Amy Appelhans Gubser Completed A 17-Hour Swimming Journey Through Cold, Shark-Inhabited Waters

Amy Appelhans Gubser could see the Farallon Islands from her house on clear days, and would always joke with her husband that she could swim there.

5 years ago, the nurse and grandmother who lives in Pacifica started to work on this crazy idea. Gubser sought out open-water swimming mentors for guidance and even got resources through the Marathon Swimming Federation, yet things never lined up until this year.

On May 11, in 17 hours, 3 minutes, she finally made her vision come true and completed the 29.6-mile swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Farallon Islands.

More info: Marathon Swimmers Federation

Gubser has been around the ocean since she was 10 years old. She became an ocean lifeguard in high school and college, and also swam at the University of Michigan, yet after graduation didn’t get back into the water for 24 years.

When Gubser finally did return, she was doing more open-water swimming, for instance, swims across Lake Tahoe and Monterey Bay. The woman would always see the Farallon Islands from her house and would dream about one day swimming there.

No matter good preparation and being in the best shape of her life, Gubser had to postpone this dream for a few years: first because of the Covid situation and then because of very strong winds.

"I had to wait for the weather systems and the currents to be right, or else you’ll swim as hard as you can and you won’t go anywhere. Wave height was another factor because the ocean can’t be too bouncy. Sometimes the current was OK but the wave interval was too tight. One day it was clear but the waves were six feet every nine seconds," the woman recalled the memories.

Yet this year, on May 11, the resident of Pacifica, California, finally had the perfect conditions to make the remarkable swim.

"This year, we spent three months monitoring surface currents. A week before my swim we could see conditions were magically aligning, and by Wednesday, May 8 we knew we were a go for Saturday the 11th. But I had a problem: the captain I had contacted for the follow boat said he had a different charter that day. I had to scramble and get a fishing captain who signed up and said 'yes'," shared Gubser.

Finding a new captain in a short period of time was not the only challenge the woman had to face. The outbound route to the Farallon Islands is known for going against the currents, and only 5 people had previously completed the trek in the inbound direction, from the Farallons to the Golden Gate. According to the Marathon Swimmers Foundation, Gubser is the only one to complete that specific route without a wetsuit. Before her, two men successfully completed the swim in 2014, and there were also 3 recorded failures between 2012 and 2015.

The location is also known for white sharks. "The elephant in the room is white sharks, and they were in the back of my mind at all times during the swim. We didn’t take the shark thing lightly - I had a savvy crew that kept watch for them from a boat and kayak. They were ready to jump into the water to help me if I needed, but we had no shark sightings the whole time," said Gubser. Fortunately, during the journey, she encountered several seals yet no sharks.

Another obstacle was the water temperature. She had trained to swim in cold water, but the water got as cold as 46 degrees Fahrenheit that day and it was something the woman didn't expect and wasn't ready for. A wetsuit probably would have helped here, but no matter the warmth and added buoyancy, she wasn't wearing it.

"Wetsuits are a great piece of equipment, especially for people that are starting out in open water. But I follow the Marathon Swim Federation rules and the open water swim world rules that, for the last 150 years, have been the same. Which is a swimsuit, a cap, some form of goggles, earplugs and a nose clip," explained Gubser. "When you wear a wetsuit your skin rubs against the material, and the last thing that I really wanted was for my skin to bleed near a shark island."

The 55-year-old grandmother of two with a third on the way was very happy about her accomplishment when, no matter all the challenges, including intense fog in the Pacific Ocean all along the way, she finally reached the Farallon Islands at around 8:30 p.m. that night.

"For 17 hours, I had no idea where I was, what was going on. I had a thought bubble around me that only allowed us to see 100 meters in any direction. I went into a meditative state. There were some 30-minute time intervals that passed very quickly. Others seemed like they were 300 hours," she explained.

"My whole family is so relieved, because I have been talking about this thing for five years, and my husband will be the first to tell you he's just grateful it's done," shared Gubser. "I hope this story inspires somebody to not be challenged by a number [like] their age or their weight. I mean, all of my body got me across that. That's pretty impressive."

While this inspiring story is already traveling between people all around the globe, I can't help but think of how everything in this life is truly possible, it's just a matter of your persistence, strong belief and hard work.

Cold shark-inhabited waters that would definitely scare most people didn't stop Gubser from chasing her dream. Despite her age, she made history not only as the 1st and only woman to complete this specific route without a wetsuit, but also as a badass grandma.