CHOC It Up To A Bunch Of Teenagers

Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

This morning in Southern California, six teenagers from the Mission Viejo Nadadores Swimming Club completed their Catalina Channel crossing in 7 hours and 51 minutes. Tyla Willment, 17, Mallory Mosk, 19, Sasha Westberg, 15, Derek Young, 15, Joey Ferreri, 16, and Blake Parker, 16. Reserve swimmers are Cameron Willment, 14, and Kelsi Ferreri, 14 started their relay before midnight last night and navigated the Catalina Channel on the 63-foot Bottom Scratcher to raise money for sick children via CHOC Mission Viejo.

Before the night swim, coach Ad'm Dusenbery said. "Psychologically, this will be tough for them. They will be dealing with the darkness and the cold, and the ocean swell -- they've never done anything like this before." Sasha, who came up with the idea for the CHOC benefit, also had a mixture of emotions before the crossing, "I'm really excited to do it. I'm kind of nervous but it will be fun. It's a new experience for me. I've done ocean swims before, but nothing like this."

With a goal time of 9 hours, the swimmers completed one of the fastest crossings ever while raising nearly US$5,000 for CHOC (see below).



Video by Lynn Kubasek.

Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.