Open Water Swimmer and Coach Carly Miller Finds Peace and Purpose Off the South Bay Shore
Against the tide.
- CategoryPeople
- Written byScott Sanford Tobis
- Photographed byKen Pagliaro
The adage that adversity builds character might seem antiquated these days, but in the case of South Bay resident Carly Miller, it defines her. Upon meeting Carly in Hermosa Beach by The Strand (in her native habitat), it was immediately clear that she is a fighter—highly intelligent, tenacious and unwilling to accept defeat. Her legendary achievements in the Pacific may have endeared her to locals, but she’s far from the typical beach rat-turned-marathon swimmer.
Originally from the East Coast, Carly always loved the water—the peaceful feeling that pervades her skin and the overall sense of freedom. Her time spent in pools as a young girl can be attributed to her father, an avid swimmer who taught her at a very young age to embrace the water.
Although she swam with school teams and clubs, she was keenly aware of her limitations in a fiercely competitive sport and never pursued it collegiately. And despite many years spent in pools, she had never swam in the ocean until about eight years ago.
After losing her beloved mother, Emily, to cancer, Carly endured a prophylactic double mastectomy to avoid the same fate. She struggled for several years with addiction and depression, and then one day in 2016 she made a decision. She had recently turned 40 and felt a compelling need to push herself. She wanted to regain the sense of freedom that the water had offered her when she was a young girl.
Inspired by the memory of her mother and by Chris Crutcher’s seminal sports/swimming book Stotan!, she attempted something completely new: an open water swim. Carly ventured out to the Manhattan Beach Pier that morning to meet up with a group of strangers she had heard about online. She knew very little about what she would soon face.
Despite being a strong swimmer in chlorinated water, her first experience in the ocean proved harrowing and isolating when the group sped ahead of her. “Those triathletes basically left me to die in the ocean,” she remembers. But she didn’t let that deter her.
A chance meeting that day with a friendly and garrulous Scot named Johnnie turned into an invite to a far more supportive ocean swim group. “Honestly, I have no clue where I would be today if I hadn’t met Johnnie that day,” Carly says. “Being surrounded by an incredibly supportive group of people really helped motivate and inspire me to dream big.”
“When I’m in the open water is when I feel closest to my mom. The ocean helped me heal the grief and depression. Swimming in her honor and memory for a cause close to my heart gives me purpose.”
Flash-forward eight years, and Carly has become a sought-after private swim coach in addition to working as an assistant swim coach at Chapman University. She finished the California Triple Crown of open water—Anacapa Island, Catalina Channel and the length of Lake Tahoe—and became the sixth person to swim the 27-mile width of Santa Monica Bay from Point Dume in Malibu to Rocky Point in Palos Verdes.
Recently she won her age group at the Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier Swim, one of many solo swims and races. Along the way, Carly has used her marathon swim events to fundraise for the nonprofit FORCE, supporting families facing hereditary cancer. She has raised more than any other individual for the charity.
“When I’m in the open water is when I feel closest to my mom,” she shares. “The ocean helped me heal the grief and depression. Swimming in her honor and memory for a cause close to my heart gives me purpose.”
With a supportive husband on her side (quite literally sometimes, in a boat during the challenging voyages) and a group of fellow ocean swimmers and friends, Carly has managed to achieve the seemingly impossible at her age. Next up she is planning to face the notoriously difficult English Channel swim in 2026. With this accomplishment she will complete the Original Triple Crown of open water swimming—the English Channel, the Catalina Channel and 20 Bridges/Manhattan Island—an extraordinary achievement for any athlete.
The next time you’re taking a walk along the Hermosa Pier, look at the waves crashing against the shore. Peer a little further out, and if you see a blond, muscular, tenacious figure fighting against the current to get to open water, it might be Carly. When she’s not teaching new generations of swimmers, she’s planning her next open water adventure—undaunted by the difficulty of navigating the brutal and majestic reality of the Pacific.
“I enjoy the challenge and the concept of doing something that only a few other people have ever done,” she says. “The most challenging swims are the ones that make me a better swimmer, a better human and a better coach.”
