On Our Cover

Cosmo girls, watch out!

Joe Oakes, author of this month’s The New Centurions, has been guiding swims from Alcatraz for more than twenty years. During that time he has led more than ten thousand swimmers across the icy waters of San Francisco Bay and has done the swim him self "39 times, I think. Maybe one of these days I’ll get it right."

A six-time veteran "Ironman" finisher, marathon and ultra-distance runner, Oakes "retired" from those sports to open water swimming at the age of 65. As he says, "you don’t get pounded as badly." He has completed a non-motorized circumnavigation of the earth by running, bicycling, climbing, sailing, kayaking, dog mushing and swimming across North America, the Atlantic Ocean, Europe, Asia and the Bering Strait. The high point of the journey was becoming the first person ever to swim from Russia to Alaska.

Oakes has been a contributor to Swim Fitness Magazine, Ultrarunning, Runner’s World, Marathon And Beyond, Sea Kayaker Magazine, several technical publications and San Francisco area newspapers. He writes a monthly adventure column that appears in Britan’s Saga Magazine. 

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