Pacific Northwest Virtual Columbia River Edition

Event Description:   This is a virtual event accumulating swimming distances for individual swims for a trip on and around bodies of water in the Pacific Northwest. Do it alone or do it as a team.  See just how far you can go and learn about our giant swimming pool. e.g. Survive the Sound (q13fox.com) and Fishes | Encyclopedia of Puget Sound (eopugetsound.org)

Columbia River Edition 2022

A follow-up to our Pacific Northwest Virtual swim in 2021, this year’s swim will virtually take you down the mighty Columbia from the Canadian Border to the lighthouse at Cape Disappointment – a 700-mile swim.  Nearly twice as long as last year, we encourage you to sign up with some friends/family to do it as a team – we even make it $10 cheaper to do so.  Some will do it as a race, others just to claim an impressive accomplishment.  Signing up as a team will still show you how you are doing individually, as well as how the team you are on is doing.

You can do your swims wherever you want to – Puget Sound, lakes, pools, rivers – just make sure to adhere to the Safety precautions below.  Upload your distances either manually or if you have a watch or phone with mapping software, you can automatically have it uploaded when you save your swim.  Devices such as Apple and Garmin watches and software such as Gaia, Strava, Connect, etc will interface automatically once you set them up.

Use the chart below to figure out how many people you might want on your team – more than 10 are discouraged, but not prohibited.  With 12.5 weeks to complete your swims, figure you will get in 25 swims if you do 2 per week, 50 if you do 4 per week and 75 swims if you do 6 per week.  The chart shows 2 sample destinations as targets and how far each team member would have to go per swim based upon 2, 4, or 6 swims each per week to reach the target.

Target: Canadian Border to Waypoint #10, Wenatchee, WA – 450,560 yards

Target: Canadian Border to Waypoint #15, Kennewick, WA – 689,920 yards

The formula to calculate each swimmer’s yardage required per workout (as above) is:

Waypoint miles x 1760 yds / (12.5 weeks x avg weekly workouts x # of swimmers)

In the examples above, Wenatchee is roughly 1/3, and Kennewick is roughly 1/2 the way down the Columbia River. So, if you want to know the distances for 2/3 of the way or all the way, just multiple the distances by 2, respectively.

Can’t emphasize the next part strongly enough - SAFETY:

Each participant’s FIRST PRIORITY must be their own safety during this event.  Swimmers will choose their swimming location(s), e.g., pool, lake, sound, river etc. – and need to consider the hazards each presents and their own abilities to address those hazards.  Your safety is YOUR responsibility.  We obviously will not know when or where you will choose to complete your swims, so there is nothing we can do to save you if you run into trouble.  As a non-profit organization we provide this event for your enjoyment, but we can’t take responsibility for your safety.

We will make you sign a waiver, releasing us of liability for your participation, when you register.  But our goal is not to avoid responsibility, it is to convince you to avoid safety issues in the first place.  So please take your safety very seriously.  Don’t swim more than you can swim, don’t swim in conditions that are unsafe for your ability, swim with a buddy or have boat support, watch out for boats/docks/other swimmers on open water, and stop if you need to – make sure there is a tomorrow (that just might be your day).  

Getting Started: 

June 17th we will upload all of the registrations to SoDisp.com. You will receive an invite email from SoDisp.com to create a new account or login to your existing account, along with instructions to hook up your smart device. Once your smart device is connected to SoDisp.com your yardage will show BUT it will not start counting towards this race until the 22nd of June. Yardage / Mileage will continue to accumulate through the end date of the event.  

Couple quick FAQs - 

• You need 2 people to register for the initial team. You may add more people later by having them select your team when they register.
• If you want to join a team or get off of a team you can email us at registrar@bluewave-aquatics.com.
• If you didn't receive the email on June 17th or 28th check your spam folder.
• If you do not have a smart phone or watch you may manually enter your time and distance.