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Strawberry swimmer completes 900-mile journey down California coast

Strawberry resident Catherine Breed finished a roughly 900-mile swim down the California coast Oct. 19, the first person to swim the state’s length, pending ratification.

Francisco Martinez
By FRANCISCO MARTINEZ · 1 min read
EMILY CAMERON VIA @CATHERINE.BREED / INSTAGRAMThe Strawberry resident swims Oct. 13 near Dana Point during Swim California, her roughly 900-mile swim down the California coast.

On her drive home to Marin from San Diego on Oct. 27, Strawberry resident Catherine Breed, a 33-year-old open-water swimmer, saw the California coastline from the road and took stock of her most recent odyssey.

“Oh my gosh,” Breed recalled thinking to herself. “I swam all of that.”

Breed the week before completed a roughly 900-mile journey called “Swim California,” navigating her way from the Oregon border all the way down to Mexico. She began July 1 and swam the coast in daily stages from a support sailboat over 111 days, 18 of them lost to weather and rest. When she finished her swim Oct. 19, Breed became the first person to swim the length of the Golden State, pending ratification by the World Open Water Swimming Association.

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A version of this story will appear in the Nov. 4, 2026, print edition of The Ark. See something wrong? Request a correction.
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