Swimming with the sharks

Deirdre Newman

Farzam Afshar has been on both sides of the fine line between

excitement and fear.

The Newport Beach resident completed a grueling swim in the chilly

San Francisco Bay to raise money for a camp for children with cancer

even though he had never swum in the ocean before.

The experience enabled him to transcend his fear and do something

positive for children.

“I’ve taken the stand that children all over the world should be

taken care of,” Afshar said. “They are the most precious commodity

our society has.”

The adventure started out innocently enough.

At a silent auction last winter for an Andersen Elementary School

fund-raiser -- the school Afshar’s daughter attends -- he randomly

signed up for the Sharkfest Alcatraz race, not really expecting to

get it. It turned out he was the only one on the sheet and would be

swimming with the sharks for a mere $65.

He decided to turn the experience into a fund-raiser since he had

already committed to raising $20,000 for Camp Make-A-Dream, a free

camp in Montana for children and young adults with cancer. The

fund-raising commitment came from his job as a consultant for the

collision repair industry, which decided to raise half a million

dollars for the camp.

Part of the Alcatraz swim package was coaching by Carol Jewell, a

kindergarten teacher at Anderson who has done Sharkfest a few times.

Although Afshar had built up his stamina as a runner who completed

marathons, he did not have a lot of practice swimming.

“When we started, the most I could do is one-and-a-half laps in

the pool,” Afshar said.

So the two started training in March, swimming a couple of days a

week at the Newport Harbor High pool. Eventually, the training

progressed to pool swimming six days a week and ocean swimming three

evenings a week.

His first ocean swim was intimidating, Afshar recounted.

“Everyone had a wetsuit on except me and [Jewell],”Afshar said. “I

was going on trust. I jumped in the water and it was cold....All of a

sudden, I’m too far away [from the shore], having an anxiety attack.

I thought I was going to die.”

But with Jewell’s encouragement, Afshar survived the initiation

and emerged from the ocean with a strong sense of pride.

“I got back and felt ‘Wow, I really accomplished something,’”

Afshar said. “Like when you do something you never thought you could

do. The Alcatraz [swim] became more realistic.”

Throughout the training, Afshar was supported by friends and

family in his swimming and fund-raising efforts. He said he was moved

by the community’s generosity, as when one family who was not very

well sent him a check for $30.

“We are so much like one another,” Afshar said. “When it comes

down to things like this, we still have the same agenda.”

When it was finally time for the race in August, Afshar arrived

with an entourage, including three brothers from the Bay Area and

another brother and sister from Southern California. During the

1.6-mile race, Afshar suppressed his fear with perseverance.

“As the fear came up, I kind of thought about it and moved on,” he

said. “I was in action with my commitment.”

It took him one hour and 20 minutes to complete the race and he

raised more than $10,000 in the process.

Since he is only halfway to his funding commitment, Afshar said he

is still soliciting contributions.

Jewell said she was impressed by Afshar’s resolve to accomplish

his physical and financial goal.

“I think that’s so unique,” Jewell said. “What a wonderful person

he is.”

And it was such a positive coaching experience that Jewell said

she will definitely put the race package on the silent auction again

this year.