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It takes a different breed of athlete to swim across such great distances like the Monterey Bay and the English Channel. But for Amador Valley High School alumna and accomplished Bay Area swimmer Catherine Breed, that’s where she feels most comfortable.
However, the two-time NCAA champion and former Team USA swimmer now has her eyes set on a new challenge — swimming the entire length of California.
“I truly believe this is something I’ve been training for my whole life,” Breed told the Pleasanton Weekly.
Breed will document her journey as she takes on more than 900 miles of the Pacific Ocean next year with two main goals in mind: to raise awareness for ocean conservationism and to empower more women around the world to be involved in activities related to the ocean.
“The best way to think about Swim California is, it’s my love letter to our backyard — my love letter to the California coast,” Breed said. “Through documentation and storytelling through sport, we can invite the average person to learn about the people, the places and the problems in our backyard.”
Breed grew up in the Tri-Valley having lived in Castlewood and Dublin before eventually moving to Pleasanton for the start of high school at Amador Valley. Even though she grew up in the valley, Breed said she has always been drawn to the water.
Breed started swimming at the age of 4. Growing up, she said she and her family spent countless weekends swimming or sailing in the bay, which she credits for her decorated career in swimming.
She qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials by age 15 and was named the 2011 All-East Bay Girls Swimmer of the Year. She also led Pleasanton Seahawks to seventh place at the 2011 U.S. Junior National Championships and took second in the 200-meter freestyle and sixth in the 400-meter freestyle at the 2011 U.S. National Championships.
When she graduated from Amador Valley in 2011, Breed then took her talents to the University of California, Berkeley’s swimming and diving team where she ended her career ranked among Cal’s all-time top 10 in several events, according to the university’s website.
It wasn’t until 2016 when Breed joined the Dolphin Club, a San Francisco-based open-water swimming and boating club, that she found her niche passion — open water swimming.
Since then, Breed has become a record-setting open water swimmer after having swum the English Channel, the length of Lake Tahoe, across the Monterey Bay and from San Francisco to Half Moon Bay, just to name a few.
And according to her website, it was during the pitch-black swim from Santa Cruz to Monterey in 2020 that she realized this is what she wanted to do with her life.
“With every stroke, bioluminescence lit up my fingertips. And in that glow, I thought about all the people who helped me get there — each of them a little light guiding me forward,” Breed wrote. “That was the moment I realized: this is where I want to leave my mark. This is how I want to make an impact.”
But it wasn’t until 2022, after she swam from the Golden Gate Bridge to Half Moon Bay, that she began tossing the idea around to swim the length of California. She said that swimming to Half Moon Bay wasn’t for any accolades and that something during that swim clicked inside her to make her want to commit to this latest endeavor, which is slowly now becoming a reality.
Swim California, Breed said, will be an assisted swim adventure that will take place roughly over three months and will take her from the most northern point of California, all the way down to the southern tip.
Breed said in documenting her journey throughout the various months, she hopes to shine a light on issues impacting the state’s coast and the greater ocean by showing people first hand. She also hopes that through her efforts, more people will not only get more active when it comes to saving ocean wildlife, but they will also get more women and young girls interested in what she calls ocean activities.
These activities, she said, can range from sailing, swimming to ocean photography and offshore fishing.
Breed said she also hopes to bridge that gap between ocean conservation and the seafaring industry through the nonprofit that she founded, Sea Dreamers, which she is heavily promoting through Swim California. According to the nonprofit’s website, it looks to “open doors for women to get involved in ocean activities through community, inclusivity, empowerment and education surrounding ocean conservation.”
Breed said she is aiming to swim roughly five hours every day with a boat following her along the coast. She said she plans on stopping in various places throughout the trip and has even mapped out a route with docking points for the boat.
Breed and her team have been planning this journey for the past five years, but added that there will be a lot of challenges along the way. From unpredictable waves and weather, to the low possibility of sharks, Breed said she is preparing both physically and mentally for every aspect of the swim.
“It’s going to be a very complex and dynamic event and having flexibility and being comfortable with the unknown is going to be paramount to the swim,” Breed said.
That’s why she said she will have to lean on her community now more than ever.
“It’s a privilege to see how tough you can be and it’s really special when you get to do it with a community that supports you,” she said.
Breed said she is grateful to have grown up and continues to live in the Bay Area because she has friends from Pleasanton all the way to Berkeley who are able to support her endeavors, including this latest one.
“As a former Don, Catherine Breed is an inspiring example of the many ways our alumni go on to make a positive difference in the world,” Susanne Frey, safety and communications coordinator for Pleasanton Unified School District, told the Weekly. “We wish her all the best on this incredible journey.”
Currently, Breed is asking for support in the form of donations to her website and is also asking for sponsorship and someone to let her and her team borrow a boat for the trip next year. She said any help is appreciated and hopes she can inspire others to follow their dreams like she did.
“Community is really important when going after big challenges,” she said. “I’m grateful for the community I have and I hope this story inspires people to push themself and to do something they should think they were able to do.”
Breed said she plans on setting out for her journey sometime next June. For more information and to support her journey, visit www.catherinebreed.com.
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