Basking in the Sitka sun after completing ocean swim races on Saturday, athletes from across Alaska and the U.S. spoke of getting hooked on open-water swimming thanks to the annual Change Your Latitude event.
The annual gathering, considered the farthest north open-water swimming race in North America, is a fundraiser for the Baranof Barracudas Swim Club.
For participants, "it's a gateway to open water swimming," Hannah Iverson of Anchorage said Saturday after swimming the 3.3-kilometer course. “This is a great way to try open water swimming because everyone’s so friendly, and it’s very low key.”
Aela McCarthy, a rising Sitka High sophomore and Barracudas swimmer of five years, said the event is an important boost for the local swim club.
“This gives us more opportunities,” McCarthy said. “More people see the Barracudas. Some people will join masters swimming after doing this race.”
The event drew a record number of swimmers this year, with some 80 people completing either the one-kilometer, 3.3k, 6.6k or 10k event. That included 20 swimmers who live in Sitka.
McCarthy was the overall winner of the one-kilometer event on Saturday. It was her second year completing the race.
She described her journey as a swimmer over the years: "I used to love swimming on my own, and then I started doing it as a sport, and it’s pushed my limits more than I thought it could."
Iverson, who traveled from Anchorage to Sitka with her parents and her sister Jordan Iverson, swam in the event for her ninth time Saturday. Both Hannah and Jordan Iverson got their start in open-water at the Sitka event.
“I had never swam in the ocean before my first race here, or the adventure swims leading up to my first open-water swim race, which was the 10k (over six miles),” Hannah said.
The same was true for Jordan. In the years following her first open-water swim in Sitka, Jordan became the first woman from Alaska to complete the “triple crown” of open-water swimming: swimming 20.5 miles across the English Channel, from England to France, 28.5 miles around Manhattan Island, and 20 miles from Catalina Island to mainland California.
The Iversons noted the "adventure swims" that volunteers organize on four days leading up to the CYL race are a high point for travelers, who get a chance to swim in Sitka havens like Aleutkina Bay, Beaver Lake and around Shack Island.
Of Saturday's race, both sisters said they rode a nice current, and spotted crabs and small fish while swimming the course in front of Sitka National Historic Park.
Sitting next to the Iversons on Saturday was an Indiana woman who had just completed her first open-water race.
Paige Vlietstra, a swimmer of four years, had never swam in the ocean before finding the CYL race, and traveling here.
Vlietstra said she got into swimming after “trying to find a way to just move my body that I didn’t hate, and I started swimming laps, and fell in love with it.”
She spent a few weeks in Southeast ahead of the CYL event, and stayed with her aunt who lives in Sitka, making her first CYL experience a “two-for-one deal.”
“The salt water was a surprise, just because I’m not used to it at all, but it’s just not as scary as I thought it would be,” Vlietstra said. “It’s more fun than scary.”
Alaskans at the Sitka race strengthen their connections in the swim world. Mari Kanagy of Juneau said she purchased her first wetsuit, and braved some icy open-water swims in Juneau this spring in preparation.
At the Sitka event, she met other open-water swimmers who live in Juneau, and was invited to join a casual club there.
“You get to meet people and feel part of the community,” Hannah Iverson explained. “We love coming every year and seeing people year after year in a very fun, supportive community.”
“Especially in Alaska, the swimming community is a small community where everyone seems to know each other and support each other, and that’s not more evident than in Sitka itself,” Jordan Iverson said. “That’s what keeps bringing me back.”
Hannah said she encourages others to try out the sport: "If you’ve only swam in the pool, don’t be afraid.”
