Crossing for a cause

Sometime next week, on another continent, a group of Twin Cities teens will slip into black and orange swimsuits emblazoned with the YWCA of Minneapolis logo. One by one, they will face exhaustion, hypothermia, jellyfish and tanker traffic in a relay attempt across the English Channel.

Their goal: to give other Minnesota kids an opportunity to learn to swim.

The Channel Challenge is sponsored by the YWCA of Minneapolis. The eight teens, six adult swimmers and support team leave the Twin Cities for the United Kingdom on Sunday evening, along with their coach, Dave Cameron, who will attempt a double-crossing of the Channel. They already have exceeded their goal to raise $60,000 to provide access to swimming lessons and lifeguard training for other Twin Cities youths who otherwise might never have the opportunity to learn.

The teens, ages 14 to 16, know they're involved in something big. Swimmer Hallee Surber, 14, of St. Paul, is already excited for future bragging rights.

"I'm really looking forward to saying, 'When I was 14, I swam the English Channel, and I helped my team, and we raised the money and worked really hard,' " she said.

In 2004, Cameron, 30, of St. Louis Park, made his first Channel crossing, in just more than 13 hours.

"I really just wanted to test my limits a bit," he said. "If you'd asked me a day or two after the last time I would've said I was done, but after that I knew I'd be going back."

Soon after he returned, he approached supervisors at the YWCA about doing a charity swim. Together, they decided to broaden the campaign to include the relay teams.

"We've always been leaders of social change," said Becky Roloff, CEO of the YWCA of Minneapolis. "I think when we look back in history this will be one of those areas where we really stepped out and used a great metaphor to highlight a really important issue in Minnesota. ... We're going to get these kids to swim, not just dip their toes, but really work on a swimming program so they can leave us and be safe and be able to swim."

The relay

Depending on the escort boat's pilot and the weather and sea conditions, the groups will swim from Dover, England, to either Cap Gris Nez or Calais, France, between 21 and 25 miles. The relay swimmers each will spend an hour in the water and then wait on the boat for the next rotation. Cameron expects the adult team to finish in less than 12 hours; the teens could be as fast as 13 hours, but Cameron said the relay could take up to 18 hours, again depending on conditions.

Each day at noon, Cameron and the English boat pilot, Chris Osmond, will decide whether the swim will happen the next day. The soonest they could take the plunge is Tuesday morning. They will leave with the turn of the low tide, about 2:30 a.m. (GMT), about 9:30 p.m. here, and swim until they're finished. If the conditions aren't right any of the five days they're available, they go home. Cameron won't make his attempt until both teams have had their shot.

"I'll be there, but I will not be swimming," he said. "I'm there to coach."

A round-trip swim has been made only 28 times to date, according to Michael Oram, of the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation, based in Dover. A Dover municipal website reports that 18 individuals and teams have successfully made the crossing so far this season.

'I was not going to pass it up'

Cameron had a final practice session with the teens on Wednesday. As the eight swam a 500-yard time trial, he paced the length of the pool, shouting encouragement and suggestions, and pumping his fists, clipboard, stopwatch and all.

Each of the swimmers hit a personal best in that swim; Mattea Allert dropped 50 seconds from her previous record.

Cameron talked them up as the swimmers rested, breathing hard, on the edge of the pool.

"Where's the smile?" he asked Betsy Robertson, 14, of St. Paul. "You've cracked 7 [minutes]. You're starting the season way ahead of where you've ever been before."

The teen swimmers say they've prepared well for the challenge; some are nervous about the cold, others about injury or the challenge of filling their minds during an hour in the water.

Surber said her experience swimming has brought out strength she didn't know she had. "At first I thought, 'I don't think so. I'm a sprinter; I'm not used to long distance,'" she said. "Now I'm really good at long distance. I was not going to pass it up. I thought I'd see if I make it, and I did."

The only boy on the team is 14-year-old Benito Ramirez.

"It's kind of weird," admitted Ramirez, of St. Louis Park. "I wish there were another guy because there's a big difference between all of them and me. But we get along fine."

Even so, he said it's been a valuable experience.

"It's been a lot of work, and I've become a much better swimmer," he said. "I've learned a lot of new stuff working as a team, so that's kind of new, because before I was mainly a single swimmer; there was no team."

Mandy Theissen, 16, of Minneapolis, said she's most looking forward to having a successful finish.

"I'm just trying to stay as relaxed as possible," she said. "I think if I psych myself up, I'd get nervous."

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409 • mbaca@startribune.com