Swimming Against Tide of Doubt : Many think Pamela Pole’s fund-raising paddle from Balboa Pier to Catalina is leaky. Friends bail out, but her optimism overflows.
Two years ago while sitting in church, Pamela Pole had an idea: She would swim to Catalina. *
That idea expanded until, as of a few months ago, it had turned into plans for a relay event Saturday involving possibly dozens of swimmers, paddle-boarders and boats aimed for the isle, with the hope of having thousands of dollars in pledges to open a child-care center for unemployed single parents seeking to join the work force.
Those plans didn’t quite pan out, and as Saturday approaches, all that is left is Pole, $100 in donations and a boat that’s costing her $200 to rent. Pole isn’t particularly deterred.
“No matter what, I’m jumping off that pier at 5 a.m. and some boat better follow me,” she declared.
The 37-year-old divorced mother of two initially had thoughts about making the swim decades ago. “As a kid I always saw Catalina Island from where I lived in Corona del Mar. It always looked so close and I thought I’d like to swim out to it.”
That famed “26 miles across the sea” is not the easiest of swims, though, and in Pole’s case the attempt borders on the quixotic. When people do swim that daunting distance, usually it is from the island to the coast, so they won’t be fighting the tough current. A female swimmer did make the coast-to-Catalina swim last year, but she was a 19-year-old competitive swimmer and was going a shorter distance, from San Pedro instead of Pole’s proposed Balboa Pier departure site. She also reportedly lost 17 pounds during the arduous crossing.
“I’m about 147, so I figure if I do it, I’ll be 130 and that’s great!” Pole said with a winning optimism, which may not be all it takes to overcome her age, lack of training and minuscule support team.
When we spoke Friday, she was accompanied by her friend Geoffrey Lee, a professional beehive remover who worked 10 years as a lifeguard. He was the one swimmer still committed to accompanying Pole. Though the two of them were far fewer than the dozens they’d hoped would do the swim in relays, they sounded confident then that by taking turns, paddling or kayaking part of the distance, and trusting to their Christian faith, they’d be able to make it. “I believe in Pam, and I believe we can do it together,” he said.
By Monday morning, Lee had been convinced otherwise by long deliberations with family and friends, and he too had decided to pull out. He called to say, “We really aren’t prepared for this, and if I supported Pam in this, I’d worry about her swimming herself to death. I told her there are easier ways to raise money, like having a carwash or something.”
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Though it now looks as if Pole’s only company in the water might be the Mako sharks making their summer run in the channel, she’s still determined. She’s hired a sailboat to accompany her, and one friend will be riding along, who, if he won’t swim with her, will at least be praying for her, she said.
She doesn’t think the swim attempt is suicidal.
“I may be blond, but I’m not dumb,” she said. “If I get too tired, I’ll know to stop. But I’m still going to try. The Bible says, ‘If everyone is against you, I am for you.’ ”
She may well need some powerful help. Though the onetime high school track competitor still runs, lifts weights and once a week swims a mile around the San Clemente Pier, the farthest she has swum at one time is 2 1/2 miles.
She doesn’t want for spirit. A few years ago she entered a triathlon. “I’d never swam a mile before then. I was heavier and had only had a couple of hours sleep, I’d had a hairline fracture about six weeks before that, and during the triathlon I got hit off my bike. But I finished.”
Since then she’s had a partial hysterectomy, as well as vein and bladder surgery. But she’s lifted weights regularly, and displayed the result as we spoke, pushing up her dress sleeve to show a flexed biceps. “That’s pretty good size for a girl,” she said.
It’s definitely something a shark might think was worth chewing on. Sharks do frequent the channel, and even if she encounters none in the water, they already have dogged her plans enough. Pole once had a dozen people signed up for the swim, and hoped for more. But as the date neared, she said that most dropped out for Jaws-related reasons.
“As soon as it got closer, they started worrying about sharks,” she said. “They’re pool swimmers. I don’t have a pool, so I swim in the ocean. That big white they caught in Dana Point last year could have eaten me any time it wanted to. There was just a week of shark features on the Discovery channel, and that got some of the people scared. This definitely takes a strong faith.”
Should that not prove sufficient, the boat will be stocked with seal bombs, which have a concussive effect that disorients sharks.
She said the fear of sharks and other potential aquatic liability cases discouraged her church, Calvary Chapel Capistrano Beach, from sponsoring the swim. A church representative also said Pole’s lack of organization was a factor.
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She’s created a trust fund, which originally was titled the “Swim for the Children in Remembrance of Jeff Hutto Trust Fund” until a bank clerk despaired of trying to fit all that on the checks. Hutto was an ocean-loving young friend of Pole’s who died in a train accident in March. Now the fund is simply titled “Swim for the Children” and holds $100 in donations, which is $900 short of the amount she said she needs to even qualify for tax-exempt status.
She had hoped to raise funds to form a co-op day care center for the children of single parents, and with the leftover money planned to found a camp to teach boogie boarding and ocean awareness to youths. Pole realizes she isn’t going to achieve her goals this time out, but says there is a pressing need for them.
She’s presently unemployed and, like many parents, finds she can’t afford the cost of child care while she looks for work. Thrice divorced, her second son was born with a broken hip, and coping with that caused her to default on a student loan.
“I didn’t plan on that or on being a single parent and for everything to flake out. Suddenly you’re stuck with all the bills and the kids and the problems. The mothers I know want to go to work or back to school, but they need some child care. The way it is now, I end up getting in debt by going to work,” Pole said.
Even if she winds up not raising any funds, Pole says her swim has a goal.
“I’m not into doing this to ‘glorify Pam.’ I don’t have any desire to swim it unless it’s for a purpose. To me, when I jump in that water at 5 a.m. and swim, it’s to say for everyone in the same situation: ‘I’m worthy to have work, worthy to have some child-care help. I put in all my taxes for years. I just need a little help to get back up on my feet.’
“I made a vow when I was 16 to help the poor, and I never seemed to be in a position to do it. And now I’m saying, ‘OK, Lord, I’ve got no money, I’ve got nothing, but I’ve got this body I can do this weird stuff with. I can lift weights, run, I can swim. Use me to help other people out.”
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