjoy fun in the sun so close to home! Opening day is Saturday, May 31st. 

Pool features include a shaded playground, water play fountains, shade kites, Adirondack chairs, picnic area, sheltered pavilion, charcoal grills, and The Water’s Edge Café. Additional amenities include a lending library of reading books, volleyball, basketball, ping-pong tables, shuffleboard, four-squares and hop-scotch. Special programs include “Storytime Under a Tree” for the little ones and swim instruction for children and adults, as well as an adaptive swim class. The Graydon Swim Team welcomes youth members, ages 8 to 14. 

Resident fees are $120 per adult, $110 per child (ages 2 through 15) and $30 for seniors. Non-resident adults will be charged $200 and children, ages 2 through 15, will be charged $175 for the13 week season. 

Badges are now on sale and can be purchased from the comfort of home on Community Pass at www.ridgewoodnj.net/communitypass (Visa and MasterCard are accepted). In person registration assistance will be available Saturdays, May 10 and May 17, 10:00 am to 12 noon, at the Graydon Pool Badge Office (onsite at the pool), 259 North Maple Avenue. Badges may be purchased daily throughout the operating season, May 31st through Septemer 1st. 

Details are available at www.ridgewoodnj.net/graydon or you may call the Recreation Office at 201-670-5560 with any questions or if special accommodations are needed.

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Graydon Pool in Ridgewood opens for season on Saturday

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Graydon Pool in Ridgewood opens for season on Saturday

MAY 30, 2014    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 30, 2014, 12:31 AM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER

With opening day coming up this Saturday, the 2014 season at Graydon Pool promises to offer pool-goers several new attractions.

This year, members will be able to access the pool via a new Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant ramp, which runs alongside an existing stone wall near the pool’s snack stand.

In addition to the ramp, the Parks and Recreation Department is now offering an adaptive aquatics class for children with special needs, through a collaboration with Mayor Paul Aronsohn and the local Community Access Network group representing those with disabilities.

“I think that we’ve just made the facility accessible and available to all residents, including sensitivity to special needs,” said Nancy Bigos, deputy director of the parks department. “I think that Graydon is really an incredible, special place and I think it has a lot to offer our residents just in the sense of community, and socialization and play.”

In addition to the adaptive aquatics class, there will be a new “introduction to diving” class and three new adult classes: an introduction to swimming for adults, an aquatic fitness program and water aerobics.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/swimming-season-starts-saturday-graydon-pool-1.1026259#sthash.kYwzMD7R.dpuf

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Graydon Pool Memberships – Available to All Are Now on Sale

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Graydon Pool Memberships – Available to All Are Now on Sale

The Village Council and the Ridgewood Department of Parks and Recreation are excited to announce memberships are now on sale for the upcoming summer season and all are invited to join the Graydon Pool facility as season members for the 2014 summer season. Come enjoy fun in the sun so close to home! Opening day is Saturday, May 31st. 

Pool features include a shaded playground, water play fountains, shade kites, Adirondack chairs, picnic area, sheltered pavilion, charcoal grills, and The Water’s Edge Café. Additional amenities include a lending library of reading books, volleyball, basketball, ping-pong tables, shuffleboard, four-squares and hop-scotch. Special programs include “Storytime Under a Tree” for the little ones and swim instruction for children and adults, as well as an adaptive swim class. The Graydon Swim Team welcomes youth members, ages 8 to 14. 

Resident fees are $120 per adult, $110 per child (ages 2 through 15) and $30 for seniors. Non-resident adults will be charged $200 and children, ages 2 through 15, will be charged $175 for the13 week season. 

Badges are now on sale and can be purchased from the comfort of home on Community Pass at www.ridgewoodnj.net/communitypass (Visa and MasterCard are accepted). In person registration assistance will be available Saturdays, May 10 and May 17, 10:00 am to 12 noon, at the Graydon Pool Badge Office (onsite at the pool), 259 North Maple Avenue. Badges may be purchased daily throughout the operating season, May 31st through Septemer 1st. 

Details are available at www.ridgewoodnj.net/graydon or you may call the Recreation Office at 201-670-5560 with any questions or if special accommodations are needed.

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