Swimmers Do Pier-To-Pier Without International Surf Festival

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — Not even COVID-19 could take down the legendary Dwight Crum Pier-To-Pier Swim. Yes, what would have been the official 57th annual event was not held. It did fall to the coronavirus. But there was no stopping the devoted who showed up to swim an unofficial Pier-To-Pier race in observance of what would have been the 57th event.

Paul Towers and Anne Ozer were just two of many South Bay swimmers who took to the water on August 1 and 2 to swim the actual race course the weekend the official race would have been held. Towers and Ozer, both of Manhattan Beach, said that several swim groups and local swim clubs swam the course on Saturday and Sunday morning, as did he, starting at the south side of the Hermosa Beach Pier and ending on the north side of the Manhattan Beach Pier. Ozer swam on Sunday.

"This swim is meaningful and special to all those who choose to participate," said Towers, "all for very personal reasons. This was not the year that any of us wanted, with COVID, but traditions are traditions and we enjoyed beautiful conditions during the two mile swim—six feet away from one another, of course!"

For Ozer, who trains in the ocean three mornings a week and began ocean swimming when she turned 50, she and a swimming cohort planned where they'd enter the ocean since they anticipated others would be swimming the course and no one would be officially allowing groups to enter in a specific order.

What greeted her Sunday morning as she headed to the ocean near the Hermosa Beach Pier was fog, a thick one. She and about 24 others in her swimming group had all agreed to pay attention to social distancing, so at 6:20 a.m., those who were more concerned about being around others, even when socially distanced, hit the course. Ozer's group walked from Manhattan Beach to the Hermosa Beach Pier to do their swim a short time later.

She achieved her best time ever, completing the race in 65 minutes, eclipsing her slowest by some 50 minutes. She said there were no waves and that the ocean was flat, making for an easy entrance to get beyond the shore break to swim. With more energy, a skin and fins, she made her way through the fog, barely able to see anything.

But the ocean was clear, the currents "awesome" and "you could see the bottom the whole way," she said. What she saw on this swim included rays, kelp, and one sand dollar amidst a sea of purple living sand dollars. She has seen the ocean floor littered with sand dollars, which she says is quite remarkable.

Swimming just outside the groups of surfers and using them as a guideline, she headed toward the Roundhouse at the end of the Manhattan Beach Pier. "You couldn't see it [the Roundhouse] until you were right on it," she explained, laughing that she probably swam the straightest route from pier to pier due to her younger years as a synchronized swimmer.

Other things in the 61-nearly-62-year-old's past include participating in the Hermosa Beach Triathlon. It was that experience that led her to discover and decided swimming was what she liked the best. The Beach Teeth dentist and owner also began her college studies as a marine biology major before switching to dentistry. As for the unofficial Pier-To-Pier swim? "It was kind of nice to do it for fun," she told Manhattan Beach Patch.

Towers, who began swimming in his backyard pool as a kid, is an avid waterman who swam competitively and played water polo in high school and college. In 2010, he started long distance open water swimming in the ocean and hasn't looked back.

He's also met a few swimmers along the way, and swam the unofficial Pier-To-Pier with Ryan Bullock, the official winner for the past 4 or 5 years, and Micah Carlson, who has completed the annual event 25 times.

Sunday's swim was the 9th time he's done the course, and says he's "just a baby, in that regard—several of my friends have swam in it for 20 and 30 years!" Given how COVID-19 shut down the beaches and pools in March, April and May, he tries "to get in the ocean every day to swim, surf or paddle."

"I started surfing at age 12 and that’s really my first love," he told Manhattan Beach Patch. "I got into ocean swimming and prone paddling because it gave me other fun options to do when Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate and there’s no waves to surf."

He also prefers swimming in the ocean "because a pool is so boring and mundane. Staring at a line on the bottom of the pool is no fun. I enjoy the natural elements: the waves, open ocean swells, currents and, of course, swimming close to pods of beautiful dolphins. It’s really hard to explain what it’s like to someone who has never experienced it."

Indeed, Towers must love ocean swimming—he's traveled globally to participate in swims all over the world. "Swimming from one land mass to another has always been a goal of mine," he told MB Patch. "In 2018, I accomplished this when I swam to/from three of the Hawaiian Islands. One channel per day in 3 successive days."

Here's what that looked like:

He swam the three channels between Maui, Lanai and Molokai in Hawaii on three successive days during the first week of September 2018.

• Day One: from Maui to Lana’i across the Au’au Channel in 6 hours, 6 minutes
• Day Two: from Maui to Moloka’i across the Pailolo Channel in 5 hours, 52 minutes
• Day Three: from Moloka’i to Lana’i across the Kalohi Channel in 5 hours, 34 minutes

Towers has also paddled the Catalina Channel (22.17 miles) from Two Harbors, Catalina to Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro in June of 2019 during the Rock-to-Rock Paddle Race.

For swimmers, the annual Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier Swim is a revered annual event that draws some 1,200 to 1,300 participants. Part of the International Surf Festival, the event challenges participants to swim from just south of one pier to another, round the second pier and head to shore where they race across the sand to the finish line. It's a rigorous 2-mile swim with an established and lengthy history. But, as with most everything this summer, COVID-19 canceled the Surf Festival and all of its events, including the swim races, surf contests, body surf contests, paddle races, 6 Man Beach Volleyball Tournament and lifeguard competitions.

Dwight Crum, who served for 15 years as the first chairman of the International Surf Festival, was a Los Angeles County lifeguard from 1941 to 1972. The Pier-To-Pier Swim was one of the original ISF events and was renamed the Dwight Crum Pier-To-Pier Swim in 1972 when Crum retired from his position as Assistant Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches.

Dwight, who passed at 77 in 2000, last swam the race when he was 72, according to the ISF website. His son Gary served 17 years as the section chief in charge of the same beaches as his dad. After Gary retired in 2001, he became chairman of the International Surf Festival for 10 years, and in 2010 took over as the race director of the Dwight Crum Pier-To-Pier Swim.

Said Towers, "People travel from all over the country to swim in this prestigious and historic race. The swim is extremely well organized, super fun and is all about community!" Fortunately, this year, even with COVID-19, some 300+ swimmers kept the tradition alive. Viva la Dwight Crum Pier-To-Pier Swim!