Safety Kayaking the Hudson River Swims

Early this summer, Ripitz reached out to me about the Newburgh to Beacon Swim. He was swimming to help raise money for The River Pool in Beacon. He asked if I’d be interested in volunteering as a kayak safety escort. I thought it was a cool idea so, once I’d checked that my schedule was open. “Where do I sign up?” Rip directed me to their website.

Before the day of the swim the organizers had a meeting which I joined via Zoom. They explained things thoroughly. Our job was to keep an eye on the swimmers, provide something for them to grab onto if they needed to rest and call in a jet ski or motorboat if somebody needed to come out of the water.

We were also supposed to do what we could to keep the swimmers on course, which is a challenge for them, being low in the water and dealing with the strong tidal currents which are typical of the area.

The kayakers would meet up early on the morning of August 5 at a boat launch in Beacon, then paddle over to the Newburgh waterfront in groups where the swimmers would enter the water. There were over 200 swimmers and about 90 kayak escorts signed up.

Newburgh to Beacon Swim

On August 5, I showed up early at Long Dock Park in Beacon and picked up a whistle, a pool noodle and a couple granola bars at the check in table. Then I got my kayak down, got my gear situated and paddled over to Newburgh with a couple other early risers. At that point, we had an hour of floating around the Newburgh waterfront, waiting for things to start.

The event was timed to happen around low tide to give the swimmers relatively calm conditions out in the middle of the river but, as we waited, the tide was still pushing pretty hard to the south.

I was sitting in my kayak near the Newburgh waterfront, facing away from shore, when Ripitz called me to ask where I was. I started explaining where and how to recognize me (long red kayak) and I just jammed my phone under my cheek so I could use both hands to turn my boat around and scan the crowd of swimmers on shore for Rip. I spotted him waving and we were able to get close enough to say hello and chat a little. Finally meeting Rip in person was cool. He told me he’d be jumping in the river in the third group. I promised to hook up with him when he hit the water.

Swimmers would enter the water from a floating dock on Newburgh’s waterfront. As the first group lined up, the river was still moving south at a pretty good clip so the organizers delayed the start while somebody monitored the water’s flow rate. I had brought my VHF marine radio so I could hear the organizers discussing the delay. Tide charts aren’t exact or 100% predictable. Weather and other variables besides the phases of the moon can massage them in one direction or the other.

The kayakers just hung out and waited in groups to the north and to the south of where the swimmers would jump in. I paddled backwards just enough to stay stationary as my fellow kayakers bobbed around me.

Eventually, somebody decided the river had slowed down enough, or maybe just that we had waited enough, and they sent the first group of swimmers off. People cheered as they jumped in and started swimming. The kayakers assigned to the first group departed with them. A few minutes later, group two jumped in the water. Rip was in group three. I spotted him with his buddy who was doing the swim with him at the north end of the dock. We waved to each other.

Then they were in the water too, swimming east. I maneuvered in near Rip. As expected, he turned out to be a strong swimmer. What surprised me was that he was able to carry on a conversation with me as we made our way across. At no point was I worried that he wouldn’t make it but there were a few swimmers nearby that I had less confidence in so I did my best to keep scanning the area, counting heads.

I could hear the event organizers on the radio calling out when they saw swimmers off course, asking us kayakers to direct them towards Beacon Harbor. By mid river, one swimmer was well north of the pack but there was a kayak right there with him so I figured no worries.

Rip swam on the north edge of the group but stayed pointed in the right direction for the most part, chatting about skiing and kayaking and stuff like that as he went. It was announced on the radio when the tide turned and started pushing north. Based on the chatter, it sounded like a lot of swimmers had been swept off course to the south by then. Rip made steady progress all the way across and finished with a burst of speed at the end.

The organizers had emphasized beforehand that they wanted us to circle back once our swimmers finished so that there would be a lower swimmer-to-kayak ratio for the people at the back of the pack. I said congratulations and talk to you later to Ripitz as he approached the dock and I turned around. People spread out at the rear but by the time I got there, just about everybody had their own personal escort.

I joined another group as they finished, then made my way back to where we’d started, landed and went about getting my kayak back on the roof of my van. I was tired but the positive vibes/ good feelings/ buzz of the event lingered as I made my way home. The whole experience was pretty cool on a number of levels. I’m really glad Ripitz suggested it and glad I participated.

The Lighthouse Swim

Soon after that, while on my bike, exploring the Old Croton Aqueduct trail in Tarrytown, I spotted a sign promoting something called The Lighthouse Swim. I wondered how many of these things there are each year. Maybe this will be my new thing. I snapped a pic of the sign and looked it up when I got home.

It was another charity swim across the Hudson but this time at one of its widest points, the section called the Tappan Zee. The swim would start at Nyack Marina and end at the Tarrytown Lighthouse. And of course they needed kayak escorts as well. My wife didn’t need me on the morning of Sept 10 and I signed up.

There was another zoom meeting the week before the swim with a similar plan and a slightly earlier start. One difference, this being a much longer swim (about three miles), the participants would all have a swimmers’ buoy attached- basically a brightly colored inflated dry bag trailing behind them on a short line. That struck me as a good idea. It would certainly make swimmers easier to spot in the water. There would also be a number of large orange inflated buoys anchored across the river, marking the best route.

I showed up at Kingsland Point Park around 6:30 AM on the morning of the 10th. There were already some kayakers ahead of me, getting their gear ready. I checked in and got a whistle, a pool noodle and also an orange flag this time. Everybody pitched in to help carry boats down to the river.

One of the organizers gave a final instructional talk and divided us into groups and then people started launching. The other paddlers in my group were from outside the area so I pointed out the landmark we were aiming on for on the Rockland County side. I also pointed out Nyack Beach and Croton Point to the north and described a couple good paddling trips in the area.

We made it across in plenty of time and waited in a group near Nyack Marina. The rest of the escort fleet caught up and the swimmers got their final instructions on land. There were about eighty swimmers and they’d be starting in groups of ten. Three of us made up group five’s escorts but it wasn’t expected that the groups would stay together. The idea was to stay spread out as groups merged and some swimmers pulled ahead or fell back.

Not all had been assigned a group so the unfortunately named “floaters” would fill in any gaps and bring up the rear. As we sat waiting for things to begin, one of the other kayakers paddled over to me and said “hey are you the guy in the Plattekill shirt?” I thought he looked familiar. We figured out who we knew in common and talked about ski patrol and NYSkiBlog and then it was time to start. Swimmers started getting wet and heading west.

This swim was planned with a similar strategy to the Newburgh Beacon swim. We were working around high tide this time so they planned to start in a flood tide with the current pushing north, and then it would shift to a southward flow towards the finish. It sounded good to me.

As expected, the groups merged together quickly so there was one long string of swimmers and kayaks stretched out across the river. I attached myself to three or four swimmers who seemed to be sticking together and tried to stay out of their way. A few times I offered steering suggestions, a little more this way or that way. When one of them would pause, I offered my bow for them to rest on or a drink of water but nobody took me up on either. They just rested treading water, got their bearings or adjusted their goggles and swam on.

There was plenty of radio chatter but everything went pretty smoothly. A few swimmers that fell too far behind were picked up by jet skis, moved forward to the middle of the pack and put back in the water.

The only drama came when a barge approached from the south. The river was closed to recreational boaters but commercial traffic still had access to the shipping channel which was full of swimmers when the barge appeared on the horizon down around Irvington. The people in charge discussed on the radio which groups would make it across, which groups should hold up to the west and which swimmers should be picked by jet skis and moved forward. At six knots, it was a sort of a slow motion drama. In the end, only two or three swimmers had to be picked up.

I circled back after reaching the Tarrytown Lighthouse but, like the Newburgh to Beacon Swim, the swimmers at the rear had plenty of coverage by then. At that point, I returned to the Tarrytown shore and just floated near the beach where the finish line was set up. Somebody was announcing names as the swimmers came in. One of the last to finish, the announcer said, was the top fund raiser for the event. The next swimmer was also the oldest at 72 years. That impressed me. I think I also heard that the youngest swimmers were 14 and 15 year olds and one of them finished in the top five.

When the last swimmer had finished, I turned and paddled back to where we had launched from. The mood was jubilant as everybody packed up boats and gear and got ready to head home. The swim went off without a hitch. They raised some money for charity. Everybody had a good time, met some nice people and made some memories.

I expect I’ll be back to help out both swims again next year and probably look for a few more to participate in. And for any fellow paddlers reading this, I recommend seeking out and getting involved with any charity swims in your area. It was fun.