George Freeberg's Poem

Walt Schneebli and Rich Cooper have recently completed a painstaking process. They scanned the entire collection of Dolphin Club logs since 1949 and loaded them onto an internet archival site. Their generous effort affords anyone with an interest in club history an opportunity to stroll down a watery memory lane with the click of a button.

I was doing some research for a blog entry and came across the favorite poem of member George Freeberg, published on the occasion of his death in the June, 1974 edition of the Dolphin Log. This is his poem:

Lord, Thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing older, and will someday be old.

Keep me from getting talkative, and particularly from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject, and on every occassion.

Release me from craving to straighten out everybody's affairs.

Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details, give me wings to get to the point.

I ask for grace enough to listen to the tales of others' pains.  Help me to endure them with patience.

But seal my lips on my own aches and pains:  they are increasing and my love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by.

Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally it is possible that I may be mistaken.

Keep me reasonably sweet:  I do not want to be a saint--some of them are so hard to live with--but a sour old man/woman is one of the crowning works of the devil.

Make me thoughtful, but not moody; helpful, but not bossy.  With my vast store of wisdom, it seems a pity not to use it all--but Thou knowest, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.

On the cusp of turning 60 years old, myself, I related to the sentiment he expressed and thought it worth sharing.

2012 Polar Bear Results

The results from the 2011-2012 Polar Bear swim are published. 119 folks completed the full forty miles. Another 11 people who are over 60 years old swam 20 miles or more to qualify for "Old Goat" status. The Polar Bear champion this year is John Nogue. He swam 165 miles. As is typical, a story accompanies John's achievement.

Mr. Nogue teaches biology and anatomy to college students Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Since he lives in Napa, this means that he could only swim two days during the week on Tuesday and Thursday.  On the weekend, he'd swim on Saturday and/or Sunday, depending on the demands of domestic duties. On swim days, he drove to the club and began swimming about 8 am. He'd typically swim two miles and head for the sauna to warm up. Then he'd swim another mile and a half and warm up again. Then he'd swim another mile and a half and warm up yet again. The triple-dip kept him at the club until around noon. I presume he was quite ready for lunch by then. This routine strikes me as a tough way to win the Polar Bear championship.

Polar Bear Champion Trophy

One year, I was sitting in the sauna next to Rich Livingston, a previous Polar Bear champion. He had noticed that my squares were piling up compared to the other participants and asked me if I intended to win the Polar Bear that year. I told him there was no chance of my taking that honor, but I was kind of interested in swimming at least 100 miles. He nodded sagely and then boomed in his pronounced baritone, "Ah yes. I call that the 'Golden Bear.'" The club doesn't officially recognize Golden Bears but I think they definitely deserve an honorable mention.

This year, Joe Illick, Ross Browne, and Alex Buehlmann garnered Golden Bears. At the age of 77, this is Mr. Illick's thirteenth Golden Bear. Since the year 2000, he has won the Polar Bear five times. One year, he swam over 200 miles and still came in second. In the annals of Polar Bear history, Joe is a standout.

A perpetual trophy honors past Polar Bear champions. The first winner was Elmer Tosta who swam 101.5 miles in the winter of 1984-85. The next year, George Kebbe won with 200 miles. The year after that, Stan Hlynsky set yet another record with 230 miles in a famously ferocious battle with George. Mr. Hlynsky's mark stood until 1992-93 when he helped (or possibly goaded) his friend, Patrick Freilinger, to swim 232 miles. Three years later, George Kebbe returned to eclipse this mark with 255 miles. At the time, the irrepressible George laughed his infectious cackle and said to me, "Larry, you think anyone will ever beat that? I don't think so." And then he wandered into the locker room trailing his famous guffaw.

Surprising everyone, Suzie Dods did break his record in the winter of 2002-03. She swam 256 miles. It was a stunner. On average, this feat requires a person to swim a little less than 3 miles every single day of the 90 days of winter. No vacation. No sickness. No slacking. The fact that two human beings were capable of accomplishing this in 50 degree water caused all observers to shake their heads in wonder.

To people who know George, it was no wonder that he took this as a challenge. He had already won the Polar Bear five times. He was now determined to put the record on a shelf no one could reach. In the winter of 2003-04, he swam 356 miles. Holding a full-time job, he came early every morning to swim two miles. He'd go to work and return in the evening to swim two more miles. He plowed the measured distance between the Oprah and the Flag like a machine. Four times in the morning. Four times in the afternoon. Unbelievable. Once again, he said to me, "Larry, you think anyone will ever beat that? I don't think so. HA-HA-HA-HA-HA."

So far, no one has broken that record. However, in the winter of 2006-07, Ralph Wenzel tied it. He also swam 356 miles. Ralph also worked full-time and he also swam every morning and every evening. Resisting the encouragement of many people to do a little more on the last day of the Polar Bear, he politely declined, "No, I have too much respect for George to break his record. I'm satisfied with a tie." In one way, I was hoping for a new mark. That would have meant that we'd have the pleasure of George's company in the sauna for one more winter.

One other Polar Bear record was broken this year. Vincent Huang extended his own record, completing his 34th consecutive winter swim of 40 miles or more. Not yet 60 years old, if Vincent stays the course as long as Joe Illick has, he may be the person to finally set the unbreakable record. It's hard to tell since it's quite apparent that so many obsessive-compulsive people belong to the club.

Endorphin Cocktail

The human body naturally produces endorphins, endogenous opioid peptides that resemble opiates such as morphine and heroin. Prevailing sentiment credits endorphins as the principal trigger for the mild euphoric sensation known as "runner's high."  As with so many of the undisputed truths of my youth, this truth is now disputed.  In a clinical study led by Michael Siebers, endorphins are definitively ruled out as a potential contributor.  Apparently, the endorphin molecule is unable to pass the blood-brain barrier.  However, help is at hand.  The new likely suspect for the pleasant feeling are endocannabinoids.

Whatever the biochemical explanation, Swimming in San Francisco Bay triggers release of a cocktail of related analgesics at least five different ways. Is it any wonder that more than 2,000 people belong to the Dolphin and South End Rowing clubs?

Aerobic exercise is the most well-known trigger. More commonly called "runner's high," endocannabinoids (probably) are released during moderate to extreme exertion when breathing is difficult. Swimming a mile or more at good speed certainly fits this description. When the weather is stormy and/or windy, breathing is extra difficult. This could explain why so many find heightened enjoyment swimming in bumpy water.

Aesthetics is a lesser-known trigger. Every day in the Bay is a distinct immersion in natural loveliness. The stream of phosphorescence as the lead arm slices into the clear yet inky water well before daylight. The full moon setting over the Golden Gate bridge as the sun rises over Coit Tower. A flight of pelicans coursing through the sky. A container ship slowly engulfed and disappearing into a dense and mysterious fog. These are but a few examples of what the Japanese might term "Yugen." Daily contemplation of this transient and stark beauty trigger spurts of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin.  These chemicals rule when it comes to stimulating our pleasure centers.

Fear certainly plays a role in mixing the endorphin cocktail. Just entering and exiting the water during periods of high, crashing surf is enough to evoke a "fight or flight" response. Critters can also play a frightening role. Stinging nettles sometimes congregate in the bay. These purple-brown jellyfish the size of a large dinner plate deliver a ferocious prickle that has prompted several club members to keep a bottle of vinegar in their locker. Raging pinnipeds are another source of concern. Normally we share the bay peacefully. Occasionally, however, a rogue seal or sea lion will go on a rampage, inflicting vicious bites that require stitches and powerful antibiotics. Any of these can trigger a squirt of adrenaline, a hormone secreted by adrenal glands in conditions of stress. Today, I ran headlong into a full, floating, plastic gallon milk jug. That was a rude surprise and a serious increase in my rate of blood circulation, breathing, and carbohydrate metabolism.  Still, it wasn't as scary as swiping a handful of moon jellyfish (harmless, but reminiscent of grabbing a decapitated head.) Then, there's the self-inflicted fear factor. Swimming under the piers, through the roundhouse, or anywhere near barnacle-encrusted buoys and breakwaters is a sure way to make the heart race just a little faster.

Of course, immersion in the cold all by itself stimulates the pleasure centers. The Rejuvenation Lounge website lists twelve reasons to take cold showers:

1. Mood booster
2. Releases stress and tension
3. Improves circulation
4. Flushes out toxins
5. Clears negativity from your aura
6. Cleanses your chakras
7. Strengthens your immune system
8. Speeds up the healing process
9. Restores your energy levels
10. Brings you fully into your body and fully into the present moment
11. Cheap and environmentally friendly
12. Clears negative thinking

I'm no expert on chakras, auras, or the immune system, but the rest of this seems right on the money to me.

When the water is truly cold, a prolonged stay in the sauna is especially welcome. Leaving too soon leads to the physical sensation known as "afterdrop."  Afterdrop is a continued cooling of a person's core temperature during the initial stages of rewarming from hypothermia.  It is attributed to the return of cold blood from the extremities to the core due to peripheral vasodilation.  In a nutshell, this means,  "stay in the sauna until you get warm or you'll regret it."  The resulting enforced collegiality makes us prisoners of one another and slaves to each others' stories, opinions, and statements of true fact.  And some of the facts are actually true.  The clubs are populated by a mix of people from walks of life ranging from homeless to venture capitalist and from research scientist to commercial fisher.  Police, firefighters, physical therapists, astronomers, salespeople, gardeners, architects, actors, musicians, techies, lawyers, doctors.  Its a cornucopia of backgrounds and the range of expertise is vast. At its best, this positive social interaction is the fifth vehicle for increasing chemical levels and fostering an addiction to cold water swimming.  Scientists have shown that the chemical signal dopamine plays an unexpected role in social interactions. Mary Catherine O'Connor reports on the Smart Planet website that the key to the success of Facebook is the designer's focus on stimulating friendship and collaboration.  The designers are trying to mimic the power of serotonin, another neurotransmitter that contributes to feelings of happiness in humans.

As powerful as this cocktail is on its own, a sixth endorphin stimulus is sexual arousal.  However, this dopamine trigger is not as reliable on a daily basis as the other five and a discussion of the South End birthday swims and the wearing of birthday suits is a topic all by itself.

Sauna True Facts of the Day

In the twenty-four years that I've been a member of the Dolphin Club, I've known two or three people that could swim in the cold San Francisco Bay, take a normal-length shower, and not warm up in the sauna. For the rest of us, swimming in the winter means spending about one minute in the sauna for every minute spent swimming. Leaving the warm room too soon leaves a person performing a hypothermic dance in front of their locker and scampering back to the sauna to finish dressing. This enforced collegiality makes us prisoners of one another and slaves to each others' stories, opinions, and statements of true fact. At its best, this positive social interaction is the fifth vehicle for increasing endorphin levels and creating an addiction to cold water swimming.

One recent true fact cost a club member ten dollars. Phil Fernandez reported that the Pope had commissioned a perfume maker to concoct a personal scent in the same vein as Madonna, JLo, or Justin Bieber. The rest of the people in the sauna waited for the punchline while Phil protested the veracity of his tale. One individual was skeptical enough to make a ten dollar challenge. Unfortunately for that person, it turned out to be true that Pope Benedict ordered a custom-blended eau de cologne from Italian scent designer, Silvana Casoli. As reported by ABC News, "Casoli is not new to 'spiritually-inspired' scents. She created perfumes for pilgrims on pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. They were called 'Water of Faith' and 'Water of Hope' and were so popular that priests presented samples to the pope, which gave him the idea that he would like his very own." Now, the papal eau is one more sauna factoid to add to an extensive and growing collection.

The second sauna true fact of the day is vibrating tattoos. We were talking about the recent Tattoo Expo at the Cow Palace and Joe Locke said, "They now have vibrating tattoos that tell you who is phoning or texting you." Not one to readily squander ten dollars, I waited until I had finished warming up and consulted my internet search engine of choice. Sure enough, Nokia has applied for a patent for a material that's attachable to the skin and would produce a micro-vibration triggered by a nearby electronic device. Who knew? While not all sauna true facts are actually true, the hugely varied membership and expertise of the club members makes it risky to contest what may seem to be an astounding assertion. The next major breakthrough might be a heat-tolerant smart phone.

Jonesing for Squares

The Polar Bear swim ended last Wednesday. Many cities boast “polar bear” swims. In Chicago and Boston, bathers wade into Lake Michigan and the Atlantic on New Year’s Day and stay for several seconds. In the arctic countries, people cut holes in the ice and immerse themselves as many as two minutes. The Dolphin Club Polar Bear swim lasts all winter. It runs from the Winter Solstice on December 21 until ending on March 21 with the arrival of the Spring Equinox when the water temperature is between 48 and 53 degrees. This swim was the inspiration of Bill Powning and began in 1974 when the requirement was set at twelve miles. An official notice on the sign-up sheet some few years ago proclaimed that “the use of wetsuits and/or swim aids is viewed with scorn and contempt." This sentiment has not changed.

Members keep track of their distance in quarter-mile increments on large, quadrille-ruled charts mounted at the entrance to the club. Logically, swimmers often refer to the distance they’ve covered in a day in terms of squares. “We did four squares today—at least a mile.” Since 1984, earning a polar bear requires swimming forty miles (or 160 squares) in the San Francisco Bay or equivalent cold, open water. For swimmers over the age of 60, the benchmark is 80 squares. Over the course of a winter, the sign-up sheet develops a personality as members exercise artistic license to record their daily distance. Making these individualized marks on the chart after each swim bestows a sense of completion and confers a coda on the cold water plunge.

The chart becomes a touchstone, a measure of resistance to mortality. The deep satisfaction associated with marking squares creates a craving that any addict would immediately understand. When the chart was moved this winter to allow workers to repair the lobby floor, many of us experienced “square shock.” Our beacon was mislaid. Our anchor had dragged. Although realization dawned quickly, the feeling was visceral—a shock to the solar plexus.

Now that the Polar Bear is over for this year, the chart is dismantled and square withdrawal has set in. The chart is not just temporarily relocated. It is gone. It is history. The unique configuration of colors and patterns contributed by the 135 participants this year is obliterated like a Tibetan sand mandala. It has left a vague, empty space in our souls. I can't wait until next winter.

Landmarks of Aquatic Park

Like any geographic boundary that humans share, Aquatic Park Cove has named landmarks. (Clicking on the picture of Aquatic Park in the sidebar of this blog will link to a larger annotated chart). Of course, depending on the humans consulted, the names vary. In particular, a member of the South End Rowing Club will give different names for buoys than will a Dolphin. Different Dolphins will give different names depending on when they joined the club and what time of day they swim. The main reason for having names at all is to allow two or more swimmers to quickly plan a course around the cove without pointing, squinting, confusion and repetition. Having shared names doesn’t necessarily cut down on the repetition and confusion, but it does quell the pointing and squinting somewhat.

"The Flag"

One landmark that almost everyone knows by the same name is the Flag. It rests near the shoreline at the Van Ness end of Aquatic Park. The Flag is the artistic creation of Colin Gift. It has been in the cove for more than thirty-five years and, conveniently, has a swiveling fiberglass flag on top of a rectangular, fiberglass-coated piece of marine Styrofoam. The flag itself is a vibrant red and yellow replica of the international maritime signal flag representing the letter “O” and indicates, in solitude, “Man Overboard”. This is the flag that both clubs use on pilot craft during an out-of-cove swim to warn ship traffic away from the swimmers in the water. The clubs recently refreshed the colors and the iconography of the buoy. When, as happens around every five years, the Flag breaks loose from its ground tackle, members of both clubs react as if they had lost their life's beacon.

It is just a little less than four hundred yards from the clubs’ beach to the Flag. In the colder parts of the winter, some swimmers count this as a quarter mile. The more competitive and obsessive will insist that it is closer to a quarter mile from the Oprah to the Flag.

Thayer and "Duke" buoy at bow

The Oprah is the buoy that keeps the bow of the sailing ship Thayer from banging into the Hyde Street Pier. The Oprah got its name from the eponymous talk-show host when she was filming a segment in San Francisco and pointed toward the buoy to make some theatrical point. Only Dolphins call it the Oprah and I like it that there’s a story and a short name for, “the buoy at the bow of the Thayer."  In the winter of 2016-2017, Duke Dahlin swam 400 miles to shatter all previous records for the Polar Bear season.  In honor of this achievement many Dolphins now refer to the Oprah as the "Duke" or, sometimes, the "Duke-rah."  Granting Ms. Winfrey historical precedence, some call it the "Okra."

Driving to the extreme north of Van Ness street brings one to the San Francisco Municipal Pier.  Built in 1929, it curls around and defines Aquatic Park. Only emergency vehicles drive on the pier now and it bears the trauma of age and ocean. Where the pier attaches to land at the foot of Van Ness, three creosote poles stick out of the water up to twelve feet depending on the tide. Because they resemble American football field goal posts, they are cleverly known as the Goal Posts. It is definitely more than a quarter mile from the Oprah to the Goal Posts.

The Muni Pier has been structurally reinforced a number of times. One of the larger repairs is easily spotted from the water about three quarters of the way around. My friends call this The Repair and, while it doesn’t currently have a buoy marking, it is still a common swimming destination. Because it doesn’t have a buoy, people of various swimming speeds can go to the Repair and arrive at the same time. For those that are afraid to swim close to the pier and the fishing and crabbing lines, the Repair is more of a notion than an exact spot.

Roundhouse, Opening, and Jacuzzi

Muni Pier ends in a bulbous plaza that Dolphins call the Roundhouse. It is possible to swim under the Roundhouse. There are broken, barnacle-encrusted pilings to negotiate at the perimeter, but it’s not terribly difficult. When it’s very dark and the water is clear, a swim stroke produces a sparkling luminescence that is beautiful and magical. The quality of light under the Roundhouse is also remarkable at dawn and dusk.  SouthEnders call this structure the "Wedding Cake."

A cigarette buoy resides just beyond the confines of the Roundhouse. It sits between the Muni Pier and the Breakwater. In the 1980’s, a string of used tires provided scant protection for the cove. Storm surge and wakes from passing ships rolled freely into Aquatic Park making it a much wilder place to swim than it is today. With the construction of the concrete breakwater extending from Hyde Street Pier to Pier 41, our swimming hole experienced a major upgrade. The cigarette buoy marks the Opening. The Opening, like the Flag, is common terminology among all swimmers.

At the Hyde Street end of the Breakwater is a structure with concrete piers radiating from a circular capstone. When the current is flowing strongly in San Francisco Bay, this area is subject to incredibly forceful swirls of moving water. Owing to the water jet effect, many swimmers refer to this structure as The Jacuzzi. As it turns out, the capstone of the Jacuzzi is flat on top but has a pronounced recess underneath. When the highest tides bring sufficient water to seal off the outside of the capstone, 2 to 2 ½ feet of air remain trapped in the underside nook.

In order to enter this space and breathe the trapped air, the swimmer must dive beneath the surrounding capstone and surface in the center chamber. The radiating cement piers create a bit of an obstacle course so the prudent aqua-spelunker will feel around under the capstone for an opening before diving. Since this part of the structure is very rarely in contact with the ocean, it’s completely free of barnacles, starfish or other abrasive critters. The concrete is still quite hard, though, so a more experienced and chastened diver will advise a hands-first-not-head-first approach.

East of the Jacuzzi is a large orange buoy to which the hay scow, the Alma, is moored. This buoy was a favorite target for one of the faster Dolphins, Becky Fenson. When she was training for her English Channel swim, she cruised around this landmark many times. This buoy demarcated the boundary beyond which Dolphins were forbidden to swim at the time. The then-current president of the Dolphin Club was taking the motorized club boat, Arias, out for a spin one day and spotted her swimming two yards east of this point.  He spun the boat around, leaned over the pontoon, shook his finger and shouted, "Bad Becky!" A large group of Becky's friends delighted in this story and decided to name the buoy the Bad Becky. Since then, the National Park Service has installed a cigarette buoy slightly beyond clearly designating this as protected swimming area. Nevertheless, the name has stuck and its origin has faded into history. Many people now wonder who was Becky and what was it that she did here that was so bad.

The cigarette buoy just north of the Bad Becky acquired its own name in 2013 when Peter Perez tied the then-current Polar Bear record of 356 miles.  Not a supremely fast swimmer, Peter set this record by swimming three or four times every day while working full time.  He soldiered on through a severe case of shingles and clearly earned a buoy of his very own.

Balclutha

Moored at the north end of Hyde Street Pier is the 300 foot Balclutha. It is a steel-hulled, three-masted sailing ship built in 1886 and had a starring role in the film “Mutiny on the Bounty.” At her stern is a mooring buoy called the Kebbe. Mr. Kebbe is the first person to have swum 356 miles during a Polar Bear. This amounts to almost four miles every day for 90 days. When Dolphin Club member, Peter Drino, was crafting a series of fifty courses around the cove for his "Polar Bear Challenge" event, he needed names for buoys that had none. He decided to honor George for his Polar Bear achievements.  Some years later, Tom Keller recreated the Polar Bear Challenge and renamed this buoy the "North S'more" because its rusted white crust makes it look like the camper's toasted marshmallow treat.

George Kebbe

The mooring buoy at the bow of the Balclutha has many names among Dolphins. Peter Drino named it the "Luigi" in honor of the Dolphin Club commodore, Lou Marcelli. In Tom Keller's nomenclature, this is the S'more.  Some people call it the "Wenzel" to honor Ralph Wenzel, the second person to match George's record of 356 miles for the Polar Bear season of 2006-2007.

The next boat south from the Balclutha is the Eppleton Hall, a 1914 steam-powered, paddle-wheel tugboat. It is moored end-on to Hyde Street Pier, so it’s possible to swim behind it. It’s not so easy to swim behind the Balclutha or the Thayer as they have numerous pipes and cables snaking through the water to the pier. Also, debris tends to collect in the back eddies on the east side of these boats.  Certain SouthEnders and Dolphins refer to this corridor with affection as "Rat Alley."  Directly behind the Eppleton Hall, however, the swimming is relatively unencumbered and adds a modicum of distance to help round out a full mile around the cove.  Tidal flows are funneled through this area occasionally creating incredibly strong currents, especially on a flood tide.  The rudder at the stern of the Eppleton Hall is a thin, scimitar-like metal protrusion that invokes the appellation, "Blade of Death."

Eppleton Hall and "The Moon" Buoy

Just south of the bow of the Eppleton Hall is a buoy mooring the stern of the Thayer. Mr. Drino named this buoy the "Moon" in honor of a long-time Dolphin who devoted extraordinary hours to painting and maintaining the club. For the Keller crew, this is the "South S'more."

That brings us back to the Duke/Oprah/Duke-rah/Okra. All of these landmarks encompass about one mile. It takes a different amount of time to swim this course depending on the current. At the end of an ebb, there can be a “spin cycle” effect where the current is moving west at the shore and east at the Opening, helping a clockwise swimmer along. Other times, there is nothing but resistance the entire way.

There are other transient landmarks in the cove, but this describes the more permanent ones. Taken together, they populate one of the best swimming holes in the world.