Page 47 - Flathead Living // Spring 2015

EMILY VON JENTZEN // 32 // KALISPELL
IF YOU’VE BEEN IN THE WATER for 24 hours, you probably need a search and rescue crew to save your life. But when Emily von Jentzen is in the water that long, she has someone else’s life on her mind. And the only crew she needs is her support team, boating alongside her with supplies and encouraging words.
Von Jentzen, a Kalispell attorney, became the first woman – and third person overall – to swim the length of Flathead Lake in 2010, traversing 30 miles of open water in 18 1/2 hours. The feat raised $9,500 for the family of a Flathead girl with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Since then, von Jentzen has completed three more endurance swims to raise funds for the families of children with serious medical problems. Her nonprofit organization, the Enduring Waves Foundation, is now mapping out her next expedition for a good cause: 30 Northwest Montana lakes in 60 days this summer.
“To be able to do something that’s a passion and be able to make a difference like that, I don’t know why someone wouldn’t do that,” says von Jentzen, who also deals with chil- dren’s issues professionally by running the Attorney General’s Northwest Montana depen- dent neglect office.
Von Jentzen swam competitively as a kid all the way through college, participating in the distance events. But it wasn’t until she began entering triathlons while attending the University of Montana School of Law that she fully realized the wonders of open water swimming.
WHAT MOTIVATES YOU
“I DON’T FEEL NORMAL WITHOUT ATHLETICS IN MY LIFE. IT MIGHT SOUND WEIRD, BUT I GET A LITTLE DEPRESSED. ALSO, I’M MOTIVATED BY COUPLING MY GOALS WITH RAIS- ING MONEY FOR FAMILIES WHO NEED IT. SOMETIMES, THAT’S WHAT GETS ME OUT OF BED IN THE MORNING.”
Open water endurance swimming requires meticulous planning, with the implicit acknowledgment that a swim- mer can’t prepare for everything. Weather hits. The water gets cold and choppy. The body remembers that it would rather be dry next to a fireplace and sends a message to the mind. Nature happens.
With each swim, von Jentzen has gleaned tidbits of insight to better pre- pare her body for the next outing.
But in the end, it’s all about the water, and von Jentzen spends hours upon hours in pools each week until the lakes start to warm. Then she dips her toes in the still- chilly water, thinks of a child who needs her, and dives in.
STATS
First woman to swim 30-mile length of Flathead Lake (18 1/2 hours); first person to swim 50-mile length of Washington’s Lake Chelan (36 1/2 hours); completed 32 miles on Canyon Ferry (24 hours)
I LOVE
IT WHEN
MY WIFE LETS ME GO FISHING WITH HER
2307 HWY 93 S, Kalispell, MT
406-755-2666
www.CaptainsMarine.com
SPRING 2015 | FLATHEAD LIVING 45