Aquathon, the Non-Event, will donate $4,000 to the Laguna Beach Ocean Lifeguard Foundation

For those who mysteriously showed up at Crescent Bay one Sunday morning a few weeks ago and proceeded to swim and walk their way down the Laguna Coastline from north to south Laguna, the Laguna Beach Ocean Lifeguard Foundation thanks you for the $4,000 donation. Some 125 people showed up for the yearly non-fundraiser, all of whom kept a perfect single-file line on the way to the Ranch’s Lost Pier Cafe at Aliso, and then beyond to 9th St. and Table Rock. Throughout the Sunday event, a two-man Laguna Lifeguard jet-ski followed the progress of swimmers and reef-walkers. According to the event organizers, “The Lost Pier Cafe crew said serving such an athletic group of people was different, and we did not seem crazy.”

The Aquathon tradition began in 1986 when four friends, Alan Wolf, Mark Disman, John Heatley and Bailey Smith, expanded their snorkeling expeditions from their home cove in Emerald Bay to the entire Laguna Beach coastline. Walking where they could and swimming around various points where they could not walk, the foursome arrived at Victoria Beach (what was at the time the southern border of Laguna Beach). Along the way, they discovered numerous women sunbathing topless in the secluded coves, so they decided to make it a yearly event, the following year adding a trip to Gina’s Pizza in Boat Canyon for a celebratory pitcher of beer. Thus, the advent of drinking at the end of the Aquathon.

“Some things are just too good to be true and allowing four married men to explore secluded coves for topless bathers is one of those things,” says the Aquathon website. “Yes, somehow the wives learned of this clever ploy. Thus ended the Aquathon as it was then known. Instead, the wives insisted that it be replaced with a “family event” where women and children were welcome to join in the walk/swim hike.”

In 1993, they added the buddy system and a prayer for safety, and today, the Aquathon has a dedicated following of ocean enthusiasts and others who gather on the beach clad in wetsuits, swimsuits, goggles, reef shoes and fins, ready to traverse the coast before regrouping at a bar, Jacuzzi, or eatery.

There’s no advertising or marketing for the Aquathon; the non-event, according to the website, “is all about participating in an escapade, being able to experience every nook and cranny of the Laguna coastline, and then being able to happily drink your way to merriment six to eight hours later.”