The Santa Barbara Channel: Beautiful, Moody, and Worth Every Mile
A love story featuring dolphins, unpredictable currents, and a few questionable decisions.
The Santa Barbara Channel is one of the most beautiful places we've ever swum, and one of the most unpredictable. One day, the water is impossibly blue and clear enough to see layers of marine life below. Dolphins race alongside the boat, and you wonder how you got this lucky. The next, the channel greets you with five-foot swells, a current going precisely the wrong way, and absolutely no interest in your carefully planned swim.
We love it anyway. Actually, we might love it a little more for that.
A Beautiful Place With a Complicated Personality
Between the Southern California coast and the northern Channel Islands lies some of California's most spectacular open water swimming. The most popular of these marathon swims is the 12.2-mile crossing between Anacapa Island and Oxnard. Most swimmers head from island to mainland, but there are other routes, including a swim around Anacapa.
The channel's underwater geography is as interesting as the scenery above it. Deep underwater terrain, including Hueneme Canyon near the mainland, lie beneath waters shaped by shifting tides, winds, and ocean currents.
You can have hours of gorgeous, calm water, then suddenly struggle to make progress. Currents can push you sideways, carry you toward your destination, or decide you really ought to visit somewhere else. Beautiful? Absolutely. Cooperative? Occasionally.
Sidney Tries to Race the Boat
In 2022, Sidney Russell made her first crossing from Oxnard to Anacapa, reversing the popular route. Because why do things the easy way?
The catch? Finishing at the island runs the risk of the current sweeping you past your destination and out to sea. As Sidney neared Anacapa, that's exactly what threatened to happen. Captain Dawn Brooks guided her at an angle against the current, but with Anacapa so tantalizingly close, she decided to sprint ahead of the boat and make a beeline for the island.
Dawn had seen this particular brand of swimmer impatience before. She laughed. “Oh, we're playing this game.” She cut Sidney off. The crew still laughs about it.
Sidney made it to Anacapa, but not before learning an important lesson about the Santa Barbara Channel: just because you can see where you're going doesn't mean the ocean intends to let you get there.
Naturally, she wanted to come back.
The Captain, the Current, and the Toy Trumpet
A week before her own Anacapa crossing in 2023, Angela Lee observed Jennifer Whitlock's swim. Jennifer was training for the English Channel. As she set out from Anacapa, the current pushed the boat so far off course the crew could see the back of the island. The mainland was supposed to be getting closer.
Jennifer's coach asked if she could stay in for her planned eight-hour training swim even if she couldn't reach the mainland. Captain Dawn Brooks agreed. A few hours later, Angela remembers looking up to see Dawn at the helm, happily playing her toy trumpet. Things were looking up. Dawn had found a break in the current, and they were finally headed for the mainland.
Jennifer finished in 12 hours and 15 seconds. A little over two months later, she crossed the English Channel in 14 hours and 41 minutes. For perspective, the English Channel is approximately 21 miles at its shortest, nearly nine miles longer than the Anacapa crossing.
That's the Santa Barbara Channel for you.
Is That Island Ever Going to Get Smaller?
Two days before Angela's crossing, a 17-year-old swimmer reportedly battled a head current of 2 miles per hour for much of his swim. Angela's usual pace was 1.5 miles per hour. She did the math. Then wished she hadn't.
Fortunately, her swim began in cool, crystal clear water, with layers of jellyfish-like creatures drifting beneath her. It was magical. One small problem. At every feed stop, Angela looked back, and Anacapa appeared exactly where she'd left it. Her kayaker assured her it was an optical illusion, then promptly told her to get moving. Very reassuring.
Angela put her head down and decided to swim until she couldn't. The water was gorgeous, she was comfortable, and presumably making progress. So she kept going.
Hours later, Captain Dawn finally allowed a support swimmer. Summer Wesson joined her with Chuck, her trusty inflatable duck bathtub, a veteran of countless training swims spent towing nutrition. Summer arrived with excellent news. “You're out of the current!”
Finally.
Angela had hoped for an eight hour swim. Her official time was 11 hours, 25 minutes, and 38 seconds. She wouldn't trade the experience.
Never Say You're Going to Finish Early
Hassan Ghozlan was cruising along in beautiful, calm water. Less than two hours after leaving Anacapa, Angela, kayaking beside him, checked her watch and called up to Sidney on the boat.
“I think we're going to get home early!”
Sidney knew immediately. Angela had jinxed them.
Sure enough, Gina, the offshore oil platform they normally swim past, stopped getting any closer. A strong northward current had other plans. Captain Jed Beck adjusted course, and Hassan eventually landed well north of the usual finish at Silver Strand Beach. Back aboard, Hassan learned he'd briefly been on pace for a four hour crossing. His actual time? 7 hours and 24 minutes. He shrugged it off, saying he'd rather spend seven and a half hours in beautiful water than four fighting chop.
Hard to argue with that.
Angela, meanwhile, has been advised to stop predicting arrival times.
Sidney Comes Back for More
After her first crossing, Sidney wanted to swim to Anacapa and back. Her first double attempt began in the middle of the night, with the channel in a foul mood. Four- and five-foot swells tossed her around in the dark. She covered nine miles in four hours before conditions got too rough to continue safely and she stopped.
The following year, a month after crossing the English Channel, Sidney tried again. This time the water was crystal clear, the kind of blue that makes you stop to take it all in. And she did, repeatedly diving for a closer look at the creatures below. Even the current was feeling generous, pushing her toward Anacapa and then, somehow, pushing her right back toward the mainland. After her first attempt, the contrast was almost comical.
We like to think the channel rewarded her persistence. Maybe she just got lucky with the weather.
The channel isn't telling.
Sometimes the Wildlife Steals the Show
We love the challenge, but the beauty and wildlife keep us coming back. The waters around the northern Channel Islands are part of a National Marine Sanctuary, with additional protected areas around the islands. These rich waters teem with marine life.
Dolphin stampedes are practically routine. Hundreds can appear out of nowhere and race across the surface. It never gets old.
Sea lions are everywhere, sometimes floating together in groups called rafts. While observing a swim earlier this summer, Angela spotted a raft of at least 50 young sea lions. Fifty! A whole floating kindergarten.
We watched marlin leap out of the water, a particular thrill this year. Last year, a family of orcas showed up near our friend and fellow swim observer Joel Virgel. You never know who'll turn up.
On the clearest days, sunlight reaches deep into the blue, revealing fish, drifting gelatinous creatures, and an underwater world that seems to go on forever. It's hard to describe. Fortunately, we have a ridiculous number of photographs. We could add them forever, but no amount could ever truly represent the beauty.
Around Anacapa
We're not quite done with Anacapa yet. Sidney, Angela, Hassan, Matthew Bianchinello, and Sammi Lane have all crossed these waters. Sidney and Angela have spent hours supporting other swimmers.
Now Angela wants to swim around the island, past dramatic cliffs, hidden coves, and kelp forests. With all that marine life, it's said to be one of Southern California's most beautiful swims. A couple of fellow Swim Open Waters swimmers who usually pass on marathon crossings are keen to join her.
The catch is timing the tides and currents. Angela and the others are working on speed so they can get through the tricky sections and still have time to stop and look at the fish without getting swept backward.
Sidney will likely come along to bark sprint orders when the current picks up. Of course, we know she's just as likely to stop and admire the fish. A perfectly reasonable training goal, and possibly the most Swim Open Waters reason to get faster.
Why We Keep Coming Back
We've seen the Santa Barbara Channel at its most breathtaking and unforgiving. We've battled currents, celebrated crossings, made tough calls, and collected countless stories, friendships, photographs, and at least one inflatable duck who thinks he's part of the crew.
What stays with us are the people who share these adventures. The captains, kayakers, support crew, and friends who make every crossing memorable. The channel never promises an easy swim. But when the water is crystal clear, dolphins race past, and Anacapa glows in the sunshine, we can't imagine being anywhere else.
Just don't tell the channel how easy it looks. It might hear you.
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