I spend a lot of my time at the South End Rowing Club. Mornings after my swims I often met one of our members, the godfather of open water swimming, asking where I’d swam that morning or what swim I wanted to do next. He was almost always there – sitting in an armchair near our deck and wearing a baseball cap – to kayak for someone training for a marathon swim or plan one of our many swims around the San Francisco Bay. He’s not in that armchair anymore but his quotes live on:

“Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.”

“Shut up and swim!”

“It’s going to be GREAT!”