Surfing Waves

Santa Barbara’s community was rocked by sad news at the end of March.

Marcie Kjoller, is a University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) Hall of Fame swimmer that remained in the community as a teacher and an inspirational fitness advocate. She tragically drowned off East Beach on 31 March. She was 50 years old.

Marcie went ocean swimming with a group of friends the morning of March 31. Authorities say she was out in the water beyond the volleyball courts when her friends realized she was in distress. They rushed to her rescue but, in spite of sustained efforts by emergency responders, Marcie was declared dead at the scene. The Santa Barbara County Coroner’s Bureau is investigating the cause of death, but test results are pending.

Marcie was a three-time All-American in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays. She helped UC Santa Barbara earn four consecutive Big West Conference titles between 1987 and 1990. She was inducted into the Gaucho Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016. Marcie stayed active as a triathlete and swimmer. In 2007 and 2008, she participated on six-person relay teams that swam across the Santa Barbara Channel from Santa Cruz Island to the mainland.

In 2001, Marcie and Schroeder co-founded Moms in Motion to help women train for triathlons. The two teachers later started Momentum 4 Life, a former triathlon club. Marcie started teaching at Vieja Valley School and currently was teaching first and second grades at Santa Barbara Charter School in Goleta. In 2001, Marcie and former UCSB teammate, Dawn Schroeder, founded Moms in Motion. This program trained women to get in shape for a triathlon. Marcie also founded a children’s triathlon camp and helped Dawn with Momentum 4 Life, another training project.

Marcie was honored on Sunday, 7 April, in a beach memorial and paddle out.

Sources:
https://www.noozhawk.com/article/waves_ ... t_20190407
https://www.independent.com/2019/04/02/ ... e-kjoller/

The memorial was beautiful and the weather was, too. Many hundreds came to pay their respects and celebrate this wonderfully talented individual.

More than 100 people participated in the paddle out to honor Marcie.

It's the worst when people leave us too soon!

How ironic. Don't anyone say she died doing what she loved because I am pretty sure if she had a choice it wouldn't have been to die swimming.

oldmansurfer wrote:How ironic. Don't anyone say she died doing what she loved because I am pretty sure if she had a choice it wouldn't have been to die swimming.

Ol' Man,
your comment is poignant and well taken. Hopefully, we will learn what ultimately befell Marcie. It cannot be as simple as ocean water swimming.

To your point, it depends on the individual. Everyone is, indeed, different (e.g., "to each, his own"). The validity of your point is obvious. However, it's applicability is not universal. For example, I raced motorcycles for many years in NorCAL, I raced regularly raced at Sears Point, Thunderhill, Buttonwillow, and Laguna Seca. Mrs. Morini knew through and through within her heart that if my demise occurred while racing, then I'd die doing what I loved (more than anything except her).

"heart" ya, Bra.
billie

Anyway, this is about Marcie, whom was beloved in Santa Barbara. For those that may appreciate a professionally produced video news short about Marcie and the memorial that honor her, then click this link to television station KEYT. It drives home the point that this individual was loved by the Santa Barbara community.

https://www.keyt.com/news/santa-barbara ... 1066704132

Nearly 3 weeks and no news report about coroner's determination. Am curious because Marcie was an expert swimmer and relatively so young.

well she wasn't so famous so maybe the press is letting it go by. It may be that they will never know because if she developed a cardiac arrhythmia or had a seizure they could only tell she drowned.

You may be right, Ol' Man.

Thanks for the great tribute, billie. I have attended the memorial and saw how much positive impact she had to so many of us.

oldmansurfer wrote:well she wasn't so famous so maybe the press is letting it go by. It may be that they will never know because if she developed a cardiac arrhythmia or had a seizure they could only tell she drowned.

That's my guess (CA) also. Supposedly, she typically skipped warm-ups in general so that may have caused it. In addition, it was very sunny and hot while the water was still pretty cold that day, and when I was surfing I found it usually uncomfortable.

Coroner's results can sometimes take a while. We'll see what they find....

Local Swimmers Plan Santa Barbara Channel Crossing in Memory of Friend Marcie Kjoller
https://www.noozhawk.com/article/santa_ ... ie_kjoller

The group of women will swim in shifts from Santa Cruz Island to Oxnard Beach, raising money for Heal the Ocean." A group of local women calling themselves “Marcie's Mermaids” will swim 19 miles across the Santa Barbara Channel for charity this week in memory of a friend and fellow swimmer who died earlier this year (photo).

When Rachel Horn moved to Santa Barbara about eight years ago, she gradually met a group of accomplished “water woman” in the community.

They gravitated toward each other because of their love of treacherous open water ocean swimming.

“The ocean swimming love is unique,” Horn said. “It’s a different kind of person that wants to be out in the elements.”

Swimming in a pool isn’t the same, said Horn, who swam competitively throughout school and at Loyola Marymount University.

In the Santa Barbara Channel, there are unpredictable winds and variable ocean water temperatures, plus rip currents. It's also a major route for vessels.

Horn completed a 12.4-mile swim across the Santa Barbara Channel in 2016 as a charity fundraiser, after training in the waters off Santa Barbara’s East Beach on some Sundays with local swimmers, including 50-year-old Marcie Fuller Kjoller.

Kjoller, a former All-American collegiate swimmer, triathlete and teacher, died March 31 while swimming off East Beach. She had gone ocean swimming with a group of friends that morning and was in the water when her friends realized she was in distress.

They rushed to her rescue but, in spite of sustained efforts by first responders, Kjoller died at the scene.

Horn, 34, had planned to do another solo Santa Barbara Channel swim this year, but she changed her plans when Kjoller died. She wanted to support Kjoller and her family, and the community.

“My friends were there and went through that horrific, unfortunate day of realizing Marcie was gone,” Horn said. “We were all impacted.”

An aerial photo shows Rachel Horn during her 12-mile swim across the Santa Barbara Channel in 2016. Horn is among a group of local women swimming a relay this year to raise funds in Marcie Kjoller’s memory.

The relay group, named "Marcie's Mermaids,” will swim 19 miles across the channel on Thursday evening through early Friday morning (weather permitting), from Santa Cruz Island to Oxnard Beach, in memory of Kjoller and an effort to raise $10,000 in charity for Heal the Ocean.

As of Monday, the group has raised more than $7,500 on the official charity page.

The group includes Horn, Liz Boscacci, Hilary McAvoy, Chelsea Jones, Heather Royer, Emily Case, and Paige Kieding (support swimmer), who will all brave the cold waters without wetsuits. Most of the women swimming in the relay were present when Kjoller died, and some even had to pull her body out of the water, according to Horn, who was not at the beach that day.

“We are all in this together,” Horn said. “We are going to feel like we have Marcie with us in the channel — it’s something that will motivate us in those scary moments.”

Kjoller participated on six-person relay teams that swam across the Santa Barbara Channel from Santa Cruz Island to another mainland shore in 2007 and 2008, according to swim results on the Santa Barbara Channel Swimming Association website.

Heal the Ocean was one of her favorite local nonprofits, and Horn even recalls a supportive sticker on Kjoller's car.

During the channel crossing this week, two boats and a kayaker will accompany and observe the swimmers. The bystanders ensure compliance with rules and safety measures if the waters reach dangerous levels.

The swim starts at midnight and Horn expects this year’s journey taking between 10 and 12 hours, depending on conditions.
Swimmers will rotate in the same order every 30 minutes in the channel waters, and Horn estimates each woman will average about 1 mile every half hour.

Horn volunteered to go first.

“The most terrifying time is the beginning because it’s dark and you are swimming to touch an island in the middle of the night,” she said. “I have to touch the island and then it starts.”

In the middle of the water, Horn said, her mind can drift, thinking about the ocean depths and all the creatures underneath.

To stay focused during the challenge, Horn, a former yoga teacher, has a mantra she will repeat again and again — “Warm. Calm. Strong.”
“Those are the three things you can’t control in a channel swim,” she continued. “It’s going to be cold, so warm is the opposite... You tell yourself to be calm... You are going to feel weak no matter the distance.”

— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.