‘I definitely had to dig really, really deep,’ Kim Chambers says after braving sharks to cover 30 miles from Farallon Islands to the San Francisco landmark

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

New Zealand’s Kim Chambers has become the the first woman to swim the 30-mile stretch from the Farallon Islands to the Golden Gate Bridge in a feat conquering one of the world’s most dangerous crossings.

Chambers, 38, dove into the cold water late on Friday and passed under the San Francisco landmark about 17 hours later.

“I had my whole crew just giving me the thumbs up. I can see the bridge and when you can see that you know have to get there,” Chambers told KGO-TV. “I definitely had to dig really, really deep.”

She was followed by a boat carrying her mother and about 16 crew members who watched for dangers.

Great white shark thwarts marathon swimmer's Golden Gate bridge quest Read more

Four men have completed the Farallones to Golden Gate swim. The 30-mile (48km) stretch of water is notorious for great white sharks that are attracted to elephant seals on the cluster of islands off the US coast.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Chambers had planned her swim at a time when the seasonal shark population at the Farallones was typically away and only year-round ones would be present.

“People think I’m crazy because there are sharks but that’s why I’m doing it,” Chambers told the newspaper. “That’s their habitat and they should be there. I think they’re magnificent creatures.”

A former ballet dancer, Chambers took up swimming to rehabilitate from an accident in which she nearly lost a leg.

She became the sixth person (and third woman) to complete the Ocean’s Seven, a collection of marathon swimming challenges, including the Strait of Gibraltar, the Molokai Channel in Hawaii, and the North Channel from northern Ireland to Scotland, where she endured hundreds of jellyfish stings during a 13-hour crossing.