Catherine Breed Breaks the Record Swimming from SE Farallon Island to the Golden Gate Bridge
August 26, 2025,
If the English Channel is open-water swimming’s venerable grandparent, the Farallon Islands crossing is its wild, slightly unhinged cousin—the one who shows up at family dinners with fog in their hair and sea nettle welts on their cheeks. Thirtyish miles of dark water, ripping tides, refrigerator-cold upwelling, and a seasonal gathering of great white sharks all challenge the brave who venture the crossing between Southeast Farallon Island (SEFI) and the Golden Gate Bridge.
To date, only a handful have swam solo crossings between the main Farallon Island and the mainland, but today the seventh Catherine Breed joined the Pantheon of extreme solo swimmers to successfully cross the Gulf of the Farallones.
On August 26, 2025 Catherine Breed—UC Berkeley alum, Bay Area marathon-swimming force, and connoisseur of extreme swims, has completed the SE Farallones to the Golden Gate Bridge swim under classic marathon swimming rules (no contact, no suit aids, no music). In calm conditions Breed became the 7th swimmer to cross, and the 4th to swim from SE Farallon Island to the Golden Gate Bridge, completing the swim in a record time.
Why the Gulf Terrifies (and thrills) the Most Hardy Swimmers
- Hypothermia is the house special. Even in “summer,” the outer coast sits in the high-40s to low-50s °F. Early fall temperatures may nudge warmer, but every degree matters over 14–18 hours of continuous exposure. The warmer waters overlap with peak white shark season making the fall months inadvisable. For Marathon swimmers, only suits, skin goop and swim caps are allowed. The Marathon Swimmers Federation (MSF) Rules of Marathon Swimming are a set of standards and guidelines for undertaking a solo, unassisted open-water marathon swim in any body of water.
- Jellyfish & stingers. Pacific sea nettles and egg-yolk jellies sweep the swim line. Veteran marathon swimmers wear the speed stripes—angry red, tingling ones across their arms and foreheads.
- Tides & currents that make or break you. Missing a flood tide near the Gate, swimmers have watched San Francisco slide sideways or backwards toward Japan. Route redirections (Bolinas and Muir Beach) are often game-time calls against this conveyor belt.
- About those sharks. Yes, adult white sharks seasonally stack up around the Farallones with predations on seals ramping up from late August and peaking in October and November. But encounters with marathon swimmers are extremely rare. Modern crews carry deterrents like Shark Shields, Shark bandz and sharpened protocols including safety swimmers and kayak escort.
The pantheon of successful solo crossings
While there have been over 2600 English Channel solo swim crossings, the Gulf of the Farallones completions remain few. Catherine Breed makes the seventh to have cleared the water under recognized marathon swimmer rules. The list is:
- Lt. Col. Stewart Evans — SEFI → Bolinas (Aug 27–28, 1967). The modern era’s pioneer: walked in off the Devil’s Teeth, and walked out on Marin’s rocky hip in ~13:45.
- Ted Erikson — SEFI → Golden Gate (Sept 17, 1967). The line to the south tower itself; ~14:38 to the Bridge and a place in lore.
- Craig Lenning — SEFI → Muir Beach (Apr 8, 2014). Third solo in history, first since ’67; 15:47 through fog to a torchlit landing at the rocky shore north of the golden gate.
- Joe Locke — SEFI → Golden Gate (July 12, 2014). Tapped the south tower after 13:58—second ever to the Bridge on this route. Almost denied by a counter current, he earned it.
- Kimberley Chambers — SEFI → Golden Gate (Aug 8, 2015). First woman to thread the “hardest ocean swim in the world,” 17:12, veteran of the Oceans 7 Marathon Swim, and featured in the film Kim Swims.
- Amy Appelhans Gubser — Golden Gate → SEFI (May 11, 2024). First person to complete the outbound direction (mainland to island), 17:03 on the clock.
- Catherine Breed- 13 hours, 54 minutes- shaving almost 4 minutes off the previous record by Locke in 2015. Go Bears!
(There have been relay epics, too—like the Night Train Swimmers’ 2011 Golden Gate to Farallones team success—but the list above is strictly solo feats.)
Catherine has joined the pantheon and written herself into Farallon history the honest way: stroke by stroke, feed by feed, counting strokes through the night while the Devil’s Teeth loom behind.
Breed’s résumé heading is pure grit:
- Cross Monterey Bay 2 hours 42 minutes 14 seconds (fastest solo)
- 27 miles Golden Gate to Half Moon Bay (2022) with her kayaker-in-chief at her side.
- ~60 miles around Lake Tahoe (Aug 2025)—a full circumnavigation tune-up just weeks ago.
Sharks, Near-Misses & Myth-Busting
You don’t rack up a list this short without a long shadow of failed attempts. Fog, wind shifts, mis-timed tides, hypothermia, and plain bad luck have spun many world-class athletes away from the Golden Gate or out of the water. When it does come together, it’s usually because a skipper, navigator, observer, kayaker, and swimmer move like one organism—feeding every 30 minutes, reading the water, and gambling smart on the tides. With more than a little luck it all came together for Breed, despite a sticky current holding her back in the final hours. (Joe Locke made at least 8 tries before his 2014 breakthrough. The author helped pilot that extraordinary achievement after several attempts and was aboard for the Night Train record relay.)
As for the “shark-infested” trope: yes, this is prime white shark habitat, but we like to call them shark-inhabited waters. Although the sharks are often the focus of this swim, the population of adult white sharks spread along the coast number only around 350. Peak shark activity occurs in the fall months we call Sharktober, and the Devilʻs Teeth are a hot spot, with seven recorded shark attacks on divers at the island over the last fifty years. The sharks are here. On July 29, 2015, esteemed Aussie Simon Dominguez first attempted the reverse direction but was denied by tides, a bloody chafing neck and the appearance of a white shark 3 miles from the island.
Researchers and naturalists including Shark Stewards log seasonal white shark returns and predations each fall. But decades of monitoring plus countless attempts show that even here, humans are not at the of the menu. The sport’s safety culture: experienced advisors, tight pods, well planned operations, and deterrents manages risk.
Fast facts for ocean-nerds & would-be crossers
- Water temps: typically high-40s to low-50s °F; early fall they can creep higher. The water is coldest at the island, and brown sea nettles abound. Plan feeds, zinc, and lanolin accordingly.
- Shark season: the sharks are here year-round, but the large adults depart in winter on a great annual migration. In late summer the sharks return to SEFI, and first predations often late August; activity ramps through Sept–Oct around the islands.
- Finish lines: historic landings include Bolinas, Muir Beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge itself. The pilot, tides and God decide.
If there’s a moral to the Farallones challenge, it’s this: the Gulf can reward preparation and determination, but punishes hubris. Bring the right crew, an experienced pilot, choose the right window, and plenty of warm feed. The rest is all nerve, (or in Breedʻs case), grit.
Sources & further reading:
Shark Stewardʻs Director David McGuire has worked in the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary for 16 years, including leading public wildlife tours each fall. A seasoned mariner and open water swimmer, David has dived and swam at the Farallon Islands and swam with the Night Train swimmers.