Swim coach Steve Hyde celebrates 76th birthday by swimming to the end of the Hermosa Pier, and back

by Kevin Cody

Sunday morning, in front of the rainbow lifeguard tower in Hermosa Beach, swim coach Steve Hyde celebrated his 76th birthday by swimming bareback in the 62 degree water to the end of the pier and back. He bodysurfed the last stretch to the beach.

In years past, the 1,000 yard swim would barely qualify as a warmup for the open ocean swimmer. Hyde competed for over 40 years in the Dwight Crum Pier to Pier Two-mile Swim, the signature event of the International Surf Festival. The swim from the Hermosa Beach pier to Manhattan Beach pier, on the first Sunday in August, attracts over 1,000 swimmers from around the world.

In addition to a near record number of Pier to Pier swims, Hyde has coached more Pier to Pier swimmers than any other coach through his SOBA (South Bay Swim Team) masters program at Begg Pool in Manhattan Beach and Hawthorne Pool in Hawthorne.

Hyde’s last Pier to Pier swim was in 2021. The following month his right side was paralyzed by a stroke. He came home from St. Judes’s Hospital three months later, unable to walk or talk.

On Sunday, Hyde crossed the sand to the water’s edge using a quad cane. As he entered the water, he handed the cane to retired lifeguard Brian Merrigan, who offered Hyde his arm. Hyde pushed Merrican away. But when a wave knocked him down he reluctantly allowed Merrigan to lift him back to his feet. 

A dozen SOBA swimmers in wetsuits circled their coach, unsure of what to expect. Hyde dolphined under the next wave, and emerged out the back. Then he swam out to sea with the naturalness of a sea lion newly released from the Marine Mammal Care Center. 

“It’s a muscle memory miracle,” marveled retired lifeguard captain and SOBA swimmer Shannon Davey, who chased after Hyde towing her yellow rescue can. 

Masters coach

“Are we feeling ferocious?” Hyde would yell to his sleep groggy swimmers at the start of his 6 a.m. Begg Pool workouts. 

SOBA swimmers include Los Angeles County ocean lifeguards, nationally ranked master swimmers, and professional triathletes. Hyde competed in the Kona Ironman Triathlon. But he also welcomed novice swimmers. 

“It’s about participation. You’re doing exactly what Michael Phelps does,” he’d say.  A couple who showed up one morning expecting open lap swimming was convinced to stay, and become masters swimmers.

Hyde delivered daily goals, without a lot of specifics. He didn’t like white-board workouts because they tempt swimmers to pace themselves. Hyde expected 100 percent effort during each drill. Except that drills are not really drills. “They are what you should be doing all the time,” he’d say.

“There is no reason not to do flip turns on every lap, except laziness. Think of each push off the wall as a thigh-master exercise”

“Dolphin, dolphin dolphin, at least to the backstroke flags,” he repeated throughout practices.

A typical Hyde workout began with a 500 yard warm up, followed by a dozen “descending” intervals of 500 to 100 yards.

“Descending” means swim each set increasingly faster.

“The sets are back-end loaded to build mental as well as physical toughness. The goal is to finish hard, with quality, and not get sloppy,” Hyde told his swimmers.

“There will be a pop quiz at the end of this set,” Hyde commonly announced at practice. That meant his swimmers were expected to know their times.

“The clock is not your enemy. It’s your friend,” he’d say.

Somewhere during almost every workout, Hyde threw in a “goggle to goggle, Speedo to Speedo” race.

“Since when did competition become a dirty word? We can all swim long distances. But we aren’t joggers. We’re racers,” he’d shout while jumping up and down and waiving his arms.

His enthusiasm was backed by experience. At El Camino, his swim coach was the legendary lifeguard coach Rudy Kroon, who famously told his swimmers, “Start fast, sustain that pace and sprint to the finish.” At Long Beach State his coach was the legendary Olympian maker Jim Montrella. Hyde was a sprinter at Aviation High and El Camino. Following his first practice at Long Beach, Montrella told the barrel chested transfer he was a distance swimmer.

Hyde encouraged his swimmers to compete in the U.S. Masters pool meets. But his workouts were geared to Pier to Pier, Redondo’s Swim the Avenues, and other ocean swims.

“You get your conditioning in the pool. You get your therapy in the ocean,” he’d say

Bad stroke

Saturday, September 11, 2021, Hyde and girlfriend Janna Colaco rose early at their Fullerton home. They planned to compete that morning in the 1.2 mile Swim the Avenues in Redondo Beach. Hyde competed each year in open open swims, from Alcatraz to Oceanside.

“I had trouble understanding him. I asked if he was having a stroke,” Colaco remembers.

“I’m not having a stroke. I’ll feel better with a cup of coffee,” Hyde said.

“I told him to repeat, ‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.’ He started talking about pizza. I didn’t know if he was joking. I said I am taking you to the emergency room at Saint Jude.”

“He resisted going. After I parked the car, he jogged to the emergency room door to prove he was fine.

“A nurse asked if his speech was okay. He said yes. I was standing behind him and shook my head, no, and got him admitted.

“He was pissed because he was supposed to coach the South Bay United youth water polo team after the Swim the Avenues. He reminded me he was never late and never missed a practice. 

“His speech cleared up, but his right hand wouldn’t work. Then it would, and then it wouldn’t. Then he lost his speech again. 

“A scan found a blood clot in the left side of his brain. He was given a blood clot buster, but a second scan showed it hadn’t worked.

“While being wheeled into surgery he had a gran mal seizure on the gurney. The doctors  induced a coma and intubated him.

“A third scan found the clot had broken up.

“The good news, the surgeon said, is the clot buster worked. So no surgery. The bad news is the clot showered all over the place and we’ll have no idea of the damage until he comes out of the coma.

“His son, Jason, came down from Oregon. He’s head of nursing at Grants Pass Hospital. He looked at his dad and said we should prepare for the worst. Death or a vegetative state. 

“Steve remained in the induced coma and on a ventilator for a week. When he came out of the coma, he broke a nurse’s hand and had to be restrained. 

“He came home in December on anti seizure medication that makes people loopy. I couldn’t tell if his cognitive difficulties were from the medication or the stroke. 

“I was told he’d need long term, assisted care. He couldn’t communicate. Yes might mean no. He couldn’t move his right arm or right foot. He lost everything, except me.

“I could see in his eyes his intellect was intact. With aphasia, your brain knows what you want to say, but you’re like a stereo with damaged speaker wires. He got very frustrated.

“He was hospitalized twice more with seizures. Most people would have given up. But Steve’s not your average bear. 

“A doctor told us a keto diet, which starves the brain of carbs, may reduce seizures. So the king of beer, fish and chips, and donuts gave up carbs for two years. If you go two years without seizures you have a chance of not having them anymore. So the doctors took him off the heaviest of his two seizure medications. It made a big difference in his communication skills.” 

From coach to coached

Physical therapist Julie Guthrie joined Hyde’s master program at Begg in 2003 to improve her swim times. She was an Ironman triathlete. After a few years at Begg she decided to train on her own at Hawthorne Pool because it was closer to her home. She returned to Begg Pool in 2010, when the Hawthorne Pool closed for repairs.

“Steve kicked my ass. I realized I need a coach and team environment. The people make that pool. Steve’s what kept us there, ” she said.

“After the stroke, Janna would bring Steve to the pool to socialize. He was touch and go for the first year. I’m not a neurological physical therapist. But I’d see him hobbling around the pool and I thought maybe he’ll respond to me.” 

Her Synergie PT office is in north Redondo, a few blocks from Begg Pool.

“I started working with him in 2023. We were trying to awaken parts of his body that had been asleep for two years.”

The stroke damaged the left side of Hyde’s brain, which controls speech and reasoning, as well the right arm and leg. The right side of the brain controls creativity and emotions. 

Stroke therapy’s goal is to train the undamaged side of the brain to take on the functions of the damaged side.

“People believe after a year or two, stroke victims are as good as they are going to get. Working with Steve has been eye opening. Steve shows gains every week, four years out.

“Two years ago he couldn’t do a push up. He can now.

“One day he came in whistling. His previous physical therapist told him music was a distraction. But we know music lights up the mind. I put some music on and he began tapping to the beat and trying to sing.

“He wanted to play guitar again. To finger pick, not just use a plastic pick. His right hand was clawed. Most people would get a brace. I didn’t think it would be possible. But now he can isolate his thumb and index finger movements and finger pick. He’s his own relentless task master.

“With all my patients I try to find what motivates them. With Steve, it’s swimming in the ocean. To do that he has to walk across the sand. A year ago he needed a beach wheel chair with fat tires that Shannon borrowed from the lifeguards. Now he gets to the water with a walker. 

“At Begg pool, he was using the ramp to get in and out of the water. But when he and Janna went to Hawaii he wanted to be able to climb up the boat ladder to get out of the ocean. So he started trying to climb the ladder at the pool. When he got to Hawaii, he could climb the boat ladder.”

Lifeguard coach

Retired lifeguard captain Davey began swimming for Hyde at Begg Pool in 2002, following her son’s birth. 

After his stroke, when he was no longer able to coach Davey began filling in two days a week.

“It’s taken five of us to do what Steve did. We do it because we want to keep the position open for his return,” she said.

During Friday morning practices, when Janna swims, Hyde joins Davey on the pool deck

“I’ll announce ‘Coach on the deck.’ When the swimmers see Steve, they focus. He’ll point out swimmers whose stroke needs adjusting, or whose hips are sinking and I’ll pass it on to the swimmers,” Davey said.

After the Friday masters’ workouts, Davey coaches Hyde and sends the pool videos to Guthrie. 

“Last year, his workouts were 500 yards, max. This year they’re 1,000 yards-plus. His lap time has dropped from 2 minutes to 1 minute, 15 seconds,” Davey said.

“Instead of just throwing his paralyzed right arm forward by rotating his body, he’s pulling through and getting power from his right arm.

“A year ago, I told him he needs to dolphin kick to get out past the waves if he wants to swim in the ocean. He couldn’t do it. Now, when I tell him to dolphin kick, he gets that twinkle in his eye.” ER