Odyssey Featured in Berkeleyside "Supervised swims in the bay are popular and safe"
Odyssey Open Water Swimming was recently featured in a Berkeleyside article, titled “Supervised swims in the bay are popular and safe — just don’t stare at Homer the seal.” The post, written by Joanne Furio, details what it’s like to swim with Odyssey Open Water Swimming while featuring several swimmers and team members from the Odyssey team.
As the popularity of open-water swimming has exploded, not only in the Bay Area but worldwide, the East Bay company Odyssey Open Water Swimming has become a growing presence at the Berkeley Marina. While anyone can swim in the bay for free — and many swimmers do — a big draw of paying Odyssey $18 a swim (or $150 for a ten-pack) is safety. Swimmers are supervised by a flotilla of kayaks, paddleboards and a rigid inflatable boat whose captain, Taylor Hurt, is a lifeguard. The team communicates via walkie-talkie to make sure swimmers stay on course and out of trouble.
“We go kind of crazy with the safety side of things,” said Warren Wallace of Walnut Creek, Odyssey’s founder and CEO. “We want to make sure everybody is totally covered.”
Odyssey’s Conny Bleul also shared about Odyssey’s diverse range of swimmers, from children accompanied by their parents to septuagenarians.