Parents' Guide to Kim Swims

Kim Chambers is a young New Zealand ballerina who suffered a freak accident that sidelined her physically but introduced her to swimming. In KIM SWIMS, friends describe her as a terrible swimmer who had lots of determination to become better. In short order she discovers that open-water swimming, a sport she would never have tried before her accident, is her passion. She starts training for more and more difficult swims and soon has completed the Oceans Seven, a series of difficult worldwide swims that subject participants to extreme cold, fatigue, jellyfish attacks, and sharks, the equivalent in the marathon swimming world to elite mountain climbers' Seven Summits quest. (Kim didn't take a warm shower for six months in preparation for swimming in cold waters.) While living in San Francisco, she decides to become the first woman to make the extremely difficult swim to the Farallon Islands, 30 miles off the coast, a feat that will take a good 17 hours of unbroken effort in the water. Only a few men have braved the cold 63-degree water, high waves, and shark threats to accomplish that goal. Waiting for proper conditions and with a crew of 12 and a friend, Simon Dominguez, attempting it a few days before her, Kim waits her turn. Learning from Simon's just falling short, the team decides to reverse the swim, start at the islands, and finish at the Golden Gate Bridge in the San Francisco harbor. To ward off sharks, she wears a device that emits shark-unfriendly sounds and swims between two accompanying boats. The film ends as she expresses gratitude to her supportive team and mother rather than taking credit for her own hard work.