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Make them real nice
and long, stretch it out.

Nice and long.

Come on, Kim, you got this.

Whoo-hoo!

-Ready?
-Yeah.

Fifteen hours
of really good conditions

in that water
is almost impossible.

-Right.
-So...

And I'm prepared to take
a bit of a beating.

Oh, I mean,
you're gonna take
a bit of a beating.

Yeah, I do like...

Yeah, I do like it rough.

You know, with this kind

of odd system coming in,

I would just wait.

Usually this time of year,

you don't have a chance in hell
to swim out.

The Farallon Islands
are the strange outcroppings

of very remote islands
30 miles off the coast
of San Francisco.

The goal is to swim
from the Golden Gate Bridge

to the Farallon Islands.

It's a distance
of about 30 miles.

Three men have done this swim.

And no woman
has done this swim yet,

and I want to be that woman.

-Simon's up.
-He's first up.

-What if he fails?
-Excuse me.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-The Aussie/Kiwi team.

-Oh, yeah.
-But it's a friendly rivalry.

He's going first, and he's going
to be the first to solo

Golden Gate Bridge
to the Islands.

We got together
to plan our swims

with Vito Bialla
and David Holshire.

You have Vito,
who is the captain.

David, who is
one of the crew members,

a very accomplished
marathon swimmer himself,

who also understands the tides.

So what we talked about
was what was

the best time
of the year to do this swim?

We obviously wanted to do
it as late in the season

as we could,
because the water's warmer.

But we also knew that
September, October, November

is not a time that you want to be swimming at the Farallons.

You get a slight little error,
but you get a huge flood
taking you out of the gates.

I think it's the
hardest swim in the world.

It's cold water,
most of the time

very, very rough conditions.
So, for a solo swim,

I'm going to be waiting for essentially the stars to align

for it to be
as flat as possible.

And then there is the
wildlife, as we call it.

The great white sharks.

I've seen the shark pattern.

They're all around the island,

all around the island,
all around the island.

I mean, either direction
doesn't bother me that way,

because I also feel,
for me personally,

it's...
it's a very special place.

Oh, it is,
for me in my head,

it's like the ecosystem
of the Farallons

is 300 yards wide.

But you're going towards it,
and that's...

When you're weak,
and you're...

Yeah, you're tired.

The idea of swimming at the
Farallons is completely nuts.

And I know 99.99% of people
will agree with that.

But that is also
a tremendous allure for me.

You're gonna make it,
there's no doubt about it.

-Yep, yep.
-This is good.

So I'll send you guys...
like, every five days,

we'll pick a day,
and then we'll back track

what the day does.

Okay.

I'm Vito Bialla,
and I'm Chairman of
Night Train Swimmers,

a nonprofit organization
that fosters swimming.

-Incoming!
-Buh-bye!

Bye!

I don't know
how to describe Kim.

First time we went swimming,

she got into the water,
and I took off

and did two strokes
and I looked, it's like,
"Where's Kim?"

And I looked behind me,
and she was behind me,

she was like flashing
and thrashing,

it's like, "Oh, my God,
did we make a mistake?"

But she had that determination,
that she wants to be a swimmer.

It's like, OK, well you
have tiny little hands,

you have tiny little feet;
you know, your form is awful.

You're gonna need a little help,

so next time she showed up,
she was just

-a little bit faster.
-Whoo!

And that's the story of Kim,
every time she showed up

she was more intense,
and she trains hard.

I met Kim
about four years ago.

I went down to swim
with Night Train

for the first time,
and Vito said,

"You need to
meet this Kiwi girl."

And I thought, yeah,
I suppose I'll meet her,

if she's Kiwi,
if she's not Australian,

she can probably
still be my friend.

She was a good swimmer,
she wasn't a great swimmer.

She'd only started swimming
probably a year and a half
before I met her.

But she was already
starting to do these

really long swims
and I thought that was

pretty special
that someone that wasn't

a native swimmer had made themselves a swimmer.

And I think that's
something about Kim,

that when she decides
to do something,

she jumps straight into it.

She doesn't really just
dip her toe in,

she tends to jump in full steam ahead, straightaway.

Whoo...

Kim's whole sort of

body language is, like,
bring it on.

She pours so much
of her love and passion

into the sport and the things
that she does,

and that's what
Kim's all about.

It's very special
to see her go from being

a shitty swimmer to one of
the greatest in the world.

I grew up on a
sheep and cattle farm,

basically in the middle
of nowhere,

south of this little
town called Te Kuiti,

and it's actually
the sheep-shearing
capital of the world.

We did do some swimming.
At that time every school,

pretty much in New Zealand
had a swimming pool.

You'd do some lengths,
you'd learn water safety

and things like that.

But, really,
ballet was my thing.

And that was something
that I started

when I was
really, really young.

It became a really, really
big part of my life.

Ballet definitely
didn't come easy to me,
I had to work for it,

and there were times when
I definitely wanted to quit,

but my mum made me continue,
and I'm really glad

that she did because it gave me

that sort of, I guess,
that grit to persevere,

even if something's
uncomfortable,
or if you don't like it.

I swim because
I feel so fulfilled.

I can't imagine my life
without swimming.

It really completes me
in a way I didn't know
I needed to be completed.

One thing I always notice

is when I'm back on land,
all of the signposts say,

"Go left, go right, slow down,"

it's all so controlled,
and prescribed.

When I'm out there
in the ocean, it's endless.

I am creating my own path.

It's this adventure,
and it's just a magical,

magical space, I'm weightless.

I don't know
what's going to happen,

I don't wanna know
what's gonna happen.

I don't wanna know how it ends.

Preparing for these swims is
really an all-consuming goal.

I also have a day job
that I love,

but I need to get
my training in,
either before or after.

So, I typically wake up
around four o'clock,
15 in the morning.

Check in with emails, things,

just to kinda see
how my day is positioned.

And then I swim in a pool
from45 until seven.

Then I drive back to
an aquatic park, and I
swim there for 45 minutes,

and then I go to work.

Last night I couldn't sleep.

It's this excited nerves,
it sort of comes in waves.

Sometimes I feel so surreal
that this is coming up.

My dear friend
and swim buddy, Simon,

his window starts on Monday.

He's up first, and I know
he's gonna do it,

and I'm really,
really excited for him.

Yeah, this is
the Golden Gate Bridge,

and every time I go
across this bridge,

in the daytime,
I look to see if I can see

those islands,
they're pretty elusive,

you can only see them on
a really, really clear day,

and that's what makes them...
that adds to the allure
and the mystery.

Every time I cross this bridge
I think about the swim.

I need to do this swim
to be able to move to the next
chapter of my life.

So, if I don't make the swim,
what does that mean?

I have to be
completely realistic,

that is a significant
possibility.

And I'm prepared for it,
I have trained for this.

Really all that
awaits me is fate.

I read one headline,

you know, about, you know,
swimming in shark-infested
water,

who would do that, and...
It is a little bit crazy.

So... I don't know, I just,

I wouldn't...
I wouldn't not do it.

So what does that say about me?

I don't know.

Yeah.

Really what led me
to swimming was,

you know, something that I,
at the time thought was

the worst possible thing
that could ever happen to me.

It was a fall down a staircase,

I hit my right leg
on this big ceramic pot

at the bottom of the staircase.

I also hit my head,

and my leg just kept swelling.

I didn't really realize
how bad it was,

there's a period of time
I don't remember,

and I am literally
waking up post-surgery,

and the surgeon,
Dr. Prieto said to me,

"We saved your leg,
but we don't know what,

if any functionality
you'll ever have."

What I ended up being
diagnosed with was called

acute compartment syndrome,

and it's basically
blunt force trauma to a limb.

Because my leg was so swollen,

when they're slicing my leg
to release the pressure,

I ended up with these
two big, gaping holes

on each side of my leg.

I was 30 minutes
from amputation,

and that was because
the nerves were dying.

And I remember
these nurses coming in

with handfuls of this gauze
that they would

soak in a little tub.

They would be packing in
these fistfuls of gauze

into these two cavities
on each side of my leg,

as I'm lying there,
watching this.

So here I am,
with my legs saved,

it looks awful.

At the time, I think I was
a pretty... honestly speaking,

I was probably pretty
superficial back then.

I felt very sort of stripped down, very vulnerable,

sort of fed into this
powerless state of mind
that I really hated.

That was a very,
very low point in my life,

and it was also
really, really lonely.

I didn't want anyone
to see me like this.

I went to physical therapy,
ended up doing that
for two years, full-time.

It just seemed like here I was,

facing this mountain,
and I had no idea

how I was gonna climb it.

But I told myself,
I'm not gonna accept this.

And I also learned
a lot about myself.

You know, I can walk now.
I can also swim.

If this hadn't have happened,

I would never be where
I am today, never.

And I feel like
I was given this gift.

I really wasn't given it,
I worked for it, but...

When I was still
doing my physical therapy,

what frustrated me was,
I could walk now,

but I really couldn't
walk long distances,

and I couldn't run
at that point.

And I still felt really stuck.

I just wanted to be free.

I started swimming in a pool.

Put one arm in front of
the other, I could kick.

It definitely wasn't pretty.

The lead up to that
was a big deal though,

because I had these
massive scars,

and I didn't really want
anyone to see them,

but I realized when
I got into the pool,

and started talking to people,

nobody was looking at my legs, nobody was looking at my scars.

I met a couple of
guys at the pool,
and they said to me,

"You know, have you ever
thought about swimming
in the Bay?"

I was, like,
"The San Francisco Bay?"

And they're like, "Yeah."

My legs, are numb!

That's good,
you whole body's

-gonna be numb
in about three minutes.
-OK.

I just loved it.

I loved it, I could
remember getting in,

and swimming to
the end of the dock,

and just looking out
at this grand expanse, and...

I could see the Golden Gate
Bridge in the background,

I was like, this is what
I've been looking for.

This is... It just felt
so adventurous to me,

and I was probably only really
100 hundred yards off shore,

you know,
there's no lane lines,
and no wall to hang onto,

and it was just this space

that I wasn't familiar with,
but in some ways, I was.

It was also really exciting,
because I was feeling,

and at that time
I was off the pain meds.

But what I remember
for those two years

when I was on all that stuff,

that I just felt very,
I couldn't feel.

Now, I was just coming alive
and everything ignited in me,

and I couldn't believe
that I had done that.

That was really the beginning
of my open water swimming.

Open water swimming
is very different

than a marathon run,
century bike ride,

a triathlon,
any team sports, of course.

It's you versus nature, truly.

You go from the casual,
swim out a mile

and come back in,
to the very, very hardcore,
the channel swims,

And, generally,
in the channel swims,

people can and do swim it with,
we call it "gear".

It could be a wetsuit,
it could be fins,
it could be paddles.

Those people exist,
we support them,

but the hardest core,
the people who are
truly the purists of the sport

swim with no wetsuit,
no fins, no hand paddles.

The world of marathon
swimming has specific rules
that you have to follow,

if you want to be
a pure marathon swimmer.

So, the first rule
is that you can only wear

one swimsuit,
one pair of goggles,
and one cap.

That swimsuit can't give you
any buoyancy or any warmth.

A marathon swim in
an open water world

is generally defined
as ten kilometers,
or 6.2 miles, and above.

It is truly nonstop,
so, once you leave shore,
you swim.

You can't touch
the boat during your swim,
and no one can touch you.

You can't have anyone
in the water with you

for the first three hours
of any swim,

and after that you can
have someone pacing you

for an hour at a time,
every second hour.

We think about people

going to the South Pole
or North Pole,

we think about people
riding a bike across America,

we think about triathletes
and marathon runners.

These people,
to be honest with you,

are incredible athletes,

but they are
assisted by something.

Swimmers are truly naked.

Does it look crazy, is it crazy?

I guess the answer could be
yes, from some perspective,,

but we think it's natural,
we think it's the purest form
of endurance sports.

Here we go!

It's definitely frost,
but we love it, though.

I think that what makes
the ocean different,

as opposed to
getting in the pool,

it's just this,
this really palpable
energy in the ocean.

It's this
abundance of nature...

it just feels so alive.

I love that with the salt
content you're more buoyant,

there's just something
so nurturing about

being this body in the water.

Oh, shit!

Ooh, baby!

As a kid, I was always
playing in the waves
in the ocean,

and it connects me
with this playfulness.

And I can't stop laughing!

I laugh a lot
when I'm in the water,

I talk a lot
when I'm in the water,

because it just
makes me so happy,

and it is this playground.

Yeah, it's...

Whoo!

It doesn't get
much better than this.

Whoo!

Okay.

Here we are!

We've done five coves of death.

Five, how long has that taken?

It's taken us two hours
and 28 minutes.

Not too bad.

There's the time there,
and we're feeling great.

Feeling fantastic.

This is what we do,
we love it,

and now we're gonna go
to work, right Ozzie? Right?

Let's go and do some work
and come back,
and do it again.

We're gonna do it again.

All right, good job. Boom.

This is the Morning Swim Show,
I'm your host,

Jeff Commings,
and it's a pleasure

to have with us today in the
Finis monitor, Kim Chambers.

The New Zealand native
completed the
extraordinary feat

of swimming across
seven major waterways,
dubbed the Ocean Seven,

She's just one of six people
in the world to have done it.

Oceans Seven
was a concept I created,
based entirely on seven summits.

So, the seven highest points
on the seven continents
around the globe.

And I wanted to create
an event,

a goal for open water swimmers to attain.

The Oceans Seven are the seven toughest channels around the world:

The Cook Strait, between
the North and South Island
in New Zealand.

The Moloka'i Channel
in Hawaii in between

the island of Moloka'i
and the island of Oahu.

The Strait of Gibraltar,
between Morocco and Spain.

Catalina Island,
between Santa Catalina Island
and Southern California.

The English Channel,
between England and France.

The Tsugaru Channel
in Northern Japan,

between the main island
of Honshu and Hokkaido.

And the last one
is the North Channel,
between Scotland and Ireland.

All of these channels
really tax the athlete,

they have to be
good at everything,

they have to be good
at very cold water,

they have to be
very good in warm water.

They have to deal with
all kinds of jellyfish,

I mean, all kinds of jellyfish,

lion's mane jellyfish
in the North Channel,

moon jellyfish in
Southern California,

Portuguese Man O'war.

This is a real challenge
for everybody.

My first marathon solo swim was the Cook Strait.

I wanted my first solo
to be at home.

At the time,
my maternal grandfather
was very ill,

and he's a really big
part of my life,

and I knew this would
make him pretty proud.

I did another open water swim
here in California,

and I also did
the Moloka'i Channel.

So, all of these swims,
I would hear about them,

that these were challenges
that you could do,

and it's interesting,
I never really decided
from the beginning

that I was gonna set out to do
the Oceans Seven challenge,

it just kind of took
on a life of its own.

It wasn't until
I'd really done three of them

without knowing
that I thought to myself,

"Well, I've done three,
I've got four more to go."

So it became this really,
an all-consuming goal.

And I loved imagining all of these swims ahead of me and completing them one by one,

and it would take me
all around the world.

You know,
you're this one swimmer

in this grand expanse
of the ocean,
with just a boat next to you,

and you could have 6,000 feet
depth of water below you.

It was this great unknown,

and then that
experience with nature,
it just fed my soul.

That Cooke Strait swim,
I was escorted by dolphins,

and I could hear them
underwater first,
I could hear the squeak.

And I would squeak back,
I don't know if
they could understand me,

but it just seemed like
the right thing to do,

and they would zip
underneath me, beside me,

in front of me,
at least for 40 minutes.

And that...

was an incredible feeling,

and I felt like
I was tapping into,

not only this expanse
of myself that
I didn't know existed,

but also these feelings
that come up when you're
doing the swim,

the adrenaline that just surges through your body,

I can only experience that
in the water,

that's what I'm discovering.

There's so much that she does
that she doesn't even, like,

mention to people
in preparation for this stuff,

that would just
blow people's minds.

I was privileged enough
to proof for her
on the North Channel swim,

you know, Ireland to Scotland.

And for the Oceans Seven,

I guess a lot of people
leave it the end,

because it's the coldest water.

But every day,
she would take us down

and make us get in the water
and acclimatize

to the 53-degree water,
and it really gave me

a lot of respect for how
she can dislocate her mind,

because after about 20 minutes, I felt pretty good.

But after an hour
I had to get out,
and she would stay out.

I mean, it's just unbelievable,
what she can do.

She put on 65 pounds
for Ireland.

You know, it's just
absolutely mind-blowing,
the level of commitment.

And the fact that
she didn't take a warm shower

for six months,
are you kidding me?

The woman's tough as nails.

She's found a self
that didn't exist before,

a self that's very confident
in who she is
as a young woman,

and I think she's
proven to herself

that you can do anything

as long as you
set your mind to it.

And we live in such
a patriarchal society,

that for a young woman

to be able to transform
herself like this,

I think is truly inspirational.

I think now
it's about getting back,

it's about showing people
what's possible.

You know, Ireland to Scotland,

she was borderline knocking on
the door of something bad.

That first eight hours I think,

was just smooth as silk,

she was just cruising,
cruising,

nothing, maybe a few jellyfish.

But then just
the wheels came off.

She'd already been stung,
but she didn't say anything

because she knew that if she
said she'd been stung,

the boat captain would pull her.

And after about nine hours,

it started to impact on her

and she started vomiting
whatever we were giving her.

So that became a concern,
that she couldn't
keep anything down.

We'd try to navigate
around these jellyfish,

they were moving slow,
like big trashcans
with tentacles, right.

So we'd, like,
five yards this way,
go back, go this way,

so we got her around probably a couple hundred of those things.

But then, I mean, there was
a couple of times, like,

"Hey, you know what,
just put your head down,

you've got like 50 yards,
like a minefield,

to just go through,"
and she would just take it,

and just right through.

I mean, my estimation,
she got stung, like,

you know, hundreds and hundreds of these things.

And I jumped off
at the end to escort her in,

and the moment I jumped in,
I got hit by one and it hurt.

I've never seen a human
take on so much punishment,

and actually
find a way through.

You know, the amount of resolve
that she demonstrated,

I've never seen it.

When she came out
of the water she was...

cold, as cold as could be,

she was so cold
and she was hypothermic

by the time we got her
out of the water,

and it just took so long
to warm her up.

And my immediate reaction
was to rub her down,

to keep her warm, but she...
"No, no, no, don't touch me."

So, we had to just pat her,
and even trying
to get her clothes on,

because her body was so sore,
and so toxic from the jellyfish.

I was in a hospital
for three days

in a respiratory ward,
then I flew back here
to San Francisco,

and I was in a cardiac ward
for four days.

I almost died.

And I think about that a lot.

Was that worth it? Yes.

Would I do it again? Yes.

Completely.

I'm fully prepared for that,
again.

When I became aware
that Kim was involved
in these open water swims

and working to do
the Oceans Seven,

I realized that she
was somebody special.

There's a very spiritual quality
to her

and to her pursuit
of self-awareness

using these big swims
as the vehicle.

Once you get in shape
so that you can swim
for five or ten hours,

there's a certain Zen-like
quality to the activity.

You get an opportunity
to look inside yourself.

The swim becomes a metaphor,
if you will,

for the rest of what
you're doing in your life.

The kind of people
that do open water swimming

are the people
who are very strategic,

they do think mile after mile,

day after day,
month after month,

that's the mentality
of open water swimming,

especially marathon swimming.

So, when people like Kim
are doing swims,

when they're crossing
these channels,
it's the same thing.

You're going,
"How in the world
am I gonna exist

through this next minute,
this next hour,
this next mile?"

You just go, "It can't be done,"
but these people do it.

How are you doing, Ozzie?

-I'm super fantastic.

It's funny, people say, "You've done all these

long cold-water swims, yeah,
you must not feel the cold."

And I feel the cold
just as much as anyone else,

it just doesn't
worry me as much.

You know, if we
stay in that comfort zone
all the time, that's boring.

We are goal-orientated people, and we do these things

because we set a target
we want to reach,

we do have to make
sacrifices along the way

to reach those targets,
but the journey is just

as important as arriving
at the destination.

Here we are,
just taking a cruise around
the Farallon Islands

and there's a shark cage
diving boat over there,

and a few of them
out here today.

This is the island,
the main operation

with all
the research scientists.

From the first day that
I went out to the Farallons,

I was just captivated
by that space.

Whoo!

Some people
sail around those islands,

some people go
shark cage diving there.

Some people go whale watching.

And being a part of
Night Train swimmers...

we did the first relay swim
out to the Farallons.

We did that in 2011,
and I was fortunate enough

to be on two other relays
since then.

The Farallons are to me,
the most unique place on earth,

and the first time I went
out there and saw them
on the horizon

I got this emotional feeling,
and I'm not an emotional guy.

But I felt this twinge,

it's like I wanted
to almost cry, it's like,

"Oh, my God, this is beautiful,"

and the closer we got,
it stunk really bad.

It had ruggedness,
it had mystique,

it had emotion,
it had everything
you could possibly describe.

And I told Kim one time, I said,
"It's like being in heaven

and talking to the devil
at the same time,"
it is that unique.

The Farallons are 30 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge.

These are rocky islands where
you could have fierce seas,

you know, you can
have waves over 25 feet.

The islands are located
only six miles from
the continental shelf,

they're very near this
major upwelling center

that brings biological
productivity to the surface.

They're close to
the California current,

which is this river in the sea

that brings all this nutrients and production

to basically create a great
feeding area for wildlife.

The Farallon Islands are the largest sea bird colony

in the contiguous
United States, we have over
300,000 breeding seabirds.

It's a globally significant place for feeding great white sharks.

We have thousands of seals and sea lions that use the islands to breed,

and we have several species of unique plants and animals

that exist on the island,
on the land itself.

I think the main thing
why the Farallon Islands
is special

is because of the wildlife,

because of the unique

concentrations of wildlife
that exist there.

Places like this
don't exist in most
of the world anymore.

Kim seems to be very passionate about the island,

she seems to really recognize
its power, its wildness,

the uniqueness of
the wildlife and the place.

Most people don't even know
the Farallons exist,

or even if they do,
they're sort of an afterthought,

but she seems to realize
that it is a very special place,

and those of us who get to
work out there feel the same.

So I just swam through
that gap.

Whoo!

It's beautiful out here!
Beautiful.

Pretty amazing.
Whoo!

The water feels so good,

there's a few jellyfish,
a lot of seals and sea lions,

and a few Night Train swimmers.

Whoo!

One, two, three.

Two swimmers are planning to make the near 30-mile trek

from the Golden Gate
to the Farallon islands,

through an area called
the Red Triangle.

Ten percent of all
shark attacks worldwide

take place in that area.

Why are you guys doing...

It can't be just for
the love of the game, huh?

This is a swim
that means a lot,
particularly to me.

I think those islands
are really, really special.

I mean, they're part
of San Francisco,
they're just 30 miles way, and--

-Just 30 miles away.

I won't be saying that
during my swim.

Now, how cold is
this water gonna be,
what are you expecting?

We're very lucky that the water
is a lot warmer now than normal.

We'll probably start at almost
mid-60's at the bridge.

There's two people that have
swam from the island
to the shore,

but no one's actually
done it the other way,

because there is a thought
that swimming from warm water
to cold water

is quite difficult
and dangerous.

You know, so as early
as Tuesday night

you're going to go out there.

-Yeah, Ozzie will.
-You will? OK.

-Yeah, so Kim's swimming
a week after me.
-Yeah, Ozzie's first.

-OK.

I am a swimmer
and an avid snorkeler, for sure,

but have never swam
at the Farallons.

I don't think I ever will.

What a great white shark
looks like when you're

five feet away from it
is terrifying.

These animals are unbelievable,
and it's not the length,
it's the width.

I was five feet away from
a 16-foot female white shark
that was five feet wide.

So, the idea of
getting in the water,

even though the chances
are relatively low,

of encountering a shark,
most of the year,

is still something
I don't think I'm ever gonna do.

There's no way
that I would attempt this swim,
it's too cold, too challenging,

it's just tough, so, I'm not in
that one percent of one percent.

I can't even say it's like,
the Mt. Everest
of our sport,

it's something beyond that.
It's like Mt. Everest
on the North Pole

in the middle of the Pacific.

Yeah, no,
this is a badass swim.

It has sharks, it has waves,
it has tides, it has wind,

it has currents going all
different directions,

the currents go into the bay
and they go out to the bay,

so you have the potato patch,
which is one of the most
dangerous places in the world.

An area about six miles,

it's shallow, it's 22 feet.

Got the wind going this way,
the current going this way,

so, it's routinely
ten-foot waves.

I got asked at the pool,
a couple of weeks
before my swim,

"Do you have a death wish?

You're swimming in
freezing cold water,

there are very strong tides,
out to an area

that's full of
great white sharks,

that doesn't sound like
a reasonable thing to do."

And I said to this person,
"Yeah, that's a fair question."

But these swims are
very much calculated risks.

What we do is,
we plan the right time
of year to do it,

so there's not as many sharks,

we spend years and years
training in the cold water

to make sure that our body's
used to the cold.

We have a lot of experts
who look at the tides

and the currents
and advise us on this.

Yes, it is risky,
yes, it is dangerous,

but it's a hell
of a lot of fun as well.

Here we are, Ted.

First person in the world

to swim from the Farallons to
the Golden Gate Bridge in 1967?

-'66 and '67.
-Yes.

'66, I went twice... attempt.

Why did you want to do
that swim? To be the first?

-Very, very simple.
-OK.

I'd just done the double
across the channel.

So, the English Channel,
you did a double crossing,

which is, England to France,
France to England.

I was already in shape,
and I figured...

You had to do
something with it, right?

-No problem.
-Right.

Until I found out about

these funny things.

So, we're going along,
and I'm swimming,

and I see the captain,
somebody tapping the captain

on the back of the shoulder.

And they're pointing
in the water.

And I...
I'm getting this picture.

The captain turned to the mate,
and gave him the wheel,

and he reached inside
of his coat and pulled
out this long barrel

.357 Magnum pistol,
and he goes...

I remember it was two
or three shots.

He actually fired
into the water?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

And I stopped
for a second and I said,

you know, "Any problems?"
"No, no problem, keep swimming."

-Just like that, just like that?
-Huh? Yeah.

-Just kept on swimming.
-But you came back
in 1967 to do it again.

Yeah, you don't like
unfinished business.

It hadn't been done before,
number one,

and number two, I'd already had an investment.

And I was already
in pretty good shape,

and now I knew
what it was all about.

Right, right,
you knew about these guys.

-Huh?
-You knew about these guys?

I heard about these guys,
I did a little research,

I checked
the water temperatures,

checked the currents.

We did the swim,

it was simple,
straightforward.

And in order to make
the swim to the bridge,

you have to come in
on the flood.

-Yes, yes.
-And you have to time
your location

a little north of the bridge,
and then it'll wash you
right in,

and I still remember,
I'm swimming along,

you know, and I look up the
shore, I saw Point Benita go by,

-Oh, yeah.
-I stopped swimming,
I took a feeding,

I still saw everything going by.

Yeah, so you were moving.

And I realized
that I could die,

and I still would make the swim.

Yeah.

Were you afraid of it?

I didn't notice till after...

But you know, based on your
1966 attempt with the shark,

in 1967 when you came back
and you did it,
were you afraid to do it,

like did that drive you
in any way?

I thought about it,
but what are you going to do?

Yeah, you can't control it.

You have to take
what life offers you.

Yes, yes you do.

Good morning,
I'm Steve Ensky with sympathy

for Simon Dominguez,
who jumped in the water

near the Golden Gate Bridge.

He meant to be
the first person ever

to swim 28 miles
to the Farallon Islands,

he made it the first 24 miles
and more.

He was in the water
for 18 hours,

Simon Dominguez told me
that he could see

the Farallon Islands
in the near distance,

but his family could see a
great white shark near him.

The skipper of the boat
made the crucial call
to end the swim.

He had a great white
circling him,
"You're not going back in."

He said, "I'm OK with that."

When Simon safely reached land,

he agreed the right call
had been made.

You know, we're all sort of under this illusion

that in our day-to-day life
that we've got control
of things.

But we don't, and out there,
you really, really don't.

You know, there was a shark

that was circling him,
a great white shark.

You know, he was ailing,
as you are,

after 18 hours of swimming,

and his neck was bleeding
from chafing.

We put stuff on to prevent that,
like lanolin,

but after 18 hours,
you know, that's gone.

Given what happened
with Simon's swim,

the plan is for me to jump in
at the islands

and swim east towards
the Golden Gate Bridge.

Jumping in at the islands
at the beginning of my swim,
I'm gonna be fresh,

I'm not gonna look like
I'm easy prey.

But it's gonna be
very, very scary.

Very, very scary.

I don't wanna
do anything foolish,

this is a calculated risk.

But there is no hesitation
in my mind about doing this.

When I knew that it was
a shark sighting for Simon,

I was struck by the fact
that there was no wavering
in my mind, no hesitation.

It made me even more determined

and, you know,
Simon wrote to me and my crew

and said, you know...

my completion of
this swim will feel like
a success for him,

and I just thought
that was just beautiful.

Hey, guys.

Whoo!

A number of people
have asked me whether Kim
should be doing the swim.

Actually, a number of people
have told me, Kim should not
be doing the swim.

I don't know if that's true,
I think Kim should be
doing the swim.

Kim has put a lot
of time and effort
into getting ready for the swim.

She knows that there's
wildlife out there,

she knows
that the currents are strong,

she knows
that the water is cold.

We're gonna take
some precautions

on Kim's swim that we
didn't take on my swim.

First of all,
we're gonna have two boats,

so, Kim is gonna swim
in between two boats,

which means that
she's a lot safer, you know,

from having any marine life
come up to her
when she's between the boats.

She's gonna wear
a shark shield on her ankle,

and have one hanging over
the side of the boat,

which sends out an
electronic pulse

that sharks don't like.

When the conditions
on these swims
get very, very difficult,

you know, you get
scared as an athlete,

because you get scared
that your dream of

completing the swim
is not gonna happen.

You know, Kim and I have both swam the length of Lake Tahoe,

we've both swam
the English Channel.

You have two very,
very difficult swims,

but the Farallon Island swim

is a more difficult swim

in a number of ways.

A number of females
who theoretically

are better swimmers than Kim

have tried and not succeeded,

but I think she'll do
very well on this swim.

Whoo!

I just had a completely
random thought.

The next time I'm swimming
on the starboard
side of this boat,

I'll be doing my swim.

I really,
really want this swim.

And I know now that...

it's completely
in the hands of fate.

And I'm just really preparing
myself for this surrender.

It's so scary, so scary.

It's scarier than the sharks.

This is...

This is giving of myself...
to fate.

No, I can do this, right?

-Huh?
-I can do this.

Oh, there's no doubt.

-Yeah.
-No doubt, absolutely.

-Yup. Just gotta be patient.
-Okay.

Don't push it
too hard at first.

-No racing.
-No, no racing, no.

-No racing.

Hey, good morning.

Vito, I have you
on speakerphone,

I've got Mum and Matt here.

I read your email,
and you said 80 percent a go,
are we going?

-As far as I'm concerned we're going, yes.-Oh, shit, OK.

I called the island,
I talked to them,
they said it looks like

the weather's
gonna hold for two days,

it might be a little bit
windy when we start,

then it's gonna calm down.

It's not perfect,
but it's very good.

We need to go.
If we get out there

and it's stupid conditions,

then we'll have a discussion
and say,

"Hey, you know, let's go

drink some Jaägermeister,
or something," but...

For now it's a go,
you've trained so hard,

you have a good chance of
making it and let's go do it.

I can't believe it's today.

Yup, take it easy,
just relax.

Um... but also let's go.

OK, let's do it.

-Is that right?
-Yeah.

I'll see you tonight,
I'll see you tonight.

-I'll see you at nine, Vito.
-OK.

-OK, thank you.
-I'll see you then.

-Sure, of course. See you, bye.-OK, OK.

Kim, is this gonna be
a dinner cruise?

Should we eat before?

I hear you have, like,
a boring weekend planned.

I do.

Tell me all about it,
what are you doing?

Well, I joined here
with my friends,

and my mum from New Zealand,

and we're gonna go
for a little swim.

Things that can go wrong:

Vito can have a heart attack.

He's packed up as a skipper,

he knows how
to call channel 16,
the helicopter's on its way.

A shark could bite
Kim in the ass,

same thing, 16,
helicopter's on its way,
we have a doctor on board.

If you see a shark or a fin,
don't start screaming.

That's panic on the boat,
it screws everything up.

I can't think of
anything else, really.

So you wanna add something
to the briefing?

Yeah, so I'm just
really thrilled

everybody's here,
it's really special for me,

it's a very special journey,

and I'm just excited for
you guys to all be here.

I took off my watch,
I don't wanna know
what time of day is.

I don't wanna know
that I've been
swimming for eight hours,

or that I've got four hours
to go, I know when I'm done.

-All right, let's go.
-Yeah, we'll set sail.

Roger, we're
gonna be putting one swimmer

in the water at00pm
in the Farallons, over.

All right,
signal affirmative, thank you.

Thank you, and contact traffic

when your swimmer
is in the water, over.

We're just gonna
go for a little swim.

As you do on a Friday night.

You know, I feel
very calm right now.

So, everyone's like,
keeping the mood really
light, which is awesome.

And I'm excited
to get in the water now.

Yeah, I'm ready.

We'd like you to monitor

channel 1-2
while you're offshore,

before you enter
the precautionary area.

Yeah, let's just
put this everywhere,
and then we'll go further them.

Just basting the meat.

-This is good marinade.
-Good stuff.

I'm gonna ladle
it under my armpits,

between my legs.

Did you shake
with the adrenaline?

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

It might have been a fish,

one of those little fish.

Like a lightning bug
or something.

Five minutes, five minutes.

-We love you, Kim.
-Thank you all so much.

-Get in the damn water
and start swimming.

Whoo-hoo!

-Here we go.
-We've started.

-Let's go, Kim.
-Go Kim!

Those first few hours
are gonna be really,
really, really tough.

I do love swimming at night,
but night at the Farallons,
it's a whole other level.

I'm battling my thoughts
of self-doubt.

I'm battling fear.

And also balancing that with my thoughts of excitement.

And it's this feeling
of vulnerability,

but also feeling like
I'm just where I should be.

Hey, girl, your feeding time.

You ready for it, here it comes.
Ready?

Yup.

-Thank you.
-Yeah.

-Kim you're doing great.
-All right, Kim.

You're already
making really good progress.

How's the water, you good?

We're a fair way
from the Island already.

-Let's go.
-Good?

All right.

Kind of the way
she's doing it,

half-hour by half-hour,
we take it half-hour,

and next thing you know,
you're, like, almost done.

I have a crew of 12 people.

They're all very, very
important people in my life.

Every person has been picked
because they're positive
and they believe in me,

and they support me,
so there's no negative energy
on the boat.

I'll be fed every 30 minutes,

and that will be
sort of the routine.

Hungry, girl?

I could do with some bourbon.

All right...

I'm kidding.

Looking strong,
your stroke count hasn't
changed, it's perfect.

Yeah, just make it real nice
and long, stretch it out.
Nice and long.

Your job as
a crew member is really
to keep the swimmer safe,

to make the swim
as easy as possible for them,

and to fuel them right
so that they can continue on.

But you have their life
in your hands.

All their job is to do
is keep swimming,

but you have to monitor
everything for them.

[Vito This box of food weighed
about 70 pounds,

maybe 80 pounds,
so let's subtract packaging

and ice out,
let's say it's 50 pounds.

She's gonna consume 50 pounds
of this shit over the swim.

In these waters you burn
a thousand calories an hour

and you can only put
two to three hundred back.

-It's ready.

Just doing radio check,
we're about to feed
in one minute, as well.

Copy that.

Nice stroke down,
nice stroke down.

Yeah, I'm just vomiting
for some reason.

That's all right,
don't overfeed.

-Yeah, I think I did that.
-Yeah.

Drink a little
to get that taste
out of your mouth.

It's like deja-vu.
I remember, we started at, like,

four in the morning, and we
were up all night, pretty much.

What time did we wake up,
three,30, three?

Three, yeah, three.

No one really
slept that night,

so, it was like being up,

This hand is crazy
because I'm sleep-deprived.

You know, when you're
swimming through the night,

what's really special
is anticipating dawn,

because you're breaking up
the experience,

and you're always giving
yourself something

to look forward to.

And when you can see
the light peek through

on the horizon,
and the clouds change,

and it's like,
OK, it's dawn.

And then you tell yourself,

"Okay, I just gotta get
to the next feeding."

There's sometimes
I'll feel really cold,

and then your mind
starts spinning,

you're like, "I'm cold,
I'm getting hypothermic,

no, no, no, I'm not."

Some people count strokes,

some people sing songs.

But I'm checking in
with myself the whole time,

as I'm watching the boat.

I'm just talking to
myself the whole time,

and even during
these bad pitches,

I know a feeding will be every 30 minutes, like clockwork.

Right, so we're gonna do
a one, two, three punch.

Shark shield first,
feed, Ashley.

She doesn't actually
need to like, see you,

she just needs
to like, feel you,

slapping the water
next to her, you know?

Whoo!

All right, shark shield.

Three things are gonna happen:

I'm gonna send this to you,
take the shark shield off,

do not drop it,
and then we're gonna feed you.

-OK.
-And then she's gonna

jump in and swim with you.

-Yup.
-OK, thank you.

-You gotta loop it on there.
-Ow.

Yeah, I know,
just don't touch that part.

Loop it on there nice and tight.

Make sure it's on there.

Goodbye, friend.

-Oh, we're good now.
-We don't need it?

Yeah, it'll shock you,
that means you're alive.

I feel a lot better.

Yeah, well,
we figured out what it is.

I ate too much.

Yeah, we're gonna
dilute everything.

All right, here it comes.

-Am I OK, I'm doing good?
You're doing really well.

-You're looking great.
-Just concentrate on
your long, strong stroke.

Ashley's gonna come in,
you can pace with her,
all right?

She's gonna swim with you
for about an hour, all right?

-Okay, thanks.
-That's gonna knock out
the big chunk.

-Yup.
-Whoo!

You can't have anyone
in the water with you

for the first three
hours of any swim,

and after that,
you can someone pacing you

for an hour at a time,
every second hour.

Long, Kim, long, long.

Nice and long, nice and long.

Kick those feet.

Yeah, you don't have
a shark thing on there anymore.

Channel 12, channel 1-2, sir.

I didn't copy that.

We're 2.4 miles
to the light ship,

and in the training swim
we had a guy and a girl

swim from the light ship
to Alcatraz in three hours.

Wow.

This girl's an all-star, man,
that's just unbelievable.

Right on track,
drawing her own line.

Life is good.

-Everything OK?
Everything's looking good.

That was the most beautiful
night swim I've ever done.

People are very
impressed to see you smiling.

-Good sign.
-Yeah.

A lot of very excited
people back in town.

-Really?
-A lot of people,
a lot of emails,

-a lot of messages
-Ready for the
white board to come out?

-Yes.

No talking, let's swim.

-Yeah, baby. Whoo!

There you go...

Go ahead, Kim!

He's writing signs and he's
telling her funny stuff,

or any stuff to get her annoyed,
take her mind off the pain.

So she gave him
the one-finger salute.

She's got a sense of humor.

She's in good spirits,
that's the key.

Oh, yeah.

The Gate!

Just fucking relax, dude,
that's a long ways away.

What are you looking at?

I'm looking at the finish.

Looking a half hour away
out from Point Benita.

Looking how much further
Kim has to go

before she's successful,
not very far at all.

In some ways,
in the other ways,

she's got quite a way to go.

I just hope her body holds up.

It's taking forever.

Yeah, Kim, you know
it's gonna be hard.

Let's do this!

So we have them...
or we have...?

Hey, Simon,
what side should I be on?

-The outside.
-Outside of her?

-Little behind her.
-Yeah.

Good job, Miguel.

Can I... hot tea?

Yup.

Yes.

I'm worried I'm not gonna
make it, it's so far away.

You've got it,
just keep doing
what you're doing.

You've been through
so much worse, Kim.

Ireland was so much worse,

you were almost dying
at this point.

You're totally alert right now.

-Let's do this.
-You got this.

Here's the thing,
she'll just keep slugging away.

I mean, she's not gonna stop.

You'd have to run her over
to make her stop.

I'm not worried,
I'm just watching her get tired.

And as I've said,
I've seen her in worse states,

so I don't have any worries.

I just want her to finish it,
'cause she'll know she can.

Heck, yeah!

Do it, Kiwi.

She's working so hard.

She's really putting it
all in right now.

She'll be as cold as a frog.

She's really cold,
she's really tired and sore.

She's just
thinking she doesn't...

she wants to get the swim done,
she doesn't wanna

have to do it again.

It's inspirational,
watching this.

It is, and as we're
all are watching it...

It's really that
mind breaking through...

Oh, she's so strong mentally.

-There's the bridge.
-Go get it, go get it,
Kim!

Go get that bridge, Kim.
Go get it, go!

Stretch it out.

There you go, Kim.

Stretch it out. Nice.

Kim... one mile.

One mile.

One mile!

Just keep swimming, Kim!
One mile!

-She's trying, I can tell.
-She is really digging.

I'm about to.

You got it, let's go, Kim! Go!

Look where you are,
and keep swimming.

Let's go!

-Go, Kim!
-Come on, Kim!

Come on, Kim.
Stretch it out!

Go, Kim!

You got it!

Kick, Kim, give me a kick!
Kick!

Stretch, there you go.

Kick!

Kim, oh, my gosh.
You're my hero.

I fucking did it!

-I can touch the boat now?
-Oh, yeah.

You can touch the boat.
You got this.

One at a time, one at a time.

One at a time.

I fucking did it.

Yeah, you did.

I couldn't have done it
without any of you.

All right, time,
17 hours and 12 minutes.

I couldn't have done it
without everybody.

I'm so grateful.

You did it all yourself,

we didn't help you.

-You did it, girl.
-You did all the way.

You did it all yourself.
We didn't help you.

You did all the work.

Hey, Kim, look, the sky.

Any sharks?

No sharks,
I guess they don't like Kiwis.

This was something
she really wanted to do,

she wanted to be the first woman
to do the swim,

and was successful.

Worked very, very hard
leading up to the swim,

worked very, very hard
over the last night
to do the swim.

And we're just so thrilled
that she was able to be
successful in this swim.

You know, it couldn't
be a better person

to be the first female
to do this swim.

Thanks, Ozzie.

Congratulations,
that's phenomenal,
just phenomenal.

Atta girl.

-Hello.
-Hello.

How's it going?

The flag, so you know
you're OK.

What are we gonna do?

-Go down to the flag.
-OK.

See how it goes.

OK, you ready, Matt?

You dropped something.

Oh, no, I didn't.

I never really
appreciated what my body

could do for me, never.
I took it for granted.

And I had this experience
where I was

literally minutes away
from that being taken
away from me.

So, now that I have that,
I'm just so grateful.

I just feel like
a kid in a candy store.

Just, like, I wanna do that,
I wanna do that,
I wanna do that,

I wanna do all of it,
because I'm here,
and I'm alive.

If you think
you can't do something,

or if you're afraid
of doing something,

that's exactly
when you should do it.