Posted: Thursday, October 16, 2014 1:31 pm | Updated: 1:34 pm, Thu Oct 16, 2014.
by Matt Simon
In complete darkness, a team of six swimmers recently embarked on a 21-mile relay from Catalina Island to Palos Verdes.
At 3 a.m., the relay began with the first swimmer diving into pitch-black water with nothing to guide them but the ambient light of glow sticks hanging from a kayak.
Keith Dickson of Hermosa Beach and Brent Blackman of Manhattan Beach faced the Sept. 28 ocean conditions with mixed feelings.
“My first reaction was ‘OK the water’s smooth, the swells are good, my stroke feels great, but I will never do this again,’” said the 56-year-old Dickson. “That’s the mantra I kept repeating to myself. ‘Everything is great but I am not doing this again.’”
