Today, head coach of the Layton Surfers swim team: Coach Kyle Kofoed, hosted a team swim clinic. He introduced the new swim coach, Erin Dawson, and had her demonstrate several skills and drills. Here are the details:
On the morning of Saturday, August 15th 2026, I got to the Bear Lake State Marina at 6am and quickly got the Fish Pro Seadoo in the water to get down to the south end of the lake at Rendezvous beach to meet Jarrett for his swim scheduled for 7am.
I got there at 6:50am and he was all lubed up, stretched and ready to go. David, his father loaded up his supplies and we were off starting at 7:04:22am. Conditions were awesome the entire first half of the swim, and gnarly in the middle for about 30 minutes or so and then cleared back up to very sunny and smooth conditions.
Here are the details:
I was extremely impressed with his technique. Really long and controlled freestyle. Based on his spm captures every 30 minutes, his total strokes for this swim were approximately 29,532, give or take about a thousand strokes. Doing the math on my Bear Lake length time and average SPM reveals that he is about 36% more efficient in his strokes. He makes it look so effortless, but he maintains a good pace!
He exited the water at North Beach State Park at 18:08:52 and became the 9th person to ever swim the entire length of Bear Lake. This is a great achievement and milestone in his quest to swim the English Channel in June of 2027.
He plans to complete his qualification to attempt to swim the English Channel in November by swimming 6 hours around Alcatraz, which will have cold enough water to qualify him to swim next year. The qualification requires a 6-hour continuous swim in water that is 61 degrees or colder.
Brayden's Bear Lake length swim is currently pending ratification by the Marathon Swimming Federation based on the presentation of the swim data and noted observations of his swim to ensure he followed the accepted rules and standards for open water swimming.
