The Times’ All-County High School Teams : BOYS’ SWIMMING : If He Gets Out of Pool, He Jumps Into Ocean

You spend 30 hours per week in the pool, training six days per week for that next meet.

You swim countless laps as you struggle to lower that time by a fraction of a second. Back and forth--from one end of the pool to the other.

Every day it’s the same. You get out of school and get into the pool.

So what do you do on your day off to relax?

Well, if you’re Chad Hundeby, you might go swimming.

Hundeby, The Times’ boys’ swimmer of the year, is at home in the water. So much so, that as a hobby he rough-water swims.

“I played in a pickup basketball game last year and I hurt my shoulder,” said Hundeby, a junior at Woodbridge High School. “Basically, I’m very clumsy out of the water.”

Twice a year, Hundeby takes to the ocean for a swim, sometimes up to three miles. It’s something he has been doing for the last five years.

It began when Hundeby, then in the seventh grade, went on a picnic to La Jolla with his club swim team, the Irvine Novaquatics. A group of swimmers on a picnic to the beach are likely to go for a swim.

The distance of two miles didn’t concern Hundeby, who swam and still swims up to 18,000 yards per day when he’s in heavy training.

“It just seemed like something fun to try,” Hundeby said. “It was something different.”

He didn’t realize how different it was from his training until he was well into the swim.

“The first thing I noticed was how cold it was,” he said. “I was use to swimming laps in a pool. This was really different. You have to contend with the waves, and there’s a lot more fatigue.”

Still, Hundeby enjoyed the swim, so much so that he made plans for another one later that summer, this time at Huntington Beach.

What he liked about rough-water swimming was the lack of pressure. For a swimmer who is use to the intensity of a meet, it was heaven.

“It’s very relaxing,” he said. “I’m used to going against the clock. I don’t think I could do an 18-mile swim like some of these people, but when I’m done with my competitive swimming, I’ll probably get into the sport a little more. Right now I just don’t have the time.”

Hundeby still has a number of years left as a competitive swimmer.

In May, he broke his own Southern Section 2-A records in the 200-yard freestyle (1 minute 38.17 seconds) and 500 freestyle (4:23.67). He missed the national high school record in the 200 by less than two seconds and was six seconds off the record in the 500.

This summer, Hundeby will forgo his rough-water swims to train for the Olympic trials, which will be held in Austin, Tex., in August.

ALL-COUNTY

Based on This Season’s Results in Southern Section Meets

Event Name School Time 200 Freestyle Chad Hundeby Villa Park 1:38.17 200 IM Gary Van Boxtel Mission Viejo 1:53.67 50 Freestyle Jeff Thomason Corona del Mar 21.33 100 Butterfly Ron Scott Foothill 49.81 100 Freestyle Jeff Thomason Corona del Mar 46.69 500 Freestyle Chad Hundeby Woodbridge 4:23.67 100 Backstroke Christopher Clarke Rancho Alamitos 53.34 100 Breaststroke Scott Deboer Brea-Olinda 59.10 Diving Brian Earley Mission Viejo 573.10