Legendary distance and open water marathon swimmer Katie Pumphrey returns to Faidley’s Seafood at Lexington Market on the Maryland Crab Cake Tour to educate Nestor and Damye Hahn about the art of her international sport that has taken her from across the English Channel to the local education about the cleanliness of the Inner Harbor. Come take a swim with the dolphins and sharks…
Katie Pumphrey, an accomplished open water swimmer, discussed her experiences and future plans with Nestor Aparicio. She shared her journey, including her first English Channel swim in 2015 and her recent 24-mile Bay to Baltimore swim, which was delayed due to warm water temperatures and rain. Katie emphasized the importance of water quality and the role of organizations like Waterfront Partnership and Mr. Trash Wheel in improving the Chesapeake Bay. She also mentioned her upcoming English Channel swim in July and a solo exhibition at the Creative Alliance in September. Katie highlighted the growing interest in urban swimming and her efforts to promote it through her nonprofit, Baltimore Open Water Swimmers.
Distance swimmer Katie Pumphre…vement and why she swims in it
Sat, Jun 14, 2025 12:06PM • 46:39
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Inner Harbor, water quality, open water swimming, Katie Pumphrey, English Channel, Baltimore, Chesapeake Bay, water temperature, swim safety, urban swimming, Mr. Trash Wheel, Waterfront Partnership, Baltimore Open Water Swimmers, marathon swimming, environmental awareness.
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SPEAKERS
Katie Pumphrey, Damye Hahn, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 15 70,000 Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive or positively down here at beautiful Lexington market. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery. Happy. Back to the Future. Scratch US has all sorts of little things on it, like Katie Pumphrey shirt. Here we got the DeLorean here we got the 88 and we got Michael J Fox’s jacket here, the whole deal, $10,000 up for grabs in the Maryland lottery. We talk about it all the time. Our Maryland crab cake tour on the road, presented by our friends at curio wellness as well as Liberty pure solutions, we’re going to be at the Y in Randallstown on Tuesday. Should have had you come over Tuesday, because if we’re doing it from a pool, a swimming pool at the Y I have tried to get Jessica long out. So she’s also the other swimmer, Katie pumphrey’s here. She’s famous for swimming long stretches of wild water. And Damian Han is here, of course, she is famous for getting wild catfish out of the Chesapeake Bay and onto your table, as well as crab cakes shipped anywhere in the world and trying to get Catonsville open as well. I came down for the crab races, which is Preakness week. I’ve emceed this the last three or four years. BJ, sur off, usually when he shows up, just wins this year. I think you banned him. It said you couldn’t come because he’s conflict. Well, the conflict, he wins the competition every year. And they said, well, Katie bumper is gonna be here. And I’m like, that’s that’s the gal it swims. I know about her. And then she came, and I didn’t realize your relationship here. So I want to give you some oxygen to talk about Katie the swimmer, Katie the artist, and you the water fish mongers daughter. How did this all happen here? Well,
Damye Hahn 01:40
at fade leaves, we love everything that swims. And Katie swims,
Nestor Aparicio 01:44
8you can’t eat her, though, everything else swims, you eat, you know,
Katie Pumphrey 01:48
right? But I meet with you and that, yes,
Damye Hahn 01:51
yes, yes. And she’s, she does. She’s doing so much for the bay and the awareness of the bay and everything like that. So we it was, it was a perfect relationship. And I met Katie through my dear friend Polly. Sirhoff, oh, okay, it was also a swimmer. Oh, of course, Polly’s a swimmer, based on the open water, swims for a long time. And how long have you known Polly? Give it. People know this Polly since I was a child, probably five, six years old.
Nestor Aparicio 02:17
You knew her when she was dating? BJ sirhoff,
8Damye Hahn 02:19
yes, before. And then, you know, she went away to college. I’m a little older than she is, I won’t say how much, but, you know, and then we were, you know, off doing our own
Nestor Aparicio 02:29
thing. He had the North Carolina thing. Then he played for the Brewers, and then, boom, he’s here back
Damye Hahn 02:33
and Polly’s home. And they’re obviously friendship stirred up again, not
Nestor Aparicio 02:37
8just famous for baseball, but, I mean, obviously they’re working the autism space with pathfinders. Absolutely unbelievable. Polly and PJ do more than than anybody in that space. I saw them do last summer. I ran in them, Hootie the Blowfish, and they were, you know, getting the band involved, of Vince Fauci and all that. But so, you know, Polly how?
Katie Pumphrey 02:55
Yeah, we swim at the same pool. Often we join each other for a workout. We’ve here to lean many times I really enjoy so you’re a pool swimmer, so I trained in the pool most of the
Nestor Aparicio 03:07
time. But were you a Michael Phelps kind of girl? Were you in competitions in pools as a young person?
Katie Pumphrey 03:13
Yeah. I mean, if you grew up in Maryland, especially in that time, yeah, you were definitely at a swim meet with Michael Phelps, and his older sister was one of my babysitters, and one of his sisters actually dated my brother, and I like to remind him that she dumped him. Oh,
8Nestor Aparicio 03:31
imagine that, yeah, well, in your case,
Katie Pumphrey 03:33
but his mom’s also, you know, was an education. My parents are in education. My mom was a music teacher in public schools for nearly 40 years. So you know, a lot of educators, a lot of swim moms spending time on a pool deck together. So you definitely cross paths.
Nestor Aparicio 03:47
I crossed paths with her. 1011, years. When did you swim the English Channel? 15, 2015
Katie Pumphrey 03:52
8my first English channel was 2015 my second English channel was 2022 and I’m getting ready for number three.
Nestor Aparicio 04:01
Well, if you do what I do, and for 35 years, you feel like you’ve, like, run into everybody. So Katie’s out on the deck and I’m emceeing this silly thing. It lasts less time than the actual crap, you know, the horse race. It gets over pretty quickly to get the angry crab. And we came back in for crab cake, and I started talking to Casey, I’m doing the showdown. He should come down and do the show. And I didn’t realize you’d already done the show, yeah.
Katie Pumphrey 04:27
And I didn’t realize either, until we exchanged numbers and we already had each other’s phone number. So
Nestor Aparicio 04:32
is that like a inglebert humper? Think song? Am I that easy to forget, you know? So I looked here, am I? I said to Katie, like, give me your number. We’re doing the show down here in June. Come on by. I had the complication a couple weeks ago. My whole thing blew up in Vegas. We moved this two weeks. You moved your swim. Thing got moved around a little bit too. I want to talk about all that, but it was third week of May. You were about to swim, right? You were about 10 days out on doing your swim and getting everything organized.
8Damye Hahn 04:58
It’s three days out. Three days out. Yeah. Well, you were of the way over
Nestor Aparicio 05:02
here eating fish when I was with you on the Marylander, of course. And I said number, and I start to put her number in. She’s already in my phone. August 12, the 2015 you inbound me a text 10 years ago. Hi there. This is Katie Pumphrey. I’m in the UK on the 24th but I love to be on your show. And on the 12th, I said, How’s 8am tomorrow afternoon over the phone, Yes, that sounds awesome. I and, and then I interviewed, you love it so and, but it was our phone little baby Katie and I never looked at years ago. I never looked at you, yeah, never like. I didn’t know what you’re looking like. Hi, you’re the real Katie bumper. So what happened in the last month. Give me You swam, but you did swim the whole thing, and the water conditions change. And then you gave me a little quick paragraph lecture on there’s a lot that goes into this, like people and spotters and like, and I’m like, I’m foolish. This is why I need to have you on the show. You elected to do this in May because of currents and all of that.
Katie Pumphrey 06:04
Correct? Yeah. So basically, you know, I wanted, it’s my plan, and hope to swim the 24 Mile Bay to Baltimore, swim from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor right there at Pratt and light street harbor place is the finish that 24 mile swim I hope to do many, many, many times in my lifetime. So, you know, last year was, it was the first one. We made history. Became the first person to do that. That was last June. And originally in 2024 we had planned that first swim to be in May, where the water temperature is kind of in my wheelhouse. And, you know, mid to upper 60s, you need a colder than warmer. I prefer it colder, yeah. So I’m training for things like the English Channel, where the water is at like, 60 degrees. So as our waterways, which are pretty shallow, get warmer, that kind of complicates some things, and
Nestor Aparicio 06:52
8eventually, way, you know, nettles in the water. Let’s start with that. No, I mean just, just water
Katie Pumphrey 06:56
temperature in general, right? You start getting it gets dangerous. If it’s just like running out on 100 degree day, right? It’s hot. It’s hot,
Damye Hahn 07:03
hot. You’re sweating. Okay, she’s working out.
Nestor Aparicio 07:05
Yeah, I understand that part. Okay, last
8Katie Pumphrey 07:07
year, so we planned for May, and then, unfortunately, the after the key bridge collapsed, we had to push that swim back. And so it ended up being June 25 it was amazing that we got it in, but really, we couldn’t have waited even just a few more days, because those warm, hot days, we’re bringing the water temperature up even more. So when I swam, it last year that water temperature was 82 even up to 84 degrees. So that’s in the water. It’s really warm. Water, really warm. Yeah, that’s even warmer than a pool, right? So most pools are around 80 degrees. A competition pool you know that Michael Phelps would race in, is more 78 but when you start creeping up even higher than that, especially when the sun is on your back, that gets dangerous, right? And so it was we, you know, we were really aggressive with hydration. It was definitely the hottest I have ever been in my entire life. You
Nestor Aparicio 07:54
wouldn’t want to do it again. That late, is what you’re saying, right? So
Katie Pumphrey 07:58
we, so in planning a second swim, getting
Nestor Aparicio 08:01
8five minutes. I’m learning about all of this. I don’t know any of
Katie Pumphrey 08:04
this well. I think that’s nature. So there’s so much stuff that that you know, so many things to consider. So
Nestor Aparicio 08:10
storm comes, it throws things up, right? So I’m planning a
Katie Pumphrey 08:13
second swim we looked at May, the two big things you’re looking at, to pick a window, right? A window of several days and then and then, hoping the weather cooperates within that window. The way that you pick a window is looking at things like water temperature, air temperature and tides, right? So the tides and how that water is moving, especially our Patapsco River. Our harbor here in the Patapsco River is Tidal, so that’s impacted by the phases of the moon, right? And so months and months before, exactly, months and months before, this past May, you know, we’re looking, and I say we, it’s often my husband and I are really, you know, looking at tidal charts, looking at, you know, predictable water temperature, what we know? What are the trends? And so we narrowed down a window in May, and as that window kind of came, water temperature was perfect, air temperature was perfect. I think that would have really created a lovely swim. However, we had a lot of wind and a lot of rain in May. And so open water, no matter what body of water you’re in, you want to try to avoid heavy rain, right? Because that brings in a lot of things that you don’t want to swim through, right? Especially in urban waterways, but even out, you know, near farms or in the things that we’re thinking about when we go to the beach, right? You have runoff, you have things that impact the quality of the water. So we try to avoid heavy rain, and that is something that I am used to in my sport. I’ve been an open water swimmer for 15 years, and a number of swims have been canceled or postponed because of rain. So that’s always, yeah, it’s just always a part of it. And then wind is kind of like the secret nemesis of open water swimming, because. If you have high wind, not only is that making it harder for a swimmer, that’s making it potentially dangerous for boats. So when we looked at as we got closer and closer and closer and that swim window is chosen, right, we’re working with several organizations to make the swim possible in the first place, right? So freedom Boat Club is providing them boats. That means they’re saving that boat or and we had two boats and two boat captains. They’re, you know, they’re blocked off for that whole week, that whole window. So it’s a lot of people’s time, but it’s also a lot of people’s lot of resources, you know, and then you’re communicating with the Coast Guard, with the Department of Natural Resources, with Sandy Point State Park, with the Port Administration, you know, connecting with the harbor safety committee, there’s so many people that manage and you know, not only the land that you’re starting from and ending at, but the waterways that you’re swimming through, and especially our waterways that swim. I’m going from the Chesapeake Bay into the Patapsco River. It’s getting narrower and narrower, and we have a lot of boat traffic out there, commercial traffic, and a lot of shipping traffic, right? Big tankers. And in order to do that swim safely, you do have to cross the shipping channel, so that communication is all like, so important. So a lot goes into making How
8Nestor Aparicio 11:15
long does it take you, if you think perfect, if it’s perfect, 24 miles from the bay, 24
Katie Pumphrey 11:20
miles, I am very capable of doing that swim in 12 hours, but it all depends on the conditions, right? So last year, I finished in 13 hours, 54 minutes. I definitely, you know, I think I would have been faster if it wasn’t so hot, and I think it would have been faster if it was a more favorable tide.
Nestor Aparicio 11:39
How far is too far? Well, that’s a whole 24
Katie Pumphrey 11:43
8miles, a whole different question. And I think open water swimmers, we tend to think about time a lot more than distance, right? You can swim. The English channel is a perfect example. Point to Point from England to France, the narrowest spot is 21
Nestor Aparicio 11:57
miles. But you told me 1000s of people to swim that I think the numbers creeping up on 2000 okay. I mean, that’s like, okay, yeah, yeah. I’ll get to the psychology of why. But I’m going backwards here. The fun
Katie Pumphrey 12:10
stat comparison of that number of English channel swimmers is, uh, more people have summited Mount Everest than have some English Channel. And I think that’s, that’s a pretty fun stat, but the English Channel is 21 miles from England to France at its narrowest point, right? So at narrowest point, right? So as the crow flies in a straight line, 21 miles. But in order to swim successively from point A to point B, England to France, you have to plan more like an S, right, to account for not only the currents that are in there, but the changing tide.
Nestor Aparicio 12:38
So you’re swimming 24 miles like that, right? So, 21
8Katie Pumphrey 12:42
both of my swims in, 2015 2022, were more close to 3637
Nestor Aparicio 12:49
miles. Oh, wow. It’s a it’s not a small
Katie Pumphrey 12:51
swims were right? It’s a zigzag, yeah, yes, both of those swims are right around the 14 hour mark, just like my you know, 2024, beta Baltimore swim was right around the 14 hour mark. So it’s, it’s, that’s where time is kind of a weird thing in the sport, because distance isn’t necessarily the measurement. It’s, you know, and you can be on course for something really fast, and then the wind picks up and you and you have another hour or two that you didn’t think you would so the big, big thing in this sport is staying calm and kind of rolling with it.
Nestor Aparicio 13:24
8Katie bumper is here. She’s staying calm and kind of eat some of the catfish spread. There you were after that. Yeah, Dami got me on to that. I had a bite of it smokey. Yeah, I’m not a dip guy, you know? I mean, I’m not a Sally guy. We’ve been
Katie Pumphrey 13:39
through. I’m a big dip girl. I mean, I think anything that comes in a dip, a chip, a cracker. I mean, that’s, do
Nestor Aparicio 13:44
you eat deviled eggs? Yeah, yeah. See, that’s weird. It’s just different. I mean, we’ve been through this for years, but Damien, so your relationship with Katie and sponsoring and swimming, and this is your life passion, and you have local businesses, like I have businesses that sponsor me, yeah. What? What happened since 2015 I clearly had you on the show 10 years ago. Even though I don’t remember you don’t remember it. You remember swimming the English
Katie Pumphrey 14:09
Channel. I remember talking a lot of cool people after that first one, so I might have been one of them.
8Nestor Aparicio 14:13
Yeah, but so all these, why? Why do you do this? You know? Like, I that, like, I’m just trying to understand the movement from maybe one day I could win an Olympic medal or be in a pool or be healthy or whatever, to having this bizarre Guinness Book of World Record kind of like mindset about this, and you seem like you’re not anywhere near the end of it. You’re addicted to doing just getting started. Yeah, it feels like you’re addicted to
Katie Pumphrey 14:40
doing this. That’s one of the magical things about swimming, right? About swimming, right? Swimming is a lifelong sport, and women especially tend to get stronger and stronger, especially in endurance. I know women in their 60s doing channel swims, the bay swim. There was a there was a gentleman that that was 90 years old. And did a 4.4 mile swim. You know, swimming is just kind
Nestor Aparicio 15:04
of magical, that way better than golf. Don’t say that to the golf. Don’t tell my dad. Don’t tell the golfers.
Damye Hahn 15:10
8But you use every muscle in your body when you swim.
Katie Pumphrey 15:13
Yeah, yeah. And I think there’s, you know, there’s ways to train really smart, you know, so that you’re preventing injuries or dealing with injuries that come along. Were you in the pool today? So this morning, I was actually swimming in the Inner Harbor. Okay, yeah, my hair’s still a little
Nestor Aparicio 15:29
wet. So you get in the Inner Harbor frequently, and people jump in and hold their nose and think it’s a big deal, or they make fun of it, like I do, because I lived at the harbor. So for 19 years, I looked out. I saw green, I saw red, I saw blue, I saw Brown, I saw it. I saw as you might see in open water, yeah, bodies and ambulances and twigs. You know what I saw
Katie Pumphrey 15:49
this morning. Would you swim under me? A cow nose, Sting Ray, really, a stingray swam right under me. Yeah, that’s a good sign. Great. What do
8Nestor Aparicio 15:58
you see? What do you see in the Inner Harbor when you swim. I mean this,
Katie Pumphrey 16:01
you know, it’s dark, dark water. You know, we have, this is a, you know, rivers, especially on the East Coast, tend to be a little murky. We’ve, you know, I have a silt floor, so I hear about them. Sometimes. I am really looking forward to seeing a river otter. I haven’t, haven’t seen one in IRL yet, but one of these days,
Nestor Aparicio 16:19
I lived in the suburbs for three and a half years. I saw my first possum the other day. I’m like, it’s kind of interesting. Like, why haven’t I seen that thing? You know? Like, I know they’re here. Yeah, I’m just thinking for the Inner Harbor. You said I swam in the Inner Harbor. I did. She thinks that’s normal. None of the right. None of the rest of us have done that. So it’s a it’s like saying I went to the moon. Tell me what you saw. Well,
Katie Pumphrey 16:40
8first question you asked was, what’s, what’s changed in 10 years? Right? So, when I swam the English Channel for the first time, when we spoke in 2015 you know, I was 10 years younger. I was a lot greener in this sport, my first official open water swim was in 2010 the Chesapeake Bay swim, where you swim between the two spans from Sandy Point State Park to what is now Libby’s restaurant, right? That swim is brutal. It is not a beginner swim. And I coach many swimmers every year to do it, and I that’s the one big thing I remind people about. It’s a really fun swim, but it is tough. How long does it take to do that? I’m right around the two hour mark this year. I was, I was two hours and 11 minutes, which, which felt pretty solid. It was, it was a fun washing
Nestor Aparicio 17:24
every time I look down for the Bay Bridge that water’s moving pretty good. Yeah, moving
Katie Pumphrey 17:28
down there, yeah. But I think so I’ve learned a lot since then, right? But I also, when I first got into this sport, I remember sitting at Canton waterfront park dreaming about, just, let’s swim to Fort McHenry, right? Let’s swim to Fells Point. And you go to the other cities where urban swimming is a bigger thing, right? And we have waterways that are swimmable, and you’ve seen in other cities, especially, I mean, in rural areas too, but especially cities, our waterway is getting better and better and better, right? And that’s because we’re figuring out how to take care of them, but also how not to hurt them as much, right? I had
Nestor Aparicio 18:00
Martin O’Malley at your place about five, six years ago. We first started doing the show together, and he brought me a smarter government. Was that after he didn’t, he ran for president, he was just before he ran so secure, he’s the retired Governor coming out, and he talked, all he talked about was the bay. All he talked about was the thing he’s the proudest of from his administration was tried to clean the bail that’s, that’s the legacy thing that he thought so 15 years later, after who’s the governor’s day for you to say it is getting cleaner? Well, I guess government was involved in
8Katie Pumphrey 18:29
that. Well, absolutely, people are. A lot of people are involved, right? This to get where we are, especially just comparing that 10 years stretch, that’s, that’s city infrastructure changing, right? That’s this, our city taking, taking, making changes and taking the steps to improve things like Mr. Trash wheel, our sewer system, our runoff, right, how that water and how everything in our city works, so that it doesn’t harm that water, right? And then you bring in also, so you have city and governmental agencies, right? But then also, yeah, nonprofits. Mr. Trash on your chest. Waterfront Partnership, right? Waterfront Partnership. Who works with Clearwater mills. John Kellet of Clearwater Mills invented Mr. Trash wheel, and now we have four trash wheels, right? And if you’re unfamiliar with the trash wheel family, look them up. They’re Googly shirt and fantastic. So we got Mr. Trash wheel, right he’s right there in the Inner Harbor. We have Professor trash wheel, which is right off of in Canton, right off of Boston Street. Professor trash wheel, of course, has her big, giant eyelashes, and she she joined me into the into the finish this year. We also have Captain trash wheel in Masonville Cove, where a pair of bald eagles are currently nesting. And we have Gwenda, the good wheel of the West, right? So you have government, you have nonprofit agencies, you know, you all, you have all these organizations doing so much over decades, right, not just the last decade, but you also have all of these businesses, right? Like. Seedleys doing so much that take care of our waterways, and that includes how you feed us, right, how we support the fishermen, and how
Nestor Aparicio 20:08
you swim so you can be an ambassador for cleaning the water.
Katie Pumphrey 20:13
I would have never imagined that, right? You were just trying to swim but, but I was dreaming about swimming in Baltimore, and as I’ve gotten further and further into the sport, and when the beta Baltimore swim became possible. And really that came when Waterfront Partnership started teasing their harbor splash event, and I reached out and said, Hey, I want to do a swim. I want to partner with you, and I’ll make this a big message of support for the city, right? Our city needs a lot of love. And big, my big goal in that and spreading and sharing the swim with people is, can we talk about sport, right? Talk about swimming, which I think people connect with sport, and talk about the environment, and talk about how awesome this city is, right? And if, in the process, I can partner with amazing businesses and organizations awesome, right? And then I get to come and talk to fun people like you.
Nestor Aparicio 20:57
8I’m not that much fun. Katie pumpers here, Jamie Hans here, we’re at Faith. He’s we’re talking about swimming in the Inner Harbor. So last year we had to jump in the harbor. They didn’t offer me as a celebrity dude, because I’m not, you know, I pissed too many people off to be that popular, which is good for me, good for you, actually,
Katie Pumphrey 21:17
is the chance harbor splash 2025, is coming up next weekend. So I was in the Inner Harbor, and we did a jump in, a splash with heart, with Waterfront Partnership, and a representative from the mayor’s office jumped in this
Nestor Aparicio 21:29
morning. You did that right down at where living classrooms is right. That’s where it was last
Katie Pumphrey 21:33
year on street war effort as a new kayak launch
8Nestor Aparicio 21:39
for people getting in the harbor and their their mind of it’s not safe, or whatever, you’re sort of living, breathing proof that, like you were in it this morning,
Katie Pumphrey 21:47
right? And here I am, you know, 10 fingers, 10 toes.
Nestor Aparicio 21:50
Where do you swim when you jump in and do your little round the
Katie Pumphrey 21:54
8big reminder, right, is that while we’re working towards a healthier Harbor, right, and we’re celebrating a swimmable Patapsco River in harbor for Baltimore. The reminder is that open water is still, you should still take all safety precautions, right? So I’m not
Nestor Aparicio 22:07
letting anybody do that. I’m just talking about, like, where you practice. The big thing is,
Katie Pumphrey 22:12
I always have a boat with me, right? I always have a team with me. I’m not jumping off a promenade that’s unsafe. And so this morning, you know, a couple days ago, I got the kind of green light that, especially after a recent diesel spill, and you know, that water quality testing was good, got a good thumbs up, and that water quality testing that Waterfront Partnership is doing that’s meeting the same standards as any swimming beach in Maryland, right? So if you go to Ocean City, or you go to Sandy Point State Park and swim, someone is testing that water, right? Anne Arundel County, or someone, some agency within city or state is doing that, and our harbor is meeting those same standards. So Waterfront Partnership is testing way more often, which is really exciting to see that data. But so with that communication, kind of knowing that we were there, we wanted to, kind of jump in this morning, it is
Nestor Aparicio 23:11
absolutely that’s the message, I guess, of people jumping,
8Damye Hahn 23:14
yes, because people don’t think it’s clean. I don’t, I don’t, I don’t think that the harbor wants people jumping in and swimming around because it’s dangerous as far as boat traffic and everything else, they don’t want waterway. They don’t want people having races across the harbor. But
Katie Pumphrey 23:27
unless it’s Well, we hope to plan some, yes,
Nestor Aparicio 23:30
people breaking laws on mopeds around here. I don’t need to take it into the water. But And all kidding aside, and you’re the glory of doing this and the publicity of doing this, but the real message here is that the water’s getting better. That’s that’s at the at the end of the day, so good that the catfish eating everything in it, right? Do you see those big job catfish when you’re out there swimming the
Katie Pumphrey 23:53
8blue catfish? I have not seen, but I am loving that the river otters are also doing their part to eat them. So we should all, oh, the otters are eating them. Eat them. Yeah, they are. I mean, they’re an apex predator.
Nestor Aparicio 24:04
Well, apparently. So, so these catfish, from what I can tell, eat, they
Katie Pumphrey 24:08
are eating a lot, but the otters are eating them. So, so what’s your next swim? We eat them too. What
Nestor Aparicio 24:12
are we preparing for? You said you’re gonna do Bay Bridge to Baltimore. More is like September a good or October? Does the water get to that point for 2025, the
8Katie Pumphrey 24:21
window was in May, and we ended up trying the swim may 20, right? So I got in. The plan was to start a little earlier. There was some rain coming, and the tide was kind of the best. If I started,
Damye Hahn 24:33
she starts in like, at like midnight and goes through the morning, right, right, right. So this is, yeah, so this is a one, I am sorry, you imagine jumping with a little boat, put my 90 on, and she’s jumping in
Katie Pumphrey 24:47
wearing a glow stick. Yes, glow stick, okay, yeah. Boat is a little lit up. But also, everyone has a light on, red light, yeah. So originally we, you know, kind of looking at the window. We had the 18th through the 23rd Yeah, you know, we’d originally picked the 19th, and then had to push it back 24 hours, because the wind just kept increasing. And really, the 20th was the only day we could have tried. Before that, the wind was really high, and after that, there was rain. It was a poopy month, really, yeah, it was just, it’s tricky, and I and that’s also just, you know, we’re having more and more extreme weather, which is a reality. So I got in at 1am at Sandy Point State Park. It was kind of a wild, wild time out there, much like a washing machine. And I was swimming strong, but it was becoming increasingly unsafe for the boats, right and and they were even more concerning. They were starting to have trouble seeing me, so my crew alerted me about an hour in that they were going to pull me, which was a big bummer, certainly something I have experienced before for very similar reasons in other swims.
Nestor Aparicio 25:56
8It’s completely uncontrollable,
Katie Pumphrey 25:58
totally this is yeah, so, like, I didn’t tap out because it was crazy out there. I definitely would have kept swimming. And those are conditions well, but it’s, you know, the team. It was a good call. It was a right call to keep everybody safe, and so we, you know, but that’s a heartbreaking call. It’s, you know, it’s a big bummer, and but it wasn’t surprised, you know, I was seeing the water go over the bow of the boat, and it was some close calls of the distance that we should keep. And yeah, so we got back on the boat and immediately started talking about, let’s pivot to a shorter swim. Right? The wind was still pretty intense out in the bay, but as you move towards the end of the Patapsco, which is a little more protected and later in the day, the wind was kind of dying down. It was going to rain later, so we kind of had this window of like, all right, the message of this swim, right? It was never about 24 miles, while I do wish and plan to do that swim again in all 24 miles, many, many times,
Nestor Aparicio 26:57
always in May. Well, we’ll
Katie Pumphrey 26:58
see. Okay,
8Nestor Aparicio 26:59
but why is October out in September? Is it? I’m just trying to understand the science of it.
Katie Pumphrey 27:04
It’s not, it’s not the water is warmer. You have some other issues. And you know, for this season that you’re chilling. That’s not the plan.
Nestor Aparicio 27:13
Next major, next goal, we’ll see,
Katie Pumphrey 27:17
8but yeah, so we pissy, we’ll see we pivoted, and, you know, at that point, our boats were docked. It’s now three in the morning. We barely had a ride for all the crew back to Baltimore. It was kind of a wild time. We made our way back, and, you know, communicated with everyone that makes this one possible, to let them know that we were, you know, out of the water and safe. So we pivoted, and we ended up jumping in with the help of urban pirates, the pirate ship and I had my crew on their on their Skiff.
Nestor Aparicio 27:48
Those guys ever don’t try to squirt at me when I’m on the heart, on the on the, on the outside of the problem other pirates, of course, I know that’s what they do to me.
Katie Pumphrey 27:56
Yes, I jumped in at Fort McHenry and and swam 2.4 miles in to the finish, which was awesome. People still came out. Professor trash will join me. You know, kayakers from Canton Kayak Club join paddle boarders from be more sup and he was like very much this whole Baltimore.
Nestor Aparicio 28:12
I love the Jesse. Jesse, my girl. And then there were
8Katie Pumphrey 28:15
a ton of people at the finish, right? And whether it was 24 miles or not, people were there to celebrate the fact that we can do this right, and the fact that we’re celebrating Baltimore through this swim. So it was still a very magical day. Plus, I got handed a new beer that’s named after me by Peabody heights brewing. The beer is called Katie pumphrey’s Big swim. So she
Damye Hahn 28:36
swam and drank her
Nestor Aparicio 28:38
beer. Is this while swimming,
Katie Pumphrey 28:42
8hazy session, IPA, but low ABV, 4.8% very drinkable. All right,
Nestor Aparicio 28:47
delicious upon delicious out of the water. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Do you crave beer when you get out of the water often? Yes, okay, I like you already. You could be from Dundalk, if you’re Katie Pomfrey is here. Wait, you’re, you’re and you’re an artist as well, correct? Yeah. I mean, I mentioned you to a friend of mine. She’s got to ask her about her art and Mike and all this stuff and, like, I don’t know Katie that well. We knew each other, like, we did the show, and I don’t really know her that well. Like,
Katie Pumphrey 29:10
yeah, it’s part of, you know, my swim season is so planned out, right? Asking if I’m gonna do the swim in September. Right now, I’m focused on the English Channel the end of July. Oh, you didn’t
Nestor Aparicio 29:21
mention that. We’re 20 minutes in. I buried the lead. You’re gonna do that for the third
8Katie Pumphrey 29:25
English channel number three, in late July. And then I come back and I have a solo exhibition. So speaking of art, all new giant, massive paintings, a solo exhibition called swimming pool will be at the creative Alliance, which opens September
Nestor Aparicio 29:39
5, Patterson Park, baby, come on over to creative Alliance. All right, so where do people find you? And you gave me a beautiful little sticker. I didn’t bring it with me here, a little state sticker and all that stuff. Yeah, we did our crab races together, but following you easiest social media.
Katie Pumphrey 29:55
Katie Pumphrey, P, U, M, pH, R, E, y. Katie pump free art. I. Is my social media handle, but there you’ll find tales of swimming as well as the studio, things happening, upcoming shows, paintings in progress, paintings finished, and definitely some photos of my dog. I
Nestor Aparicio 30:11
8was gonna ask if you the craziest thing you’ve ever seen in the water? I don’t know what you see when you’re swimming, right? It
Katie Pumphrey 30:18
depends. I mean, I’ve been in a lot of waterways. I’ve seen a lot of things this morning swimming in the Inner Harbor and seeing, you know, stingrays, was just super cool.
Damye Hahn 30:27
Never seen that. It is a very good sign of clean water, of course. Yeah.
Katie Pumphrey 30:31
So I had seen other people’s photos and videos of them swimming around the harbor, but never I hadn’t seen them, let alone have them swim under me. So that was super cool.
8Damye Hahn 30:42
Does your dog ever swim
Katie Pumphrey 30:44
with you? She fears water actually, but she’s really good at cuddling, so we’ll let her have it. Dolphins. I’ve dolphins a bunch of times when they swim with you, yeah. So the last year, after the beta Baltimore swim, I did the Catalina channel for the second time, which is a 21 mile swim from Catalina Island to Long Beach, LA, and that swim, which, you know, it’s the Pacific, so it’s cold water that’s really colder. It’s deeper, 1000s of feet, and a huge pot of dolphins. I mean, hundreds and hundreds of dolphins swam through, oh, that’s cool under me. Swim around me, same between me and the boat. I mean, they were just like everywhere, very cool,
Nestor Aparicio 31:27
also in that swim, and they won’t bump you or anything like that.
Katie Pumphrey 31:30
8One time at night, I had a dolphin swim under me, and it hit my hand and kind of pulled me a little, which was really helpful. Did you say come back? Maybe another mile. Yeah. But last year, Catalina, I also there was a sea lion that swam upside down under me around midnight. That swim you start before midnight. It started around 1030 at night, which swimming through the Pacific throughout the entire evening. That is dark water. Big lesson in staying calm. Might never matter with that one, although I, you know, no matter what I’m every time I’m like, don’t think of jaws. Don’t think of jaws. And then, like, start playing the movie, which, it’s just such a
Damye Hahn 32:07
good film we showed that I’ve sailed that, but I haven’t.
Nestor Aparicio 32:09
I’ve seen Catalina, you know, when I fly out of lax or whatever, but I know where it is.
Katie Pumphrey 32:15
I haven’t. I haven’t seen it. I’ve seen little shark on a training swim in LA once big something was with me once in the Outer Banks, I didn’t quite see it. My husband saw a fin and a shadow, and I had a feeling, but, but last year, in the in the darkness of Catalina, a sea lion swim under me upside down, which was just so cool. And then later in the morning, you know, kind of craziest fish I’ve ever seen was a Mola Mola sunfish, which, if you don’t know what a Mola Mola did?
8Nestor Aparicio 32:44
They have one of those two blades on the back, one of the they’re like a sailfish, kind of
Katie Pumphrey 32:48
like, they’re super flat, wildly weird looking. They also get as big as a Mola Mola. My God, they eat jellyfish.
Nestor Aparicio 32:57
What is it? Ocean sunfish? Mola Mola Mola, Sun sunfish. I’m looking it up, right? It looks like a prehistoric, exactly kind of like thing, yeah, look at that. There you go. Mola, oh, I disclosed it. Hold on. Mola. Mola, there you go. That’s a Mola Mola, right there. Let me make sure everybody can see that. Where was this crazy fish,
Katie Pumphrey 33:16
8Catalina. That was Catalina in the morning. Which that entire swim I was hitting jellyfish about every six seconds. Like, Oh, little juvenile jellyfish. They love me. Jellyfish. If you don’t want to get stung by jellyfish, like, just swim with me. You’ll be,
Damye Hahn 33:30
Oh, my God, how often you get stung.
Katie Pumphrey 33:33
That swim was around 13 hours. I think I got stung every every six seconds.
Nestor Aparicio 33:38
Does it? Does it mean the water’s too warm?
8Katie Pumphrey 33:42
No, I think it was just their time, you know. And there’s different different types of jellyfish. English channel tend to be kind of these big lions made jellyfish that their tentacles can get you’re wearing a suit, though, right? No. So for all these swims, you’re wearing just a regular swimsuit, cap and goggles. So I follow English channel rules, or marathon swimmers Federation rules, which is just regular swimsuit, cap and goggles. You start beyond the water, you finish beyond the water. If you can’t get out, you touch you can’t hang on the boat. You can’t hang on a person. So you sort of, you can’t touch anything, anyone you are once you’re in, you are swimming. And there’s a few other rules, but and in your eating along the way, drinking along the way. I wish you know some delicious sandwiches, but usually it’s just some carb mix and things. But, yeah, it’s a kind of a wild sport that way it, I mean, it’s, it’s really just you in the water, you know, but it does require a team and a lot of gear. So how
Nestor Aparicio 34:39
many people were with you? It ranges may 20,
Katie Pumphrey 34:42
that we had about nine people or so. You know, really some swims like for upcoming English channel, I’ll have three, three crew people, my husband, and two friends, and then there’s two boat captains. And for every swim, there’s always an observer. For the beta Baltimore in 2024 we had two. Two observers. Those are like your referees. So if you’re setting kind of a record, you’re the first person to do something, or you’re setting a record for speed or something, in particular, these be documented. You’re well, you’re documenting no matter what, but you buy the marathon swimmers Federation, then you would have two observers.
Nestor Aparicio 35:17
8Anything, leave anything out. Amy, are you learning too. Or do you know, I don’t know any of this? No, I don’t know any. Am I leaving anything out? I, you know a lot more about water and fish and crabs than I do and swimmers and all that. You know
Damye Hahn 35:30
Polly a little, just a little bit about the open water, because Polly was an open water swimmer, yeah, like, swam around St Croix and did all these, you know, other, you know, crazy open water swims in front of open water. It’s a
Katie Pumphrey 35:41
very cool way to travel crazy things. You know, in 2017 I swam around the island of Manhattan. It was a very cool way to see New York. I walked around it yesterday, but, yeah, well, I swam around it. And I’m coaching swimmers that are doing that coming up.
Nestor Aparicio 35:56
Can I be honest? Is there people out here think, like the Inner Harbor is too dirty to swim in. I wouldn’t swim in it. Okay, great. What other bodies of water do you swim in? Or can you not? Are there places you can’t swim because of sharks, because, like, I remember, you can Google this place called Fraser Island. It’s a largest sand island in the world. It’s off the east coast of Australia. It’s an eco friendly Island. Everything’s green. I stayed on that island and I had like, a Mini Moke. It’s a 70 Mile Beach, literally 70 miles that you get on Jeep and you can but there’s no people. You can’t get in the water because the sharks everywhere, like, there’s signs, it’s 70 miles of beach where it’s illegal to get in the water. There’s signs everywhere, wow, because there’s that many sharks. I
8Katie Pumphrey 36:41
know some Australian Open Water swimmers. And when they talk about conditions, right? I talk about rain, wind, waves, they say sometimes it gets a little Sharky. Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 36:51
a little Sharky. Define that, right? One would be a lot, exactly. I mean there, yes, there are two. Would be two too many. There
Katie Pumphrey 37:00
are places that they like to congregate. So, yeah, maybe don’t, you know, swim through their living
Nestor Aparicio 37:04
8room. Don’t wear rings that bring your entire Holy scene that right?
Katie Pumphrey 37:08
But generally, if you are swimming somewhere that sharks are right, and that is like any, any salty body of water, right, the ocean, if you’ve been in the ocean, and even some brackish water, you know, we’re out in the bay, if you have swam and they’re a shark, I guarantee has seen you. I have spent a lot of time in open water, sharks have definitely seen me. And I find that pretty comforting, actually. You know, of course, each one of us, they encounter away. Yeah, encounters happen, you know? And obviously, if you up your frequency of swimming through bodies of water, that might up your chances. But I generally, I that’s not something I worry about.
Nestor Aparicio 37:49
Do they do this in the Chicago harbor? I mean, like, I’m just trying to
Katie Pumphrey 37:52
think other so as far as urbans, yeah, urban swimming other places, there’s a big movement for it, right? Most people doing it. People doing it? Yeah, and Baltimore is definitely leading the charge in a lot of a lot of these cities. We will
8Nestor Aparicio 38:06
have a big race here one day that you’ll be a big swinger on 10 years from now, bringing 30 people like you to do, well, this crazy thing. I mean, how many people
Katie Pumphrey 38:14
do this? You mentioned that I won’t see that. I’m in the process starting a nonprofit called Baltimore open water swimmers. Bows for short. It’ll be launching in 2026 the plan to start Bose will be the governing body of the bay to Baltimore swim, which I hope to run in 2026 with five swimmers. You start small with that kind of a distance, because five swimmers means at least five boats and a lot of crew and a lot of people. And you know, the more spread out that
Nestor Aparicio 38:41
swim. People couldn’t do this, right? Big footprint
Katie Pumphrey 38:43
8be too much. But Bose will also be launching and hoping to make this happen in 2026 a one and a two mile swim in the harbor, and that hopefully will run with 100 swimmers. Okay, so big swimming events, more
Nestor Aparicio 38:57
and more success back here. Let’s go water. It’s
Katie Pumphrey 39:00
coming for Baltimore. And you know, as far as our city leading the charge in that movement, I am next week, am headed to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. I’ve been invited to speak at the swimmable cities international summit. So I’ll be representing Baltimore, Maryland and the US. And I’m really excited to speak at that summit, share the story of my beta, Baltimore swim, and really talk about how awesome the city is.
Nestor Aparicio 39:26
That’s great. Is there a Super Bowl? The English channel would be the thing everybody kind of points at is like that 21 miles is probably like, the famous thing that like the
8Katie Pumphrey 39:36
channel I always describe is like the mother of them, all right? That’s like, the English Channel really, is really kind of the a lot of swims started because of that one. But
Nestor Aparicio 39:45
there’s no organized swim there, right? There’s no day were 20 of you go over there and have a world champion, you know,
Katie Pumphrey 39:52
just do about a dozen votes that are approved to do it. You register with the governing body there, which is this channel Swimming Association. And or the channel swimming pilot Federation. So
Nestor Aparicio 40:03
8there is no international governing body then, right? So there is
Katie Pumphrey 40:07
a world open water swimming Association, Wowza, which is a very fun acronym, Wowza, okay, but, uh, no, every kind of swim is, it’s, it’s, you know, it kind of acts in its own way. But you know, the international community of channel swimming is pretty
Nestor Aparicio 40:23
small. Yeah, I was gonna say, you all know each other, you got to, right? Yeah. So it’s very supportive.
Katie Pumphrey 40:27
It’s a cool sport that
8Damye Hahn 40:28
way. All right. Well, come back to many of these people that want to jump out. I mean, I’m not done with you, but I’m done with you
Katie Pumphrey 40:33
for now. I think the thing to remember is that swimming is a lifelong sports, right? So whether you’ve been a swimmer your whole life or you’re just getting into it at whatever age you are. Open Water is a really fun way to get into a new sport. It’s a really cool way to see places. You know, I was out in the harbor this morning. It is just the coolest view of our city.
Nestor Aparicio 40:52
My wife is I’m friends with Jesse Benson from flow, yo, and search, what’s up? Sup, yeah. And some of my yoga PALs were, you know, Marissa, and a bunch of people about, like, five years ago, my wife went on a yoga retreat with Jesse to Florida. And actually, she’s a paddle boarder. My wife, right, like, and I because she could hula hoop, and she’s got the hippie hip thing. She’s never she surfed one time in Hawaii, and got up pretty quickly, and I video for doing that in Maui, but the only time she’s ever been on a surfboard, but she paddle boards, like, just took to it one day, went out with Jesse, like, in Rocky Point or something. Didn’t even I said, Did you how many times you fall in the water? She’s like, I didn’t get wet. And I’m like, What? No, feel me, I’m
Katie Pumphrey 41:38
8getting water. Minor to everyone, she’s so strong,
Nestor Aparicio 41:41
but she’s so strong that she can do it. So then one day was at the harbor, and they put in at the rusty scupper, and it was for like morning tough, like Fox 45 or something, was doing a morning thing, fun. And my wife went out, and I put these pictures up of her and 20 other people out paddling from the rusty scupper to the end, just hanging out in the harbor, just paddling around at eight o’clock in the morning from Yeah, morning television. And it the pictures are unbelievable. It’s like, and people saw it, they’re like, oh my god, it looks like San Diego. It looks like Freeman.
Damye Hahn 42:16
Experience
Katie Pumphrey 42:19
from the water is truly amazing. And I understand people’s hesitation about swimming in the harbor. I totally get it. You know, go at your own pace as these events come up. But I really, I really hope people, you know, kind of find the enthusiasm here to believe in progress, right? In so many ways, our harbor is just getting better and better, and the more love we show our city and the businesses that make it special and the people that run it, and you know, really don’t throw ish in the harbor, get out there and enjoy it. I think the more, the more you’re gonna feel love for it as well, right? And I think the harbor I totally again, I get the hesitation, but she
8Nestor Aparicio 43:02
always tells me about the oyster wars that we had here 100 years ago, right? The amazing thing is, all you’ve taught me about oysters that you could bring a big tank in here that’s muddy water, sit some oysters at the bottom, and leave for the weekend and come back and water would be clean, yep, which is how we eat the oysters. That’s another story altogether, a little brackish, but, but they are delicious. I’d eat them right now. But the notion that, like this is, you know, the Inner Harbor probably was completely pristine. It was, it probably was like drinking water because there were so many oysters cleaning it, yeah, for centuries, probably before we got here, after all up Katie pumphrey’s Here she was swimming with Mr. Swim wheel. Or is that Mr. Trash? Mr. Trash wheel is what he is. That’s Mr. Trash. Will to you
Katie Pumphrey 43:47
this shirt matches my swimsuit, which was designed by Baltimore illustrator Sarah Bolton to check out her work.
Nestor Aparicio 43:53
Well, she doesn’t do the salt boxes, but you have, you had a salt box made of you. I haven’t
Katie Pumphrey 43:57
8very cool. Sarah designed this pattern and these
Nestor Aparicio 44:01
legit Baltimore celebrities,
Katie Pumphrey 44:03
all sorts of Baltimore Maryland icons, yeah,
Damye Hahn 44:06
I love it all. She’s got the crab, she’s got the rock fish, she’s got the oysters. Got Mr. Trash wheel and the
8Nestor Aparicio 44:11
Black Eyed Susan,
Katie Pumphrey 44:13
lemon stick. Time staple.
Nestor Aparicio 44:18
Yeah, I missed it. I missed the Fair this year. I gotta go next year. All right, Damien’s here. She’s got crab cakes for you. Katie bumpers here, she’s busy trying to swim places. And what’s the next big swimming English channel in July? How many there’s third one, if you’ve ever this is number three, and you succeeded the other two times you not had there. Okay, follow her. She’s out on inner and the internet and on Instagram and all sorts of places you go see our art.
Katie Pumphrey 44:44
8Yeah, and I’ll be sharing my trip to Rotterdam for swimmable cities. And I
Nestor Aparicio 44:48
love the Dutch. Tell the Dutch I said hello in folks
Katie Pumphrey 44:51
in in England, it’s there. They have a big art triennial that’s happening in folks, and so I’m really excited. It’s a very cool portside town next to Dover. And so being there, you know, last time my second English channel swim, I waited for 10 days for the wind to calm down. So we got to try it. And it’s just a really cool, cool place to be. So it’s
Nestor Aparicio 45:10
too expensive to hang out in the UK right now,
8Katie Pumphrey 45:13
financially, but going to Rotterdam next week. Rotterdam of Baltimore, Sister Cities, yes, they are.
Nestor Aparicio 45:18
Get that Euro out, man. Give those. Give the duchy some love over there. All right, she’s headed over to the Netherlands and Holland. Hoop Holland, everything’s orange in Holland. I know about that Damien’s here. The crabs are orange. The Orioles are orange. We had Oriole fans here. We’re beautiful, fatally seafood. Lexington markets. All brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. The Back to the Future. Scratch offs available. I will be at I’m gonna beat a pool on Tuesday. I love that better not throw me in the pool. These kids over there at the Y. John always gonna be with us. Jump in ahead of that. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve talked to the folks from the Y for a long time by talking about all the things that they do. So we’re gonna be Randallstown next week. We’re gonna be readers crab house and racers down later on in the month. I’ve also, I got some interesting things going with the crab cake tour next month that I’ll talk about. Also. My 27 favorite things to eat in the city begins on August 3, which is our 27th anniversary. It’s all brought to you by the Baltimore, Maryland lottery, our friends at Curia wellness and liberty, pure solutions.
Katie Pumphrey 46:16
Thanks coming by. Very cool. Yeah, thanks. Fade leaves. Thanks. Thanks for having I
Nestor Aparicio 46:19
8didn’t expect you to say, oh, swimming in their inner harbor today. So I’m glad you can make it come have a crab cake down here. Families. I’m Nestor. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 task of Baltimore, talking fish, catfish, swimming in the harbor and eating those crab cakes. We’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us. You.
