THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701230309
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAT DOOLEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 137 lines
For 40-year-old Michael Bond, swimming the Chesapeake Bay has been a lifelong dream.
As a kid growing up in Norfolk's Bayview section, Bond often looked out over the Bay, thinking that one day he would swim it.
On May 30, he plans to endure the currents, swells and chilly temperatures to log about 15 miles from Fisherman's Island on the Eastern Shore to the Duck-In at Lynnhaven Inlet in Virginia Beach to raise money for local children with muscular dystrophy.
``It's a goal I set, and I want to accomplish it,'' said Bond, a former Navy SEAL who measures 6-foot-2 and weighs a solid 200 pounds.
On Wednesday afternoon, Bond watched as about a dozen local children - kids with MD and their siblings - visited Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base for a demonstration by SEAL Team 8.
The kids saw a video on the training it takes to be a SEAL, the Navy's elite warfare group, and some of the equipment they carry.
Wheelchairs huddled up to a display of gray metal radios and antennae, 9-year-old Jason Green of Portsmouth and 11-year-old Matthew Walter of Norfolk fiddled with the equipment, and alternated ``oohs'' and ``aahs.''
Bond said he wants to draw the public's attention to the struggle of kids children with MD - the name given to a group of about 40 muscle-destroying disorders - by swimming for them.
But he also wanted to share with them the excitement of the Navy's warriors from the sea.
Bond has always had a thirst for challenge. In 1994, he was a leader in a proposed Ocean View secession from Norfolk. He has twice run unsuccessfully for Norfolk City Council. His first bid came at the age of 19, only a year after his graduation from Norview High School.
Following in the footsteps of his older brother, Norman, Michael Bond entered the Navy's SEAL training program at age 22.
He learned about dive physics, sleep deprivation, push-ups, sand, water and cold. Within six months, he was able to swim 6 miles in the ocean - in 54-degree waters. That's far short of the 15-mile swim he plans now.
But being a SEAL, Bond said, taught him ``that nothing is impossible.''
Bond now owns a computer software company called Quantrex, on Shore Drive in Virginia Beach.
Divorced, he has two stepchildren and coaches Little League. He keeps in SEAL shape by playing softball and working out with weights.
Bond was moved to help the Muscular Dystrophy Association about two years ago, he said, when he began designing computer-software programs for doctors in a neuromuscular disorders clinic at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk. On his visits, Bond would see children in the waiting room - in wheelchairs, with no control of their muscles, sometimes unable to speak.
``But they would always seem to be happy,'' he said. ``They would always seem to be smiling.''
He thought about his own ability to play sports, about the Little Leaguers he coaches and a friend's brother, who died of MD a few years ago.
And he thought of his brother Rick, also a Navy SEAL, who died at age 23 in an accident in a submarine decompression chamber in 1981. Michael Bond, who was on the rescue team called to the scene, spent 30 hours trying to revive his brother.
He proposed the swim to draw attention to kids with MD, and to inspire other people to action, Bond said. He helped form an advisory board that's coordinating the event and raising funds.
Bond's company has set up an Internet site for pledges, and pledge sheets will be distributed in the community. He hopes his swim will raise as much as $50,000 through donations pledged in lump sums or per mile.
The Hampton Roads Muscular Dystrophy Association in Norfolk - whose 900 member families live from the Eastern Shore to South Hampton Roads to Williamsburg - will collect on pledges after the event. The money will be used to help local children, said Tracy Ashley, association director.
But Bond will have to complete the swim first.
He's been training for about a year - swimming 2 miles and working out with weights for about 1 1/2 hours six days a week at Bally's in Virginia Beach.
He begins each session with a warm-up, then works either his shoulders and arms or his legs to ``complete exhaustion.'' After that, it's into the 25-yard-long pool for 176 laps. To his hands he attaches yellow plastic ``paddles,'' or weighted, webbed gloves to build endurance and overcome the swells and currents he'll encounter in the Bay.
His diet - ``the fuel to run the engines,'' he says - generally is high in fruits, vegetables and other complex carbohydrates.
Sometimes, though, he's too hungry to be choosy. One recent evening after working out, Bond downed ``a big, giant bowl of chili,'' two ice cream sandwiches, a bag of popcorn, some pears, oranges and plums, two tomato sandwiches on rye, and several cookies.
Bond said he likely will be in the Bay for about eight hours, swimming the crawl - his fastest stroke - for most of the distance. He'll alternate with a side stroke.
He would not be the first to swim the Bay, but believes his route may be one of the longest. Most swimmers cross from Fisherman's Island to Cape Henry, he said. That's about 11 miles.
``I'm gonna swim whatever it takes to get across the Bay,'' he said confidently.
He'll be accompanied by friends in two kayaks and a boat equipped to keep him on course and measure the miles he swims.
There will be no clock measuring his progress. ``But there is a limit to how long I can stay in 65-degree water,'' he said.
For energy, he'll sip a high-protein sports beverage throughout the swim. A triathlon suit will help protect against cold and hypothermia.
To avoid tedium and cramping, he'll vary arm and leg movements slightly or switch strokes.
Aside from making sure he's not fighting the currents, Bond has to plan his swim around two shipping channels.
``You can't be dilly-dallying around,'' he said. ``There will be ships coming out of there at 30 to 35 miles an hour.''
Weather - known to change abruptly on the Bay - will be key as well.
``I'm hoping it's one of those nice spring days where the waters are flat first thing in the morning, and there's no waves hardly at all,'' he said. ``A wave breaking over your face when you're trying to take a breath can make it very difficult to swim.''
If he makes it to shore - and he will, Bond said - a party will await him at Duck-In. He hopes some of the MD children will be there, too.
And instead of casting a daydream out over the Bay, Bond will emerge from it, dream in hand. MEMO: For more information or to make pledges, call the Muscular
Dystrophy Association at 461-0177 or Quantrex at 464-0125. Or, log onto
the Quantrex Internet site at: http://www.quantrex.com
The swim is not a Navy SEAL project. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
IAN MARTIN
The Virginian-Pilot
Michael Bond, 40, plans to swim 15 miles across the Chesapeake Bay
in May to raise money for a local muscular dystrophy charity. The
former Navy SEAL will cross from Fisherman's Island on the Eastern
Shore to the Lynnhaven Inlet in Virginia Beach. Bond hopes his swim
inspires other people to action.
IAN MARTIN
The Virginian-Pilot
Michael Bond stands in the center of friends and family of children
with muscular dystrophy. Bond is swimming across the Chesapeake Bay
to raise money for children with MD, like Matthew Walter, 11, of
Norfolk, far right, and Jason Green, 9, of Portsmouth, sitting in
front of Bond.
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