Peter Hayden

President

Peter is the Sr. Vice President of Engineering for a Los Angeles based commercial real estate developer. He awakens at 4:30 every weekday morning to commute 60 miles to LA’s Fairfax District and fit in a 2-hour workout with the Meridian Swim Club Masters before heading across the street to work. On the weekends, he can usually be found swimming in Laguna Beach waters with the Oak Streakers.

A Los Angeles native, Peter has been a competitive swimmer since age 8, and until 2011, had never done anything longer than a 2 mile pier swim. That changed in 2012, when he completed the 6-mile Semana Nautica and the 12.6-mile Distance Challenge. In 2013, Peter became the 283rd person to successfully cross the Catalina Channel. In 2014, Peter received the Marathon Swimmers Federation’s Yudovin Award, which honors the single most adventurous swim of the year, for his record-setting circumnavigation of Anacapa Island, followed immediately by crossing the Santa Barbara Channel to the Ventura coastline, a total distance of approximately 24 miles.

Peter coached the Pacific Aquatic Masters while attending the University of Pacific in Stockton, CA, and married his star swimmer, Carol Hayden. Peter and Carol live in Laguna Hills, CA; their two sons live in Oakland, CA and Gutau, Austria.

Serving since 2015; President since 2023

Amy Appelhans Gubser

Amy grew up in Southern California where she excelled in Jr. Lifeguards in LA County beaches as well as swimming for San Pedro YMCA. She swam at University of Michigan from 1986-1990, receiving a BS degree in kinesiology.  Amy also was an LA County ocean lifeguard from 1987-1994 where she met her husband Greg Gubser. The Gubsers relocated to San Francisco when Greg was stationed with the US Coast Guard.
Taking time off to raise a family, Amy also worked full time as a Pediatric intensive care nurse at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.  Missing the connection and community around the ocean, Greg and Amy co-founded Surf Camp Pacifica introducing water awareness, ocean appreciation, ocean safety, and surfing instruction to children and families in Pacifica as well as the greater San Francisco Bay community.

In 2014, Amy rediscovered the open water swim community at the South End Rowing Club (SERC). SERC was the perfect catalyst to spark her open water swim career: Alcatraz (countless times), Strait of Gibraltar, length of Lake Tahoe, double Farallon relay, Catalina Channel, SCAR (2x), mainland to Anacapa, Monterey Bay, Santa Monica Bay, North Channel, Round trip Angel Island, circumnavigation of Catalina relay, 20 Bridges, Maui Nui channels-all 3, Golden Gate Bridge to Farallon Islands, and circumnavigation of Anacapa. Amy also completed the California Triple Crown in 2017

Serving since 2025

Jane Cairns

Vice President

Jane grew up swimming on the Mission Viejo Nadadores swim team from 1978-1988. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in Environmental Studies in 1993 while swimming on the Gauchos swim team for 4 years. Jane was named SPMA Open Water Swimmer of the Year in 1997. She has participated in numerous Catalina Channel crossing relays and is a member of the team that still holds the fastest CCCF single and double crossing records. Jane is also a veteran paddleboard racer. She has raced the Catalina Channel 15 times, 8 of which in the 32 mile Catalina Classic and placing 5 times in the men’s division. She has also raced the 32 mile Molokai paddleboard race 3 times.

Jane is very involved in the aquatic community in Santa Barbara. She helps run a weekly summer ocean swim race and has been the director of the SB 6 mile ocean swim race for the past 10 years and still holds the women’s course record. She is currently getting back into swimming shape to hopefully soon start training to swim the Catalina Channel solo.

Serving since 2010

Karina Garcia

Karina grew up in Ventura County and continues to live there. She works for Ventura County Human Services Agency. Karina joined a local swim club at age 11 and swam through high school. After college and then living abroad in Chile for a few years, Karina returned to swimming joining the Ventura County Masters. There she made friends with a group of open water swimmers (Deep Enders) who dragged her to the beach one Saturday morning. Despite being a little scared, Karina soon fell in love with ocean swimming because of the focus on endurance and the excitement of the open water. After learning about the accomplishments of her Ventura friends, she wanted to give it a try as well. Karina’s first channel swim was the Catalina Channel in 2016 and since then she has set a new goal each year.

Serving since 2021

Gary King

Gary King grew up on the beach in Southern California and enjoyed ocean sports such as swimming, surfing, snorkeling, SCUBA diving, and sailing.

Gary spent four years in the U.S. Navy, received his BS from Pepperdine, and currently lives with his wife, Kathi, two daughters, and two granddaughters in Simi Valley, California.

Gary is a Lifetime Member and Observer for both the Santa Barbara Channel Swimming Association (SBCSA) and the Catalina Channel Swimming Federation (CCSF), a USMS Level 2 Coach, and a USMS Open Water Certified Safety Director.

As a triathlete and open water swimmer since 1980, his highlights include Coronado 12 mile, Seal Beach Rough Water 10 Mile, Santa Barbara 6 mile (3 times), Catalina Channel Relay, Alcatraz (17 times), and SCAR Canyon Lake 9 mile.

Recently retired from his career in Quality Management, Gary now focuses on his passion to mentor swimmers to help transitioning from pool to open water, dropping wetsuits for skins, navigating, open water racing, feedings, etc. Gary organizes and mentors a group of swimmers in Ventura County for ocean swims several days per week with distances ranging from 1-3 miles per day.

Serving since 2023

John McCarthy

John is Vice President and serves on the board of a Santa Barbara based R&D company. He trains in the ocean year round in the Santa Barbara area.

John learned to swim as a kid in the ocean at Camps Bay South Africa and Laguna Beach California, but never competed in swimming. Instead he did cross country running, volleyball indoors and beach, collegiate ultimate frisbee, and then as an “adult” USCF road race cycling. Eventually there was a bike crash that forced a long rehabilitation, and that eventually became pool swimming with Sundays in the ocean.

In March of 2020 the loose band of Sunday ocean swimmers formed Swim Wild Santa Barbara and organized a schedule of ocean swimming that brought a large number of people in the area into ocean swimming every day of the week. Soon SBCSA board member Jane Cairns joined the group. With all of that ocean swimming swim distances became longer, one thing led to another, and…

With Jane Cairns, John has done a circumnavigation of Anacapa Island, a two-way crossing of the Anacapa Passage between Anacapa and Santa Cruz Island, and the Anacapa to mainland crossing of the Santa Barbara Channel.

Serving since 2025