Mysterious Stranger Swims Away With La Jolla Rough Water Title

He came and left quietly, but his performance in the water was anything but silent.

Bari Weick, 28, of Mountain View, Calif., was in Arizona attending a retirement party for his father last week when he decided to enter Sunday’s 59th La Jolla Rough Water Swim.

“I had friends in San Diego who I wanted to see on my way home, and I decided to enter,” said Weick, winner of the men’s 25-29 masters one-mile swim at La Jolla Cove. Weick finished in 20:39 for the fastest masters (out of nine divisions) and overall time of the day.

“I didn’t know who he was,” said Del Mar’s 29-year-old Alan Voisard, who finished second for the second consecutive year with a 21:08, 50 yards behind Weick.

Weick, a distance swimmer for Stanford from 1979 to 1983, was a geographical enigma. He was listed as a Solana Beach resident (he’s not) and some thought he was from Arizona, but three-quarters into the race, the pack of lead swimmers just knew he was in front of them.

“At the second leg, he was only two or three body-lengths ahead of me,” Voisard said, “but then he surged. He just took off.”

Neither Voisard nor the other 767 men in the masters divisions--there were 1,264 total swimmers--had a chance to congratulate Weick. Thinking the race was Saturday, he had booked an afternoon flight to San Francisco. He didn’t stay long to chat.

“It was a lot of fun,” Weick said. “My stroke is suited to long distances, so I just stretched it out and took off.”

Water conditions were perfect--smooth and warm--and Weick’s only complaint, echoed by other competitors, was the amount of kelp in the water.

“It was the worst thing and the best thing,” he said. “The worse the conditions are, the better I like it because I can concentrate on my stroke.”

Beth Knight had to concentrate on just getting to the race. Knight swam the one-mile leg of a coed relay team that took second in the Bud Light Triathlon of San Diego Sunday morning in Solana Beach.

Knight, 30, of Del Mar, had time to go home and rest for 45 minutes before she entered the Pacific Ocean for the second time within four hours--and won her sixth consecutive title.

“I didn’t feel the effects,” said Knight, who swam a 22:22 for a triple victory. Her finish won the 30-35 women’s masters, the combined masters and the overall best time of the day for women.