Ten veterans, active-duty military members, first responders, and their spouses spent a week at the Newport Aquatic Center in mid-June preparing for one of the most grueling open-water endurance challenges on the West Coast: a solo paddle from Catalina Island to Huntington Beach on Veterans Day.

The Class of 2026 OpenWater Performance Camp brought participants from as far as North Carolina and Virginia Beach to the NAC's back bay facility at 1 White Cliffs Drive. The center has partnered with OpenWater for years, hosting the nonprofit's Performance Camp, a women's program, and a Memorial Day paddle race. In 2025, OpenWater's first all-women's team completed a crossing from Catalina to Newport Beach with NAC support.

For a week, the 2026 cohort trained on stand-up paddleboards and prone boards (paddled while lying flat), learned to handle outrigger canoes in open ocean swells, and sat through sessions on breathwork, CO2 tolerance, sleep, and nutrition. Each participant chose their craft for the November crossing, then began approximately 20 weeks of structured training.

"The Class of '26 has shown us the value in returning to play, fun, and joy as adults," Whitney Erickson, executive director of OpenWater, said in the NAC's June 16 blog post. "And what better place to do that than the water."

The goal: a solo channel crossing of more than 30 miles on Wednesday, November 11, 2026. The paddle launches from Two Harbors on Catalina Island and finishes at the Huntington Beach Pier.

OpenWater, founded in 2019, built the program to address mental health among those who serve. According to the organization's website, more than 30% of first responders experience conditions related to post-traumatic stress and depression. The crossing is the capstone of the training cycle that launched with the June camp.

The program leans heavily on mentorship. Past crossing finishers return each year to guide the new cohort through training and race day. Erickson said mentors come back because the crossing made an impact on them and they want to support someone else's journey.

The Class of 2026 has roughly 19 weeks of open-water training ahead before the November 11 crossing at Huntington Beach.