Getting back in the swim of things

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

When thinking of iconic Sandpoint events, a few familiar names come to mind: The Festival at Sandpoint, Lost in the ‘50s and the Long Bridge Swim, which will return on Aug. 7 after a year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Founded in 1995 by Eric Ridgeway, a local swimming enthusiast who wanted to establish a positive community event, the annual trek across the span of water beside the Long Bridge has grown from just 68 participants the first year to well over 700 swimmers of all ages and abilities.

Swimmers participate in a past Long Bridge Swim. Courtesy photo.

“We have such an exceptional and amazing community here in Sandpoint,” Ridgeway told the Reader. “People are willing to step up and volunteer to support events and causes that make this community so much bigger than just the sum of its parts.”

After founding the swim, Ridgeway saw through the first couple of years that it was growing beyond a simple event into something that needed much more planning and a huge army of volunteers to ensure it went off in a safe manner.

“My fondest memories from being the founder of the event and the director for the first 19 years are two things,” Ridgeway said. “Working with the wonderful and cheerful volunteers who make it all possible, and the sense of accomplishment from the swimmers who are not the greatest swimmers — they have never been on a swim team and were so nervous that they may not be able to make it — but they persevered and they felt encouraged along the way by the awesome kayakers and all the fans walking along the bridge cheering for them.”

Nine years ago, Jim Zuberbuhler took over as director of the Long Bridge Swim after serving as assistant director for five years before that, giving Ridgeway a much-needed break after nearly 20 years of directing the event.

Zuberbuhler credits his department chairs and volunteer staff for making the event memorable each and every year, except last year, when the event was canceled due to the pandemic.

“We have a very committed group of people who run their areas,” Zuberbuhler told the Reader. “They are so committed, so passionate about this. … We have no ego conflicts, no personality clashes. Everybody’s committed to the entire enterprise.”

When asked what made the event so iconic for Sandpoint, Zuberbuhler said there were a couple things going for them.

“Well, it’s the Long Bridge,” he said. “So many people have had that Long Bridge experience we all talk about — people who have moved to Sandpoint come across that bridge and feel something special. Plus, with open water swims, people typically can’t spectate. The swimmers go out and around buoys. In this case, people can walk along and watch their spouse or dad or daughter or friend and that’s really special. I think that’s a huge part of it.”

Zuberbuhler said another neat thing about the event is that it’s not just open to hardcore swimmers, but anyone who wants to try it. 

“Of the 700 to 750 swimmers who compete every year, a couple hundred are competitive,” Zuberbuhler said. “Then you have 300-400 people who have done it before and they’re back for the second, fifth or 20th time. Very often families do it together. It’s become sort of an institution for them. We have a family from Barcelona who have come to compete for 10 years. Then we have about 100 people each year who really don’t know if they can swim across the lake.”

Zuberbuhler said it’s this group — the newbies and novice swimmers — who often feel the biggest sense of accomplishment in completing the event.

“We have such a sophisticated safety mechanism with over 150 volunteers dedicated to safety,” Zuberbuhler said. “We have sea kayakers, a sheriff’s dive team, a jetski team and other boats out there. We have a medical tent on the beach, an ambulance ready to go, an entire communications staff and deputies on the road. It’s a complicated thing we’re running, but that really makes people feel safe and supported.”

With all the safety staff, new swimmers can easily find a kayak or boat to grab onto if they need a breather or need to be extricated from the water.

“I want the same number of swim caps to finish that start, always,” Zuberbuhler said. 

Also important to note are the swimmers overcoming disabilities to compete in the swim.

“We had a woman who did it a number of years with MS, and she wanted us to unceremoniously dump her off the dock from her wheelchair — at her insistence — so she could swim the event,” he said. “We’ve had a couple of parapalegics, deaf and blind swimmers, a couple of morbidly obese people, which is really great. … Also, Chuck Nolton is coming back to swim this year. He’s 92 and two years ago, at 90, he trained for a year to knock some time off his swim. He has the body of a fit 70-year-old and he’s 92.”

Ridgeway said one year, three different women completed the swim while they were all eight months pregnant.

Registration for the Long Bridge Swim is currently open online, with online registration ending Friday, Aug. 6. There will be no same-day registration for the event on Aug. 7. To register for the event, visit longbridgeswim.org. Registration costs $55 per swimmer, with proceeds helping to fund the event, as well as swimming instruction classes that have been used to teach more than 1,000 kids per year how to swim.

“I just love this event and the good energy that it brings out in everyone,” Ridgeway said. “We don’t, as a society, have to focus on what divides us. That is focusing on the fear, and does not enhance our lives. Instead we can focus on what connects and unites us, and we will always be stronger by uniting together and finding common ground, not on focusing on finding flaws in others.”