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What would make Paul Ellis, 59, want to swim up to 55 miles in shark-infested waters?
BYLINE: Pamela LeBlanc AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
May 28, 2002
When Paul Ellis tells his friends what he's planning to do in July, they tell him he's crazy.
"Get a motorcycle instead," they say. "Don't you know the sharks are going to eat you?"
But Ellis isn't listening. And come 3 a.m. July 16, the 59-year-old president of Austin Business College will slip into the waters at the north end of the island of Cozumel, Mexico, and head north toward Cancun on the Yucatan Peninsula. Depending on where he comes ashore, that could be as far as 55 miles.
Along the way, a film crew will shoot footage for a documentary about Ellis'
quest -- and his mission to tell the world about the deterioration of the coral reefs.
For this gray-haired grandfather, it's not just about one man's perseverance and spirit, his quest to swim across a shark-infested channel. It's about using that swim to remind the world that if we don't do something to keep the reefs healthy, they'll be lost forever.
A Different Reef Today
Ellis glides back and forth across Barton Springs, wearing a thin wet suit to keep him warm and a pair of long blue fins to propel him through the clear, spring-fed water.
When he climbs out just before lunch, he's logged 5 miles. He pushes a mask and snorkel off his face, then grins at the small crowd that's gathered. He hugs Olympic swimmer Josh Ilica, who's providing moral support along with nutrition and stroke-technique tips, and claps his 27-year-old son Colin on the back.
To understand why Ellis is doing the swim, you have to understand a little bit about him.
An ex-Marine aviator who flew helicopter combat missions in Vietnam, Ellis returned from war with a desire to know more about the world around him. He loaded his family into a van and drove from North Carolina to Florida, then west along the Gulf Coast and south into Mexico. He drove over hard-packed sand roads, exploring the shoreline all the way to the Yucatan Peninsula.
And there he marveled at the clouds of fish and pristine beauty he found off a little island called Isla Mujeres.
Three years ago, when he returned to Isla Mujeres, he was shocked by the lack of ocean life.
"Isla Mujeres was a catastrophe, an unmitigated disaster," he said of the reef off that island just north of busy Cancun. "I was so disappointed and so stunned."
The more he learned about the reefs, the more he fretted. Much of the world's sea life depends on the reefs for survival. "It's immensely important, and it staggers the imagination the catastrophe that will befall the earth if the reef is destroyed," he said.
The sadness turned to anger, the anger to resolve. "I told myself I've got to figure out something to do to say what I feel about it," he said.
That's when the idea for the swim came to him. Ellis says he was meant to make the swim, that he's been tapped by a higher power to do it as a way to increase awareness about the plight of the reefs. He's also certain that if people knew how they were impacting the reefs, they'd make an effort to save them.
"I'm not a scientist, and I'm not a marine biologist, but I love to swim,"
he said. "I'll put one arm in front of the other and take 60,000 strokes -- every one a little prayer that we can rethink our priorities."
He's also doing it for his friend Juan, who runs a bar called Coconuts in Cozumel.
Years ago, Juan and an older man were pitched into the sea when their boat sank in the channel between Cozumel and Cancun. Juan's friend died of exposure, but he never let him go. He held tight to his body as they drifted through the ocean and beached, 30 hours later, in Cancun.
A Dangerous Journey
In July, Ellis will fly to Cozumel, where he is renting a villa for family and friends.
He will start his journey at night, swimming over Barracuda Reef and into the current, which sweeps south to north toward Cancun.
If everything is perfect, he could make it to the mainland in 11 hours. But that's not likely. A 3-knot current could turn that 11-hour swim into a 20-hour odyssey. And the only way he'll finish, he says, is through a partnership with nature.
He'll swim hard to get into the current that will help carry him north, then swim hard to get out of it. In between, he'll have to endure hours of exposure to salt water and thoughts of the sharks that feed in the channel and might be lurking beneath him.
One expert says Ellis is taking a risk by swimming without a shark cage.
George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, says sharks have a competitive advantage over humans, especially at night. They use smell, sound, pressure differences and electromagnetic sensors to hunt, while humans can't even see well when it's dark.
"It's a dangerous thing to do," Burgess said. "This gentleman would be well advised to consider taking a cage, or if he's not going to do that, to have lots of support people around him all the time."
But Ellis doesn't like to talk about the possibility of anything disrupting his swim. He'll rely on his sons, Colin, Paul Matthew and Tres, who will ride alongside him in a boat, to watch for lightning, jellyfish and sharks.
They'll cut short the trip if it gets too dangerous.
"It's my job to finish the swim," Ellis said. "Juan, who floated with his dead friend, showed me it can be done. When I take off, I'll say, 'See you guys on the other side,' and I don't mean that metaphorically."
While his family is concerned, they're also supportive. "I know my dad,"
Colin Ellis said. "I know the reality of when he decides to do something big. It's hard not to use one of his expressions, 'the cosmic flyswatter of life.' If this is where he is when it gets him, that's where he'll be -- in the channel between Cozumel and the Yucatan."
Whatever happens, a documentary crew will capture it on film. Ellis has chartered two 50-foot boats to carry the six-person film crew, two doctors and family members responsible for steering him in the right direction.
Videographers will shoot day and night under water, from a helicopter and on the boat.
"When he told me he was doing this swim, I thought, 'This is typical Paul,"'
said Mita Gosdin of Summer Fling Productions, who has known Ellis since 1994, when they worked together on a committee that helped create the Texas Workforce Commission. "He's grabbing onto another issue he cares about -- the coral reef. This is his cry of 'pay attention' and 'look what we're doing out here.' "
The project will cost an estimated $145,000, and the group is seeking donations to help pay the tab. When it's finished late this year, Gosdin and Julia Hilder, co-producer and director, will pitch the film to cable television networks.
Jumping In
Ellis, a regular exerciser who has traded his running shoes for a swimsuit, has never been a competitive athlete. But at 5-foot-10-inches and 190 pounds, he's fit.
To prepare, he's been training six days a week at Barton Springs. In the last year and a half, he's logged 2,500 miles in the water, including a 15-mile swim down Lake Austin and several long ocean swims off the coast of North Carolina.
It's that dedication that amazes Ilica, the Olympic swimmer who swam on a team with one of Ellis' sons in Austin and went on to represent Mexico in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. "Swimmers rarely get drive like that unless they've been swimming 10 or 15 years competitively," Ilica said. "He just pushes himself. This 59-year-old man is going to swim 20 to 55 miles."
Ellis is ready to go.
"One time I got into the water at Barton Springs and my hands started to shake. I just can't wait to do it. I'll be so glad when July 16 comes and I slip into the water."
Copyright 2002 The Austin American Statesman Austin American-Statesman (Texas)
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