Emilio Casanueva
Founder, President and Treasurer

Emilio Casanueva is an architect and building contractor, owner of Casanueva Design•Build in Santa Barbara, California. Emilio's immediate family includes 5 children, 6 grandchildren, and a brother in Santiago, Chile.

Emilio learned to swim in the ocean when he was 5 years old in Zapallar, Chile. He has been swimming all his life. Emilio belongs to California Masters and has participated in numerous swim meets. He is also a member of the South End Rowing Club in San Francisco where he swims frequently. In the last 20 years, Emilio has participated in the Point Bonita swim (10k) across the San Francisco Bay 3 times, swam around Alcatraz from Aquatic Park, and has completed numerous swims in Santa Barbara, Mexico, and Chile. In 2007 he attempted to swim from Anacapa Island to the mainland.  On the 17th of October 2008 he will be back at Anacapa – there is some unfinished business to take care of!

Emilio is the founder of the SBCSA and Ocean Ducks Swimming Adventures and one of the original organizers of the annual Santa Barbara Trans-Channel relay crossing to benefit ocean-caring non-profits.

Dean White
Secretary

Dean, a California native, has been in close contact with the ocean since his early days as a surfer in Santa Cruz, Ca. where he went to School. Father of two: Ted an accomplished skipper and participant in international regattas, and Kelly a star in her own right in the game of soccer. Dean has been swimming in Santa Barbara with the Oceanducks steadily for the last 4 years, participated in the first Relay Crossing in 2004 and in July 2008 completed the 6 mile Semana Nautica Swim. He works in the Physics department of UCSB as an engineer and is involved in international projects that take him to Geneva quite often. Finally Dean has been a sailor all his life and today a dedicated skipper. He sailed the boat for Paul Lewis in 2006 when Paul did his solo swim.

Ned Denison

Ned is the first member of the SBCSA Board of Directors to swim the Santa Barbara channel. He completed the 20 mile, San Pedro Point, Santa Cruz Island to Hollywood Beach, Oxnard, swim on 4 October 2006 in a record time of 10 hours and 27 minutes.

His early aquatic years were spent as a seven time All-American water polo goalie with teams in New York City; Berkelely, California and London England. Ned started in the open water in 2000 with two Alcatraz swims before relocating to Cork Ireland in 2001. Now part of Cork Masters Swim Club he is a key organiser of the famous Lee Swim, Sandycove Seals and organized 15 local swimmers to take on the English Channel in 2005 and 94 Irish swimmers to swim Alcatraz in 2006.

Ned committed to a Santa Barbara Channel attempt after completing an English Channel solo in September 2005 in 12 hours and 47 minutes. As part of his 2006 preparations he completed an 8 mile Inisbofin sea swim, the 8 mile Lake Champlain Swim and the first ever 16 mile Great Island swim around Cobh.

Commenting on his Santa Barbara swim: "My wife and I were absolutely taken in by the city and hosted in fine fashion by the other Board members, kayakers and three members of the Swimming Hall of Fame: Alison and Freda Streeter and David Yudovin. On the day the sun was fantastic and the playful seals and majestic manta rays were the best aquatic life I have even seen on a swim. I was 15 pounds heavier before my English Channel swim - so the colder water in Santa Barbara made this the tougher of the two swims."

Carina Bruwer

Since taking up competitive Open Water Swimming in January 2003, South African native Carina Bruwer has made her mark on the record books. She holds the female record for the fastest Gibraltar Straits crossing, the overall record for the fastest swim around Robben Island, the record for the Cape Point swim, and is the fasted South African woman to swim the English Channel, England to France. To date, she is the only swimmer to have rounded both the southern-most and the northern-most tips of Africa, and the only person to successfully swim around Danger Point. Carina is also an accomplished flautist, one of the most highly publicized young musicians in South Africa. Today, Carina is looking out for interesting marathon swims all over the world. Read more at www.carinabruwer.com.

Scott Zornig

Graduate of CSU Chico Business School in 1981. Current member of the Capo Masters Swim team located in San Juan Capistrano. USMS All American in 2002. 90th person to swim the Catalina Channel solo in 1999. 5th person to swim the Santa Barbara Channel solo in 2001. Current record holder for swimming from Anacapa Island to mainland. Swam 28.5 miles around Manhattan Island in N.Y. in 2002. Member of a relay which recorded the first swim from San Clemente Island to San Clemente in 2002...a distance of 60 miles. Current holder of three long distance, open water swimming records. Competed in over 100 ocean swimming events. Participated in High School and Collegiate swimming and water polo.

Penny Palfrey

I was born in Scarborough, England, and started swimming at the age of 9. As a teenager, I represented England in middle distance freestyle events. I migrated to Australia just prior to my 20th birthday and eventually settled in North Queensland.
After a 15 year break and three children later, I needed an interest outside of the family home and got back in the pool. Realising I was still competitive, I put in some solid training and was selected to compete for Australia in the 25K open water in 1993.
These days, I still like to compete, but I also enjoy the challenges posed by crossings. Open water swimming has taken us to some very interesting parts of the world, and given us the opportunity to meet some amazing people who share our passion. Other main achievements include :

• Two successful English Channel crossings. I received 3 awards from the CSA for the 2006 crossing.
• I am the oldest female to swim Cook Strait, in New Zealand.
• Manhattan Island Marathon Swim. Overall winner in 2007.
• Rottnest Channel Swim. Seven race crossings, and twice overall winner.
• Strait of Gibraltar.
• Multiple podium finishes in Australian 25K nationals.
• Multiple FINA masters world records.

Chris Palfrey

I was born in Melbourne, Australia and moved to Townsville, North Queensland for quality of life reasons. I never really swam at all until age 30, when I took up triathlons. After a few years, and an assortment of injuries, I decided swimming was a bit kinder on the body. I also prefer long distance open water races and crossings. Apart from the challenges, I also like the pioneering aspect of open water. Even in the 21st century, there are many stretches of water like the Santa Barbara Channel, which hardly any body has swum. That makes our sport really exciting. Penny and I finance our open water swimming addiction and travels by running an accounting practice. My main swimming achievements include :

• Manhattan Island marathon swim finisher.
• Rottnest Channel Swim. Seven race crossings.
• Strait of Gibraltar.

Seth Streeter

Seth is a passionate ocean, earth and people lover. He was raised in CO and became closely connected with Santa Barbara and the ocean when he attended UCSB for his undergraduate studies. Seth is an active father of two children, Sage and Hansen, and is involved with various business and non-profit organizations.

Seth has participated in sports his whole life and over the past decade has built an affinity for ocean-swimming via various triathlon and swimming events. Examples of this include the LA marathon, the Coeur d’Alene Ironman triathlon, the LA triathlon, Santa Barbara triathlon, Carpinteria triathlon, Alcatraz swim, 1 and 3 mile Semana Nautica swims and the inaugural 6x6 Santa Barbara Channel relay swim (26 miles, 6 relay swimmers from Santa Cruz island in 2007). Seth became active with the Ocean Ducks in 2006 when he participated in the 2006 Channel Swim fundraiser and he has acted as the event MC and radio and TV promoter since this time.

Seth is the Co-Founder and President of Mission Wealth Management, a nationally recognized wealth advisory firm headquartered in Santa Barbara. Seth brings entrepreneurial insight, community connections and public speaking/media relations skills to the SBCSA.

Seth strongly believes in the SBCSA vision of making the Santa Barbara Channel one of the premier channel crossing venues in the world!