He Has an Ocean of Talent and Hopes : Racing: Open-water swimming champion Rodrigues wants to get others involved in sport.

Imagine his shock when Gerry Rodrigues dipped his big toe in Pacific waters for the first time.

Going from the bathwater of the Caribbean to this ocean’s frigid temperatures turned his face as blue as the sea.

“It was so cold,” he said. “I was living in San Clemente and the water must have been 55 degrees. I was used to it being 80 in the Caribbean.”

During the 13 years that Rodrigues, now of West L.A., has lived in Southern California, he has adjusted well.

Rodrigues, 30, one of the most accomplished open-water swimmers in the country, will attempt to win for the third time the three-mile men’s overall title in the 25th Seal Beach Rough Water Swim on Saturday.

Last year, Rodrigues won the three-mile event in a record 52 minutes 41.8 seconds. And that was only a warm up.

No sooner had he dried himself off, when he jumped back in and finished second in one of the day’s most hotly contested races, where he was outsprinted to the one-mile finish by John Blaney of Lake Forest.

But that near double could hardly compare to what he tried to pull off in 1988, the first year he swam the Seal Beach race.

As a training tool for the 28.5-mile Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, Rodrigues entered the 10-mile and one-mile races at Seal Beach.

“(The 10-mile race) took me three hours, and I froze my butt off,” he said. “I was so exhausted and so cold, but I figured what’s another mile? So I got back in.”

He finished second in the longer race and eighth overall in the shorter one, but neither performance convinced him he was ready for the grueling New York race.

“I remember being so nervous,” Rodrigues said. “I thought, if I feel like this after 11 miles, how am I going to do almost three times this distance?”

The question nagged him until he successfully, almost reluctantly, completed the Manhattan race later that summer.

Surrounded by friends and family--his parents flew in from Trinidad--Rodrigues fought to stay in the filthy and freezing water midway through the race.

“It was probably the most incredible experience I’ve ever had,” he said. “I was in great shape, so I swam the first 10 miles fast.”

At the 15-mile mark, Rodrigues had a 1.5-mile lead over the field of 50. But with no experience at the marathon distance, Rodrigues and his crew were ill-prepared to swim the next 13.5.

“My body ran out of fuel,” he recalled. “(My crew and I) made some errors. We brought along fluids, but no food.”

With nothing to eat, Rodrigues’ lead dwindled until he was overtaken with 11 miles to go.

“It took me four hours to swim the first 18 miles and a little over four to swim the last 10,” he said. “When you’re doing well, like in the first half, all the positive things in life come into focus. When you’re not, all the pain, all the anger, all the negative emotions overcome you.”

But with his crew support and overwhelming feeling that he didn’t want to try it again next year, Rodrigues completed the swim, where he was eighth out of the 32 finishers.

The race renewed Rodrigues’ conviction that he wanted to make a career of open-water swimming.

Rodrigues dabbles in an array of swimming-related endeavors devoted to pushing ocean-water swimming into the consciousness of swimmers who have never ventured out of the pool.

“My goal is to make ocean swimming more available to the general populace,” he said. “I absolutely believe, beyond a doubt, it’s the best sport you can do.”

Rodrigues, who until two months ago coached at Southern California Aquatics and was named the 1992 Masters’ coach of the year, started his series of rough-water races in 1990. In September, his Great Beach Challenge at Manhattan Beach is the site of the 1993 national one-mile championship.

“Open-water swimming is more enjoyable than the pool,” said Rodrigues, who swam at Saddleback College and Pepperdine. “It’s reasonably anonymous, so it’s not like you’re one of eight swimmers on a starting block. With the mass start, you can get more participants, more people who just want to be a part of some fun event, have a good time.”

Sort of like a 10K run, where you can race or lollygag.

“Then when it’s over, you’re at the beach,” he said. “It’s an informal environment.”

It was a similar casual atmosphere where Rodrigues had his first experience in ocean swimming. Growing up in Trinidad, he spent many hours in the warm Caribbean Sea. In 1974, when he was 12, he was the youngest finisher in the two-mile Caribbean Open, where he placed third.

The desire to further his swimming career brought him to Mission Viejo in 1980. He competed at Saddleback College for two seasons, swam with the Mission Viejo Nadadores during the summers and did well enough to earn a scholarship to Pepperdine.

“I was never a great swimmer,” Rodrigues said. “I went from doing 3,000 meters a day to 8,000 at one workout. It was a lot of work for me.”

Rodrigues never qualified for NCAAs at Pepperdine, where he graduated with a business degree in 1984. But after a four-year layoff, he found himself itching to get back in the water.

He won the masters’ national 1,000-yard championships in 1991 and 1992 and was fourth this year.

But it is his love of the sea that he has parlayed into the most post-college success. He has either won or finished in the top three in almost every rough-water event he has entered. In this year’s Bud Light Ocean Festival Series, he has won the first two events.

His success isn’t directly linked to his speed. Dana Totten of the San Francisco-based Olympic Club, has offered Rodrigues a spot on his national championship team for reasons that go beyond talent.

“Most people think of Gerry as an accomplished swimmer, but that’s only part of it, Totten said. “He has character. He’s good with other people, he works hard, he has leadership qualities. He’s a real contributor to the world of aquatics.”

Totten has seen Rodrigues in several races that he has won more on strategy than speed.

“He wins by his wits, he’s a crafty swimmer,” he said. “He knows he doesn’t have tons of talent, but he knows how to get the most out of his ability.”

Totten compared Rodrigues’ tactics to that of a race-car driver.

“He knows how to position himself,” he said. “I’ve seen him beat guys he had no business beating. If you’re faster than him, you have to get out and beat him, you can’t hold back and go with the pack.”

With similar philosophies, Totten hopes to work with Rodrigues to strengthen the numbers of open-water swimmers, all toward a fitter America.

“He’s the best goodwill ambassador our sport has at this time,” Totten said.

Race Notes

The 10-mile Seal Beach events get under way at 6 a.m. on the west side of the Huntington Beach Pier. Two hours later, the three-mile race begins, followed by the one-mile events, which begin at 9, both at the Seal Beach Pier. Age-group events follow the one-mile races.