Our banquet hall requires a final head count on Friday, October 24. That leaves a little more than a week for swimmers , supporters, paddlers, observers &  families to make arrangements and return the RSVP.  The banquet room has reached capacity the past couple of years.

Special thanks to all who have already returned your Invitations for the Annual CCSF Awards Banquet. 

Purchase tickets and reserve tables for large parties. J oin us on the first Saturday in November to celebrate the “Class of 2014.”

Everyone is encouraged to attend, including swimmers with an eye on an attempt next season.  It’s guaranteed to be an emotional gathering of impressive marathon swimmers from all corners of the globe.

Click on photos from last year’s ceremony.

Pictured at our 2012 Awards Banquet are CCSF record-holders John York (1978), Grace Van Der Byl (2012), Penny Dean (1976), and Peter Huisveld (1992), who have crossed the Catalina Channel in less than 8-hours!

A Record Number of Swimmers We’ll Be Celebrating 
More Than 100 Swimmers Will Have Participated in 2014 Relay & Solo Attempts 

The Awards Banquet will recognize each  swimmer and honor their achievements, including   15 relay crossings and a number of record-breaking swims.

Plus recent successes from Tampa Bay “brothers” Mark Smitherman and Chris Burke.

Scottish  “sisters”   Helen Beveridge and Colleen Blair

California swimmers Gabor Lengyel and Sylvia Marino

Rohan More of India, Steven Minaglia from Hawaii, plus England‘s Helen Gibbs.

From the Atlantic seaboard: Jim Clifford and Daniel Curtis .

Returning champions Kate Howell and Samuel Neri.

Finally, record-setting sub-7 hour relay crossing comprised of Southern California swimmers — a couple of which we suspect will soon become solo crossers!

The CCSF wishes each of these stellar athletes will attend the banquet so we can hear first-hand your incredible stories of enduring the challenges in the Catalina Channel. Pictured, Samuel Neri (Mexico)

PASSING — Former CCSF Secretary, Frances Dean

Our sympathies are extended to CCSF historian, record-holder, and co-founder Penny Lee Dean and her siblings, who grieve their beloved mother Frances Dean. She slipped into a coma last week, following a brief illness. A memorial will be held this weekend in New York.

For several years in the mid-1990s, Frances served the Catalina Channel Swimming Federation as the secretary. She will always be remembered as a dedicated volunteer and mother to a world class swimmer. Frances supported Penny Dean’s record-setting English Channel crossing in 1978 of 7 hours and 40 minutes — it stood as the fastest time for a woman until 2006 (nearly 30 years).

Penny’s autobiography, Just Try One More, recalls her relationship with Frances Dean and her passion to becoming one of the world’s greatest marathon swimmers.