Tom Lorish, Stephanie Roberson, Niel Dilworth and about 85 other swimmers completed the 2014 Will Swim For Food today. The date of the swim slid into 2015 because on the traditional day, the second Saturday of December, the 10' waves, dirty water and floating debris changed the idea of swimming around the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf from a fun event into a very bad idea. So, step forward one month to today and conditions could not have been better. It was sunny and warming up nicely. The water was 55 degrees with 2'+ surf and a moderate swell on the west side of the pier. For the 5th year of the swim the traditional direction was reversed to allow the swimmers to complete their parade down the length of the pier and to the water without crossing traffic. The duck thing is very cool. One of the original swimmers was given a little rubber Santa Ducky to take with him on the swim The duck became the mascot for the event. Now, if an individual donor contributes a minimum of $150 the organizers provide a full sized duck decoy that the swimmer can tow behind them during the swim. The donor or the swimmer can decorate the duck as they please. It makes for quite a show;
The Duck Lineup
Tom's duck is painted to look like his Great Daine
Stephanie's four ducks, from gold to attired in a sweater and scarf and mine on the step above in yellow with Christmas lights and three ducklings.
More
Being GoPro equipped was popular this year
Is this the Sherman and Megan of ducks?
Nice
So many stories......
So, here is the start of the parade down the pier.
One swimmer and 10 ducks!
Tom and I met up at the end of the pier.
Done, a one mile swim completed. Three of us raised $3,227 which is about 12,900 meals.
Thank you all for your support!
niel
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