Noah Davis

From NYC, Sonnet and I visit Gracie in Berkeley and drop down to Santa Monica to bop around LA including the UCLA Hammer Museum where we visit a wonderful retrospective on Noah Davis (b June 3, 1983- August 29, 2015), an influential black LA artist and co-founder of The Underground Museum to bring museum-quality art to the Black and Latinx community. 

We stay at the Prosper Hotel complete with sun-soaked rooftop pool and bikini bar. 

Manhattan 20 Bridges

The blue dot is me

I complete my second Big Swim on July 20 circumnavigating Manhattan beginning, and ending, at Pier A on the island's southern tip, next to the Staton Island Ferry, which runs every 15 minutes, forcing me to scoot from the start while keeping an eye on the boats. During the swim I'm accompanied by my cut man Ethan (an opera singer, comedian and extra on Law & Order), the observer (otherwise an exec at Goldman Sachs), the Pilot Dave and a kayaker.  It was an A-plus team and the swim never in doubt.

And what a swim. From the git go there were the icons - The Brooklyn Bridge ! The Williamsburg Bridge! The Manhattan Bridge! - within the first hour. Then the Empire State and the Chrysler building and the United Nations. Eventually things string out on the Harlem River (NB NYC resides in a tidal estuary and the East River and Harlem River are tidal and not rivers) while 15 of the 20 bridges cross here.  Finally the mighty Hudson's flow brings me home, ending beside Wall Street lit-up like a 100-story Christmas candle.

Sonnet, Kate, Brad and Deborah follow me around the island, notably at the Washington Bridge connecting NY to New Jersey where they hoot and holler from the little red light house. Then, 8 hours and 30 minutes later, Sunday Midnight/ Monday morning, it is over. Sonnet and I find a strictly saw-dust-on-the-floor and cheerful Irish pub for a Guinness and an intimate celebration.   

 

Me and the cut man at the Little Odessa boardwalk, pre swim

Barney In Full Spring

Barney is a California native who I recently connected with in London while he toured Europe with his wife and family. 

I met Barney in Maida Value,  W9, the neighbourhood of our second flat, in 1999. Barney had completed his B.S. at Stanford (Symbolic Systems) and Ph.D. at Cambridge in computer science and AI. 

And what does one do with such credentials ?  Work at NASA, of course, where he was the Software Architect on the Remote Agent, the first s/w agent to fly onboard a deep space probe during NASA's Deep Space One Mission, and widely considered one of the top achievements in the history of AI  and awarded NASA's "software of the year" in 1999. 

From there, Barney founded PowerSet, a neural networking application, backed by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, and sold to Microsoft becoming Microsoft Bing. A fellow has to make some money in his 20s, afterall.

Barney has gone on to found and fund over 200 AI-related start-ups in SV.  We frequently see each other, and I am always refreshed by his ideas. Back in the day we agreed to form a venture firm together but that would have required my relocating to the Bay Area, which Sonnet and I were not ready to do then.

And So It Be

Sonnet and I at Anthony's 50th birthday at The Queen of Hoxton night club that offers several floors for disco dancing beneath the sky terrace.  

I can't not reflect on time-gone-by given I met Ant in 1999 at eZoka.com, my ill fated Internet 1.0 start-up (and what a ride). Before eZoka, Anthony was a host at the original Soho House, swagging with celebrities and models, before it became a global phenom w venues in Manhattan's meat packing district assuring the meat packers could go somewhere else to pack their meat. Repeat in other cities. Today Anthony lives in North London, has a daughter and an owner of a bar-inventory management company. As far as it goes, I would describe his lifestyle as "alternative".

Speaking of alternative,  I meet Andy at the party who owns the club and two others in similar edgy-cool locations. I'm intrigued and wonder, at 58, if there is yet a few late nights left in me ? I tried, last year, with Madeleine, then at Manchester University, to go clubbing until sunrise yet, despite her willingness to engage - combined with an open bar tab for her friends - I was done by 1pm.

Not Your Usual Athlete

My guy Mitch

Mitch Hutchcraft - who I met in Croatia - accepts Mission: Impossible, completing the world's longest triathlon, starting with the English Channel, biking 10,000 kilometres across Europe, the Middle East and India to Nepal, trekking/ running to Mount Everest's base camp and, finally, climbing the mountain's peak. In all, it takes nine-months and collects several hundred-thousand Instagram followers, including me, who become invested in Mitch's success.

Mitch nearly bonked on Day-One taking 17 hours to cross The Channel and, admitted by him - it was touch and go.

St Tropez

Well we have ripped thru the summer and, following this week's "bank holiday Monday", a collective groan can be heard across the UK as traffic levels return to normal, kids go back to school and the adults, work. It is already autumnal and, due to dryness, following the dryest summer on record, the trees are turning early colour under duress.

The beginning of the summer started in the South of France as Sonnet took a break from her Elsa Schiaparelli exhibition, which opens in March 2026; from there I went to Spain to meet my coach and two Croatia camp friends to swim the Straight of Gibraltar, which did not happen due to wind and sea swell. Instead, we hung out in Tarifa, which is not a bad place to hang out, with perfect sunshine and Morocco in plain sight.

Gibraltar, while an Oceans Seven swim, is only nine miles - less than 4 hours of swimming. Instead, it was to be a warm-up for the Manhattan Twenty Bridges, a 29 miler circumnavigating the Manhattan island.

Adulting 1

Madeleine celebrating with Katie in NYC

Since the last posting : Madeleine started her first full-time job last week and post uni (where she achieved an academic "first" in Psychology at Manchester) working for October Films as Research Assistant. Not only did she independently source the position via active networking, her interviews occurred while our gal at a youth hostel in El Salvador (which, in my opinion, made her all the more appealing).  

Callum Hudson-Odoi

Callum Hudson-Odoi

When Eitan was in the thick of his football career, I wondered what it would have been like to see Wayne Rooney or David Beckham or Christian Ronaldo in their early years as players - would each have dominated the sport in similar fashion as they did in the Premiere League ?

Well, my question answered by Callum Hudson-Odoi who Eitan defended in the 2014 Surrey Cup Under-13s final when Hampton School defeated Whitgift on the last of the PKs in the most thrilling football match I have watched to this day. Callum, for his part, went on to play for Chelsea and now the resurgent Nottingham Forest where he plays 'winger' and has scored five goals this season, so far, including the Saturday winner against Manchester City. 

Eitan recalls the Surrey Cup when Hampton's strategy to staff two defenders on Callum who seemed to barely to notice the inconvenience. I recall a kid who was slippery as an eel and as sure footed as anyone I had seen on the pitch at age-13. He read the field perfectly and always in the right place to set up the action or to make a strike. 

Now, interviewed after the Man City match, I observe a thoughtful young man who gives credit for the game-winner to the team-mate who set up the angle. Callum is football at its best.

Gracie In Purple

Grace decides that it is time for a change, at 84, and asks: “what do you think about dying my hair purple?” I’m all-in on the idea and suggest to Gracie that she calls her Granddaughter to affirm the style. Madeleine grants an enthusiastic validation and Kiki, my mom’s hair dresser, arrives at the house to provide the colour.

Brixton Ac

Wonderhorse, Brixton Academy

Brixton Academy has re-opened after two people killed dead in a crush to see Afrobeats artist Asake in December 2022.

I am there solo last night for Wonderhorse and, better, the opening act HighSchool recommended by Christian and seen together with him, Sonnet, Madeleine, Eitan, Flora, uncle Anthony and Dylan & Fred from the Surely Knots at OMEARA, a club in SE1 with maybe a couple hundred people last year October. Both bands formed in 2022 and coming up, deservedly, big.

Rep Gabe Vasquez

Photo from the El Paso News

Eitan is working his socks off on the Gabe Vasquez re-election campaign in the 2nd District of New Mexico on the border with Mexico. In 2022 the 2nd District was the most closely contested congressional seat in the US where Gabe defeated Republican incumbent Yvette Herrell by 1,224 votes out of several hundred thousand cast.  

A first-generation Mexican American, Vasquez represents a predominantly hispanic community who tend towards anti-choice and anti-immigration (a reality is that first generation immigrants are the most aggressive on closing the borders) and a hard patch to till for a Democrat.

Eitan briefs Gabe on existing and potential financial supporters, their profile, and how to stimulate an investment in the campaign. Less than 30 days to the elections, Vasquez has out-fundraised Herrell by c 2:1, which is promising, but certainly no assurance of victory. 

Oslo Connection

Me and my new homey

I join Sonnet and Madeleine for the last two nights of their 11 day visit to Norway which criss-crosses the fjords, mountains and country,  

While sitting in the sunshine drinking coffee outside our Oslo hotel I spot Erling Haaland who is in town for the Norway v Austria Eurocup qualifier the day before where Haaland hits the winning goal in the 80th minute on Norway's 2-1 victory. Given Haaland is a world top-3 active player alongside Messi and MBappe, he was generous with his attention while informing he felt poorly for Eitan's love of Manchester United (Haarland plays for Manchester City).

The Final Journey

Below, the route I took from England to France. Across the top, from Dover to the separation zone, the tide was gentle and I was on a true course to Calais. A hard Southeast tide, on the second half of the swim, carried the Viking Princess II past Cap Gris Nez and added maybe file miles to the 22 mile crossing.

Channel Blog

Dear all

I am slowly posting the Channel notes, all 43 of them, into one place on my blog.  And here it is.

Have a mighty summer.

Jeff

 

The After Action Report 43

Other than feeling like a fire truck hit me, I am mostly thinking, wow - did that just happen ? and then: I am glad that I am not swimming the Channel today.  Or tomorrow.  And likely again.

But the swim : 3:15am wake-up alarm, 4am meet-and-greet the pilot, ECA observer and Nils (Red Top coach) at the boat, 4:15am chug out of the harbour to a pebbly beach below a chalky cliff, slide into the sea (cold ! salty!), 5am start swimming.

The pre-sunrise water ghoulish and my goggles fill instantly and keep filling.  Fuck.  The heaviness of the swim made worse by the Dover Cliffs which never disappear no mater how far I go.  This btw mirrored the second-half when the French coast stuck in place as I fly, parallel to the shoreline, on a strong tide eventually past Cap Gris-Nez missing the sandy Calais beaches before eventually landing on a rocky edge (NB I had to swim hard to reach France unaware of the potential drama of being swept back into the Channel and missing a beachhead altogether).

On the up, the sunshine on my back was divine, I had an amazing crew, and the Channel mostly flat eg perfect conditions.  Interestingly, to me, when I switched to a higher-tempo stroke to counter the tide I could no long hold a thought, nor sing a tune, and the swimming rhythm became meditative causing a trippy perception of time speeding up, noted from the programmed 30-minute hydration/nutrition feeds, which started to feel like five minutes apart.

Making the landing a lifetime highlight, yes, triggering a euphoric feeling that has yet to leave me.  A feeling that all the effort has been many times rewarded.

I am hopeful that the story will be retold, by me, my family and friends, well into the future, sitting on a sandy beach, looking into a never ending blue horizon.

A Final Thanks 42

Thank you, everyone, for your love and support on the Channel "project."

I have felt your presence during morning practices (which seemed like Midnight in January), the Croatia camp (87km in one week), cold water preparation in the SF Bay (down to 10C) and the Thames (to 5C, with a wetsuit) which has powered me through the hardest days (six hour swim ! 5:45 wake up !) and the best days (six hour swim ! 5:45 wake up !).

Your emails, texts and wishes will be on my mind this Sunday.

Ready, Set, Go 41

As it stands now, I will swim the English Channel on Sunday, July 28, early morning UK with the exact start-time TBD. I will update as the swim gets closer.

Soon to meet Goliath.

From Berkeley 40

I am still on the Berkeley High leader board with records for the 500 yard and 200 yard freestyle set in 1985.  There have been a few close misses over the years and I am cheering for the times to come down.

BHS swim coach Michael, a Berkeley High graduate around my time, keeps me up to date on the men's program while childhood friend Amanda (my year, '85) does the same for the BHS women as head coach of water polo and, until recently, swim teams.

The work, the swimmers and swim-teams and friends, the communities and the coaches and the race times jumble together.  What is clear : it is the journey where the adventure lays rest. 

Photo from a 'yellow jackets' swim meet earlier this year in Berkeley.

'Tis The Season 39

Below, senior year.  The flat-top from local barber Tony who got rich from customer stock tips and retired at 50.

I was going to shave it all for the Northcoast Championships only the finals were the same day as Senior Prom and my girlfriend Malaika was having none of that.  Going into Northcoast I was seeded first in the 500 yard and 200 yard freestyle and came in 4th and 6th, respectively.

Well, and here we go, the English Channel season is open with water temperatures at 16C (60.8F).  A few awesome swimmers from the Croatia camp have now made it across and also reaching Calais this week is Berkeley High senior Maya Merhige who finished in 11 hours and 39 minutes (no pressure here) making her one of the youngest swimmers to complete the Triple Crown of open water swimming, which includes the Channel, the 20-mile Catalina Channel and the 28.5 miles "20 Bridges" around Manhattan.  Maya has one hell of a college essay.

The Coaches 38

I am indebted to my coaches Tim and Nils at Red Top Swim for focusing my imagination on the English Channel and convincing me that I can do it.  Both have swum the Channel and Red Top has successfully taken c 200 swimmers from Dover to Calais.  In short, good hands.

I do not train with the club given the Red Top pool is located on other side of London yet I feel Tim and Nils' influence on most things I do in the pool.  Specifically, beyond the coaching, they have devised a distance program, including the Croatia camp, and held me accountable; secured the VP2; provided a hydration and nutrition schedule for the crossing and carbo-loading beforehand; and offered encouragement throughout.

Nils, at the bottom of the photo, will be on the boat and is intense. I fear that he is going to make me do 100 push-ups once I reach Calais.