By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current
Nearly two and one-half years ago, Kent Lassman made a decision to try to swim the English Channel. His determination became a reality on June 11 when he joined the elite group of swimmers to successfully complete the 21-mile swim.
It took him 13 hours and 27 minutes to complete the long-distance challenge across the body of water located between England and France, a feat that less than 1,900 people have been able to accomplish in the last 150 years. The swim is not only a physical challenge, but also a mental challenge that requires positive thinking.
More than two years of preparation began in 2021 for Lassman, including signing a contract with a boat captain for June of 2024, the date he planned to swim the Channel.
“The captain sails those waters every day and he looks at weather reports, water currents and more,” Lassman said.
The weather was forecast to include a “little bit of rain and a little bit of bumpiness, but would calm down…The water would be great, according to the experts, but we were all wrong. If you are lucky, the current is behind you pushing you forward and I did not have that at all,” he said.
“We left from Shakespeare Cliff in Dover, England - the harbor we came out of. I got on the boat in Dover Harbor and was taken out of the harbor to below Shakespeare Cliff, about 100 yards out…I jumped off the side of the boat and swam to shore, climbed out of the water onto a rocky beach, turned around to face the boat and raised my arms in the air to signal the crew in the boat that I was clear of the water, not standing in the water. A handheld spotlight was shining on me to illuminate me as I swam to the shore. When I dropped my arms, the stop watch started. There was about one and one-half minutes of ceremony before the actual swim started.”
Lassman’s swim began at 2:07 a.m., England time, on Tuesday, June 11. The boat crew consisted of the captain, a first mate, one official observer, and two others who are Lassman’s friends.
“When I start swimming it is the boat crew’s job to navigate me,” he said. “They are in charge of everything but the swimming; they are in charge of safety and navigation. If there is ever an emergency I could swim to the boat or they could get to me.”
There are lights from the boar on Lassman while he is swimming in the dark, and he said, “I am trying to swim in a halo of light created by the boat. I am wearing goggles and there is also a light on the back of my head and on the back of my swim suit. That way, if I wander off from the boat, the crew can tell what direction I am going.”
It was predicted that the seas would be a little bumpy, but would calm down after 60 to 90 minutes and would be calm for about 15 hours, and there would be a light rain, a forecast that Lassman said was “completely wrong. There was no rain and the water became bumpier. In the morning there were waves, a current, a tide and a swell. The swell moves you up and down vertically and that was bad and made it so uncomfortable,” he said.
His food was prepared as a liquid, and Lassman described it as like “high end sugar water.”
He did feel sick from the turbulence of the water and he said he did not take the prepared liquid food, but was given some green tea with honey…’the crew is in charge and they knew what to give me.”
Of the 13 hours and 27 minutes that it took Lassman to swim the Channel, he said, "We had some pretty bad weather for about the first six hours….”I was expecting to do it in 14 hours so it was about what I expected, but I was prepared to go 30 hours if necessary, but I am glad I did not have to test the preparation. What happened was that we traveled about 33 miles and I only had to exert the effort of swimming for 21 miles because the current carried me some of the distance.”
When asked about the reward of swimming the Channel, Lassman shared, “It is the satisfaction and the feeling of accomplishment and I saw some amazing marine life, including one shark and different types of jellyfish. Sometimes you don’t need a specific reason to do something, you do it just because. The challenge and the opportunity to experience something amazing is reason enough.”
He didn’t just see the jellyfish, but admitted that he was stung by some and did not blame the jellyfish, but said, “As much as we prepare and take safety measures, I was in their (the jellyfish) home. The ocean is their home, I was the visitor and the jellyfish let me know I was the visitor.”
Lassman also was asked what his thoughts were while in the water, and he said, “You have no idea what is going to go through your head when you are in the water. It is a beautiful thing any day of your life to watch a sunrise, and it’s an especially beautiful thing to watch a sunrise over the water. It’s altogether different and remarkable to watch it from being in the water because the sun lifts over the horizon, over the thing you are in and it is really wonderful and the colors are breathtaking.”
“My mind wandered. I thought about my kids a lot, When you are doing something like that, your mind goes to the things you love the most, it might be scripture, family, favorite meal, favorite memory and what went through my mind was that I thought a lot about literature. These jellyfish are very pretty and it’s not like seeing them in a book. Also, light under water refracts, when overhead things look closer. Early in the day the light comes in the water form the side and you see creatures and they are tremendously beautiful. No photo in a book could do justice.”
“You have no idea what is going to go through your head when you are in the water, you are in the wild and you are part of the world of the wild.”
“I was also thinking about the jellyfish,” he said. “There are six species of jellyfish common to the English Channel, one species is the Compass Jellyfish and that made me remember my 10th grade Geometry class with Mrs. Hahn, (Jean Hahn, now retired from GHS). It has been 35 years since I was in that Geometry class but I thought about how she used big wooden tools, like a compass, protractor. She had the giant size that held pieces of chalk and each of the students had small ones on our desks. She was the expert; she could do it without looking. That lady loved what she was teaching and that came through in her teaching. When I saw the jellyfish I knew the name of the Compass Jellyfish and suddenly I remembered being a kid sitting in a classroom learning Geometry when I would rather have been outdoors.”
HOW THE IDEA TO SWIM THE ENGLISH CHANNEL CAME ABOUT:
The idea to swim the Channel was an idea of Lassman’s in his childhood, and he explained....”When I was 13, I went to a swimming camp at Indiana University (Bloomington, IN) where I was among hundreds of kids who swam every day. One evening all of us were in the university cafeteria watching a documentary about a man named James Edward “Doc” Counsilman, a famous Olympic swim coach and Big 10 coach who set out to become the oldest man to swim the English Channel in 1979. The documentary ended, the light came on and there he (Counsilman) was standing in the room and answered our questions. I thought ‘how awesome,’ and that was the first time I had the idea.”
Growing up in Geneseo, Lassman spent lots of time in the summer at the Geneseo pool and was a member of a summer swim team coached by Dr. Bruce Fehlman and Dr. Max McCaw…”I was eight or nine years old and that is how I started swimming competitively,” he said. “Our family also was part of a group of six families who owned a recreational area with a lake outside of Geneseo where I first started swimming.”
Lassman said swimming has always been a love of his and a refuge…”It is something that makes me happy, helps to keep me healthy and gets me outdoors, where I love to be.”
His swimming became competitive when he became part of the Moline Blue Marlins. He said, “Only a handful of local kids did that and I swam with the club team until high school and when I got to high school I started practicing with the United Township High School Swim Team (East Moline). Even though I was not a member of their team, I could swim with them. I worked out with the team before and after school.”
He credited former GHS Athletic Director, the late Del Nicklaus, and former GHS principal Ted McAvoy, for making it possible for him to compete in the Sectional Swim Meets and represent Geneseo High School. He competed at the Sectional level all of his four high school years.
After graduating from GHS in 1992, when the school was named JD Darnall High School, Lassman moved to Washington DC and attended the Catholic University of America where he majored in philosophy and politics. He graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in 1996 and began working in Washington, DC.
A few years after graduating from college, Lassman completed The Great Chesapeake Bay Swim which he explained is a 4.4-mile swim near Annapolis in the Chesapeake Bay. He later became involved in triathlons in the area…”Eventually I was doing some big races that included swimming,” he said. That kept me in contact with the open water swimming community and as a result I did some ocean races near Ocean City, MD, and in 2016 I signed up to do the ‘Swim Around Key West,’ a 12 1/2 –mile swim. I just find myself doing the really interesting ocean swims.”
“Two and one-half years ago, in November of 2021, I decided I was going to try to swim the English Channel,” he said.
A month later he signed a contract with a boat captain to accompany him, and Lassman added, “I had two and one-half years to get ready for my swim.”
He became more focused on training, including traveling to California from Virginia to swim the Catalina Channel, a 21-mile swim, which Lassman said “is similar to swimming the English Channel.”
“I did the Catalina Channel swim to learn to swim at nighttime,” he explained. “There’s an ‘Oceans Seven,’ which is a list of seven challenging ocean swims around the world. Only about two dozen people in the world have done all seven. That is special in that each swim requires one skill set that makes it really difficult. That’s why I did the Catalina Channel swim to learn to swim at nighttime and to be really comfortable with that I had to learn to swim in cold water for hours on end, both requirements to swim the English Channel. Once I had that under my belt, I learned a few more skills.”
Lassman said the Catalina Swim and the English Channel are the most prestigious on the list of seven swims….”Both have the most history, like Mt. Everest, it takes a complete package of skills and luck, so if you get to do it, you are really happy about it.”
When Lassman was asked “What’s next?” he said, “Nothing is planned, but I will keep on swimming on a regular basis as it is part of my life. It’s my time, when I clear my head and I will be swimming as long as I am physically able.”
He and his wife, Dana Damico, live in Alexandria, VA, and the couple has two sons and two daughters.
Lassman is the son of Sheila Lassman, Geneseo, and the late Lee Lassman. He has a brother, Kurt Lassman, and two sisters, Kristine Hitzhusen, Geneseo, and Kelley Lassman, New York City.
Kent Lassman graduated from Geneseo High School in 1992 and currently is president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, a think tank where the staff analyzes and makes recommendations regarding economic regulation. Contributed Photo