Catalina Channel Swimming Federation
Ridgewood teen says California swim ‘very lonely’ and required another gear
AUGUST 5, 2014, 8:26 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2014, 8:39 PM
BY ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
She saw the sun going down, and worried she might be pulled from the water because she was out of glow sticks and would be invisible to her father and companions in nearby boats guiding her in inky darkness across the Catalina Channel. The previous night of swimming, she said, felt like a dream, and she experienced an emotion that she never before felt while in the water.
“It was very lonely,” she said.
Charlotte Samuels, a 16-year-old open-water swimmer from Ridgewood, said she found another gear near the end of her 20.2-mile swim from Catalina Island to the Southern California coast almost as if she was able to “turn on a switch.” Her legs quivering, she stumbled over rocks and onto the shore after spending 20 hours, 20 minutes and 44 seconds in the water, taking a giant step toward becoming the youngest person ever to swim what is known as the Triple Crown of open-water swimming. The youngest to date was 20 years old.
One day later, as she rested Tuesday at a California house rented by her parents, she reflected on her accomplishment during a telephone interview. She described some of the anguish she felt, the taunting California coast that was farther away than it looked, the unexpected three-foot swells and currents that pushed her off course, and her determination to swim through feelings of uncertainty and the sharp pain of jellyfish stings that felt like electric shocks to her face, arms and legs.
She said she was sore and “mentally” exhausted after completing a swim that took about eight hours longer than she anticipated, and has decided to put off the third leg of the Triple Crown, a 21-mile swim across the English Channel, until next year because “I want to rest.”
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