Windsurfing Magazine

iberger
2010-07-31 22:57:59 | 223 views | 4 Comments

My wife has now joined the ranks of river warriors. For years she’s been mocking me about swimming in the Hudson River, the so called “Dirty Stream”, named by Pete Seeger. However, as an accomplished swimmer, the Hudson presented a certain fascination. The river itself has gotten much cleaner over the years, with much thanks laid at the feet of Pete Seeger and his Clearwater organization. When my Grandfather was a boy in the 1930s, he told me he had to use the breast stroke while swimming in the Hudson in order to push aside the “brown things” floating in the water. Now it’s clean enough for everybody, even Kirsten.

The Newburg-Beacon swim is about a mile in length. It’s a charity swim for the Beacon Riverpool, an innovative pool on the Beacon riverfront. The five of us (Kirsten, me, three kidlings) drove out to Newburg for Kirsten’s registration. She got a neon-green bathing cap with a number and a GPS ankle bracelet. We arrive early, so we waited around for a while, enjoying the beautiful day (and I, secretly wishing I had my Kona board with me). As the time for her to swim drew nigh, I took my son on a trip to the bathroom. As we passed a waterfront restaurant, an old man was preparing to sing. I took one look at him and recognized Pete Seeger himself.

Seeger is 91 now, and his voice isn’t what it was, but what I heard moved me. I’d grown up with the man’s music (literally: my parents played me Seeger’s records when I was a kid) and seeing him now was very moving.

Then it was time to go. Kirsten had to attend safety meetings and the kids were getting restless. I drove across the Newburg-Beacon Bridge to Beacon and camped out the family on the waterfront at the receiving point. With binoculars, I could see the swimmers on the other side lining up on the dock. At 11:30, the first wave of swimmers jumped in, and the river was full of florescent-colored bathing caps and their escort kayaks. It was very colorful.

The first swimmer made it across in just under a half an hour. The second swimmer came soon after and it was a woman. Then the third swimmer approached the pier. He/she looked familiar. I recognized the skin tone and peculiar way his/her hand cut through the water in the freestyle stroke. Then I got a glimpse of the swimmer’s bathing suit: it was a one-piece woman’s suit, and that was Kirsten’s. “Gabriel, I think that’s Mommy,” I told him. He got excited, and so did the twins, although the two girls are only two and really didn’t understand what was going on. When Kirsten pulled herself out of the water we were all cheering like mad.

Kirsten told me she had been pretty confused while approaching the dock because there were no swimmers in front of her. She was stunned that she was the third across because, “I wasn’t even trying hard.”

After we ate, the five of us strolled towards the Riverpool, passing Pete Seeger on this side ripping up some more songs. I went back to the car to retrieve everyone’s bathing suits and noticed Pete Seeger had finished his set and was talking to some children. I went over and shook his hand, telling him, “I’ve been listening to your albums since I was a kid.”

“I’m surprised you stayed out of jail,” he answered.

“No, I did fine,” I laughed, then ended it with saying, “Thank you. You’re one of my heroes.”

We ended the trip with a dip in the Riverpool, which is a really neat thing. The bottom is solid netting, and the whole thing floats in the water. It also bobs up and down with the waves, which makes a kind of unique bathing experience. This one is small, but a larger, adult-sized pool is in the works.

And now my wife is one of the river warriors. She wants more swims! (Next year, I’ll be on escort duty in a kayak.)