Carmel's Kai Garren completes swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco

Regardless of how beautiful the weather was on Sept. 28 -- and it was a gorgeous day -- the waters of the San Francisco Bay are always cold.

No matter. All Saints’ 4th grader Kai Garren took part in the 11th Annual ‘Swim with the Centurions’ and completed the swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco in 48:22 minutes. He finished 159 in a field of 316 swimmers throughout the world as the event’s youngest swimmer. He swam with his teammate Samantha Albano from Monterey Bay Swim Club and Greg Knowles from Monterey’s ‘Kelp Krawlers.’

In the morning, Kai joined his fellow swimmers on a ferry that took them to Alcatraz. They jumped into the choppy waters and battled the currents on their swim toward San Francisco. They swam in a large arc in order to get to the landing site at Aquatic Park, as with a straight-line swim they would have been swept out toward the Golden Gate Bridge.

The water was slightly warmer than Monterey Bay. Kai and Samantha practiced open ocean swimming with Greg for a month in Monterey Bay prior to the Alcatraz race.

‘Swim with the Centurions’ is organized by Water World Swim, which has offered open-water swimming events and training programs over 15 years. You can find them here.

Congratulations, Kai! We can't wait to see what your next adventure will be.