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Strait chaser Travis Paterson/News staff
Darren Bachiu launches his stand up paddle board from his regular start point at Cadboro Bay Beach. Bachiu plans to cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca this weekend.
Saanich man, 36, to channel resolve of swimmer Marilyn Bell in Strait of Juan de Fuca crossing attempt Travis Paterson News staff
Darren Bachiu circles his stand up paddle board just off Cordova Bay beach in a wetsuit and hood, eyeing the grey waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The upbeat waterman – an apt definition for the adventureseeking surfer/free diver/kayaker – will be heading for his second crossing of the Strait in less than a month this weekend, weather permitting. “Crossing Juan de Fuca is not an average paddle,” says Bachiu, who completed the stretch by kayak on June 21 in six and a half hours. “It was a tough crossing, swells picked up in the middle and there were some pretty good waves.” Despite its appeal as an extreme event, few kayakers have documented crossing the Strait, though it’s certainly been done. But there isn’t yet a record that Bachiu can find of someone paddle boarding the Strait.
“I’d love to be first. If it’s the first crossing, great. If not, no worries, just another big rip,” he said. After the kayak crossing, Bachiu couldn’t help but think about Canadian Marilyn (Bell) Del Lascio’s famous swim across the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Aug. 23, 1956. Bell was the first swimmer to successfully make the cross in 1956 when she was 18. It was her second attempt after being pulled unconscious from the water eight kilometres from shore on her first swim. Bachiu initially considered a swimming attempt as well, but came to the conclusion it might be too much for him, he said, after accomplished marathon swimmer Andrew Malinak quit within one mile of the finish in July 2013. “It’s funny, I kept hearing (Marilyn Bell) passed away. Instead, she is totally alive, liked my story, and now I’m even more pumped,” Bachiu said. Reached by phone at her New York home, Del Lascio laughs at
Travis Paterson/News staff
Darren Bachiu.
the rumours of her death. Not only are the stories false, the 76-year-old said she still swims an hour each morning, five days a week, despite a degenerative issue affecting her spine. “My son’s boss ... was reading
a plaque about me on the Marilyn Bell I ferry (the ferry travels between Toronto and the Toronto City Airport island on Lake Ontario) when someone from CBC Toronto stood beside him and said, ‘It’s too bad she died.’ My son’s boss said, ‘Really? I was with her son yesterday, and he doesn’t know that.’” Del Lascio found Bachiu’s energy and exuberance about his attempt “awesome and inspiring,” she told the News. To this day, she trumpets the Juan de Fuca crossing (29.5 kilometres) as her most difficult swimming accomplishment ahead of Lake Ontario (52 km) in 1954 and the English Channel (34 km) in 1955. “People sometimes forget I failed the Juan de Fuca on my first attempt,” she said. “It changed the challenge. The challenge became as much about going back in as it was the waves, distance and temperature of the Juan de Fuca. The whole nation, my family, and the
people around me didn’t know how to react to my failure. “What was going on in my head became a new challenge,” Del Lascio continued. “It took years to realize that I had become a daughter to all of Canada. That’s how I was treated.” Bachiu, a 36-year-old Broadmead resident, is constantly on the water in Cordova Bay, paddling out to Darcy or James islands. In his kayak, he’s travelled the Broken Islands and Gulf Islands, but has been paddle boarding more frequently including open ocean along the West Coast Trail, the Juan de Fuca Trail, all of East Sooke Park and throughout the Clayoquot Sound. Bachiu said Del Lascio’s feedback, and the names of seven people who have swam the Strait, has become added motivation as he challenges himself with a new list of adventures. PLEASE SEE: Strait crossing, Page A7
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