THE SWIMMERS.(Brief Article)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 09-SEP-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

"When you swim in the Hudson, everyone thinks you're nuts, but native New Yorkers really think you're nuts," Teddy Jefferson said on a recent hot afternoon, while floating on his back in the river, off the Surfside Marina, at Chelsea Piers. It was high tide, and the water, warm, brackish, and buoyant, smelled of the sea. A tug's wake slapped at the pilings. "I don't like pools," he said. "I'm allergic to chlorine."

A few years ago, the Department of Environmental Conservation declared the Hudson swimmable (with some caveats), but Jefferson, as one of the founders of New York City's guerrilla swimming lobby, Swim the Apple, still meets with pockets of resistance. His wife, Ladan,...

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