Scott Zornig, President

Scott is a 1981 Graduate of CSU Chico Business School who has been teaching children and adults how to swim since he was 14 years old. He has been involved with masters swimming for 25 years and was named a USMS All American. He is currently a member of the Capo Masters Swim team located in San Juan Capistrano, California. Scott was 90th person to swim the Catalina Channel solo, the 5th person to swim the Santa Barbara Channel solo and the 1st person to swim from one channel island to another (Anacapa Island to Santa Cruz Island). He has also swam around Manhattan Island (28.5 miles) and was a member of a relay which recorded the first swim from San Clemente Island to San Clemente....a distance of 60 miles. In 2007, Scott and 5 teammates circumnavigated Catalina Island (50 miles) in under 24 hours. The former high school and collegiate water polo payer and swimmer is the current holder of five, long distance, open water swimming records.

Dean White, Secretary of Finances

Dean, a California native, has been in close contact with the ocean since his early days as a surfer in Santa Cruz, Ca. where he went to School. Father of two: Ted an accomplished skipper and participant in international regattas, and Kelly a star in her own right in the game of soccer. Dean has been swimming in Santa Barbara with the Oceanducks steadily for the last 4 years, participated in the first Relay Crossing in 2004 and in July 2008 completed the 6 mile Semana Nautica Swim. He works in the Physics department of UCSB as an engineer and is involved in international projects that take him to Geneva quite often. Finally Dean has been a sailor all his life and today a dedicated skipper. He sailed the boat for Paul Lewis in 2006 when Paul did his solo swim. In 2008, Dean has skippered more than 10 solo crossings and one relay.

Ned Denison, International Representative

Ned has completed seven swims of 16 miles of more including the Santa Barbara Channel: 19 miles Santa Cruz Island in a record time of 10 hours and 27 minutes. The other swims were English Channel, Round Manhattan, Round Jersey, Lake Zurich and the first (and only swims) around Valentia and Great (Cobh) Islands in Ireland.

His early aquatic years were spent as a seven time All-American water polo goalie with teams in New York City; Berkeley, California and London England. Ned started in the open water in 2000 and lives in Ireland – feel free to contact him at ned.denison@corkopenwater.com for help contacting swim organisers in Europe.

Commenting on his Santa Barbara swim: "My wife and I were absolutely taken in by the city and hosted in fine fashion by the other Board members, kayakers and three members of the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame: Alison and Freda Streeter and David Yudovin. On the day the sun was fantastic and the playful seals and majestic manta rays were the best aquatic life I have even seen on a swim. I was 15 pounds heavier before my English Channel swim - so the colder water in Santa Barbara made this the tougher of the two swims."

Dale Mercker, Safety and insurance Chairperson

Dale is a graduate of the University of Louisville (1990) where he was a 4 year letterman for the University of Louisville Swim Team.  Dale is an accomplished Master Swimmer swimming for Lakeside Masters located in Louisville KY.  Dale’s accomplishments include being named a USMS All American 3 times and he has been a member of several USMS All American Relays.  He consistently records Top Ten times in the 1000, 1500, 1650 free, 100 & 200 breast, and 200 & 400 IM.  Dale has done numerous open water lake swims in the Midwest and several pier to pier swims in Southern California.  Dale has been a support team member of several California Channel crossing attempts including the first San Clemente Island swim.  Dale is a father of two and has been married to his wife Kim for 16 years.

Dave Van Mouwerik, Observation Committee Chairperson

Dave started swimming when he was twenty three years old.  He has been a USMS member for thirty years, and has been a member of various Master’s teams for most of that time.  Early in his swim career, he gravitated towards longer distance events in pool meets, and to open water swims. He has participated in about a dozen 6 mile ocean swims (in Santa Cruz, Avila Beach, and Santa Barbara), as well as some 10 mile swims (in Boston Harbor, Seal Beach, and Santa Barbara). In 1998 Dave swam solo from Avila Beach Pier to Pismo Beach Pier, a distance of six miles. This swim inspired him to start the USMS-sanctioned Pismo to Avila Pier to Pier Swim, which he organized and participated in from 1999 to 2002. From 2004 to 2007, Dave took a break from swimming, and paddled 6 man outrigger canoes with Pale Kai, a competitive outrigger canoe club in Avila Beach. 

Lynn Kubasek, Swim Committee Chairperson

Lynn is the daughter of surfers who cut the waves at Killer Dana in Southern California in the early 60’s. She has been a USMS swimmer since 1982, swimming with both UC Irvine Masters and Irvine Novaquatics Masters. She holds two age-group distance swimming records with the Tualatin Hills Masters February Fitness Challenge. A long-time ocean swimmer, Lynn was first introduced to channel swimming by assisting with Scott Zornig’s historic Anacapa to Santa Cruz crossing. Since then, she has kayaked and observed for numerous solo and relay crossings. She is the 173rd person to swim the Catalina Channel solo. Although Lynn is looking to her next channel attempt, she is eager to assist other channel aspirants in their quests.

Jim Fitzpatrick, Banquet Chairperson

Jim is an All American High School swimmer from San Jose. He played Water Polo at UCLA from 1973-78 and was on the Bruin's swimming team his freshman year. Jim set an international swimming record in 2000 by swimming 761,000 yards or 432 miles in 29 days. In October 2001, Jim became the 98th person to swim solo across the Catalina Channel. In 2002, he was a member of a relay which recorded the first swim (60 miles) from San Clemente Island to San Clemente. Jim also successfully crossed the English Channel in 2005, and was the first person to swim from Catalina Island to Orange County in 2008. Jim has completed fresh water swims across Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho and Lake Tahoe in California. Jim is currently employed as a sales representative for Townsend Design in Laguna Niguel, California.

Jane Cairns, Historian and records

Jane grew up swimming on the Mission Viejo Nadadores swim team from 1978-1988. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in Environmental Studies in 1993 while swimming on the Gauchos swim team for 4 years. Jane was named SPMA Open Water Swimmer of the Year in 1997. She has participated in numerous Catalina Channel crossing relays and is a member of the team that still holds the fastest CCCF single and double crossing records. Jane is a veteran paddleboard racer. She has raced the Catalina Channel 15 times, 8 of which in the 32 mile Catalina Classic and placing 5 times in the men’s division. She has also raced the 32 mile Molokai paddleboard race 3 times. Jane is very involved in the aquatic community in Santa Barbara. She helps run a weekly summer ocean swim race and has been the director of the SB 6 mile ocean swim race for the past 10 years and still holds the women’s course record. She is currently getting back into swimming shape to hopefully soon start training to swim the Catalina Channel solo.

Evan Morrison, Marketing Chairperson

Evan grew up in Santa Barbara and competed for the Santa Barbara Swim Club from 1988-98. As a pool swimmer, he was a CIF Finalist in the 100-yard backstroke and a two-year varsity swimmer at Princeton University, where he graduated in 2002. Evan discovered open water swimming only later - 30 years old and living in Chicago. His marathon swims include Tampa Bay (winner in 2011), Manhattan Island (3rd in 2011), the Catalina Channel, and the Ederle Swim (winner in 2011 and current record holder). Evan recently moved back to Santa Barbara and trains with Santa Barbara Masters. He blogs about his marathon swimming adventures at Freshwaterswimmer.com.