{"id":45087,"date":"2021-08-21T21:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T21:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-high-school-grad-swims-the-catalina-channel\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:23:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:23:01","slug":"durango-high-school-grad-swims-the-catalina-channel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-high-school-grad-swims-the-catalina-channel\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango High School grad swims the Catalina Channel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Durango
Durango High School grad Natalie Mooney Lang swims the Catalina Channel on Tuesday. Lang started just after 10 p.m. Monday and swam a majority of the 21 miles in the dark. (Courtesy Natalie Mooney Lang)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

At 10 p.m. under the moonlight on Monday, Natalie Mooney Lang, a 1995 graduate of Durango High School, set off from Santa Catalina Island with a goal of swimming to the California mainland about 21 miles away.<\/p>\n

She made it to a rocky beach outside Los Angeles 13 hours and 13 minutes later, but had quite the adventure to get there.<\/p>\n

She said she started the journey at night because the water and weather are calmer then.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe water wasn\u2019t super-choppy,\u201d she said. \u201cThe boat was tipping a lot, but it wasn\u2019t killing me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swimming in the night, however, presented other challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in the dark was really hard,\u201d Lang said. \u201cStuff touches you, and you don\u2019t know what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swarms of pyrosomes \u2013 bio-luminescent sea creatures \u2013 accompanied her for a part of her journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you hit them, they glow up,\u201d Lang said. \u201cAt first, it was creepy and uncomfortable, but then I was fascinated and trying to hit them.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a long swim like that, she said, you have to keep yourself entertained, which is why she was interacting with the pyrosomes. She got so caught up in trying to get the pyrosomes to light up, however, that she swam head first into a kayak on her crew.<\/p>\n

Normally, she said, she just sings to herself.<\/p>\n

She had two kayaks for support and a boat from the Catalina Channel Swimming Federation observing and documenting the swim. Lang, however, wasn\u2019t allowed to lean on the kayaks or wear a wetsuit because the objective is to complete the challenge unassisted. Her crew on the boat, however, could throw food down to her. Her crew included her husband, Gordon Lang, Eric and Kelly Dearing, and Dave Sundius.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey encourage you to keep going, and they keep you fed,\u201d Lang said.<\/p>\n

She also had some aquatic company on her swim: Two different pods of dolphins came and swam underneath her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just magical to have that dolphin moment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mostly, however, she said she just sang to herself to stay in the moment while trying to keep a steady pace.<\/p>\n

One thing that helped her was the warm water, which she said might have dipped to a low of 69 degrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really warm swim,\u201d she said. \u201cIt never got cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

To get ready for the Catalina Channel, she swam six days a week, swimming in a pool, swimming in Walden Pond near her house at 4 a.m. to get used to swimming in the dark, and swimming in the ocean on the weekends.<\/p>\n

In July, she completed a 15-mile open-water swim in Vermont. She even swam in Lake Nighthorse with the local adult masters to prepare. \u201cIt was cold, but so pretty,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was a lot of fun.\u201c<\/p>\n

All of the preparation paid off when she completed swimming across the Catalina Channel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe adrenaline rush when you finish it is why I can do it,\u201d Lang said. \u201cIt feels so amazing to accomplish it. The whole time I was not 100% sure I was going to make it; there\u2019s so many failed attempts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lang also swam 25 miles across Vermont\u2019s Lake Mempremagog in 2019, but said, \u201cThis was harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her next big open water swim, however, will likely be even tougher than the Catalina Channel.<\/p>\n

Next August, Lang will attempt the second leg of the open water triple crown and swim the cold, choppy water in the English Channel 21 miles from England to France.<\/p>\n

The Catalina Channel and Manhattan Island marathon swim are the other two legs of the triple crown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is absolutely terrifying,\u201d she said. \u201cTo do something I\u2019m terrified of calms me for everything else. Training like this teaches you that you can rely on yourself and do anything and that small goals accumulate.\u201d<\/p>\n

colivas@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Natalie Mooney Lang completes the 21-mile open water swim off California coast<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,514],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-swimming"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45087"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86345,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45087\/revisions\/86345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45087"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}