Mike Hodel is an accomplished marathon open water swimmer. This summer, Mike managed an impressive feat: Swimming 10 miles from Ray’s Boathouse in Ballard to Bainbridge Island, and back. He also used this incredible personal achievement as an opportunity for environmental activism by turning his swim into a $10,000 fundraiser for Puget Soundkeeper.
Now having recovered from his extensive summertime swims, we asked Mike to share a little about himself and his connection to our local waters.
What is your “water story”?
I’ve always loved the water. My mom taught swim lessons and started bringing me along when I was six months old. I swam competitively through college and have always found an excuse to be in or on the water—alpine lakes, kayaking, diving, and now marathon swimming.
I have a group of friends that has met at Golden Gardens every Sunday for years, through every season and whatever the Sound throws at us. We swim, cold plunge, hang out, and occasionally wonder why we’re doing this in February. Things escalated from there. Open water gave me the right mix of playing in the ocean and trying something which is frequently hard and a little ridiculous.
What is marathon open-water swimming, and how did you get into it?
It’s basically swimming a really long way without a wetsuit, all while the water gets a fairly large say in how your day goes—currents, waves, cold, jellyfish, shipping lanes, darkness.
I love the unpredictability. After years of staring at a black line in a pool, swimming outside felt like an adventure again. “I wonder if I can swim over there?” eventually became the English Channel, around Manhattan, Catalina, Lake Washington, and Bainbridge and back. I’m excited to see where “over there” takes me next.
What makes Puget Sound special?
We’re incredibly lucky to have one of the world’s most spectacular bodies of water in our backyard. I can walk from my house, jump in the Sound, swim with seals and porpoises, and look up at the Olympics one way and volcanoes the other.
The more time I spend in it, the more I want to protect it. That made the Soundkeeper swim a natural fit. Swimming from Ballard to Bainbridge and back was a fun challenge, but seeing so many people get behind it and help us raise $10,000 was the best part.
