Lynden man goes the distance for a good cause

With two possibly unprecedented cold-water swims, Johannes Lisiecki has turned a personal health crisis into the goal of raising awareness about congenital heart defects.

“People who have CHD often do not realize it,” says the 75-year-old Lynden resident, who calls himself an “adventreneur,” a term he coined to cover his lifelong interest in adventure and travel, along with self-employment ventures.

Lisiecki underwent open-heart surgery seven years ago, several days after he went into cardiogenic shock. He wants to turn that challenge into a tradition for anyone interested in swimming the two miles from Birch Bay Village to Birch Bay State Park, and the two and one-quarter miles from Semiahmoo to White Rock, B.C. He accomplished both feats in August, accompanied by a boat, in the usual 55-degree water.

“As far as I know, nobody has done these two swims,” he says. “Now I would to like make these annual events to raise awareness of CHD.”

Lisiecki, a native of Germany, and his wife, Marlis, have two grown children. He has traveled in 56 countries covering six continents. He has written three books dealing with his life and family history, and has published numerous magazine and newspaper articles.

In 2009, Lisiecki began swimming workouts in preparation for the challenge of swimming the 12 miles at the Strait of Gibraltar between Morocco and Spain. He logged 960 miles in the pool before heading to Spain in 2013. He related his journey in his third book, “Gibraltar: The Story of My Heart; A Journey from Heart Surgery to Athlete.”

“I waited eight or nine days through an unusual storm system” he says. “The race organizer finally recommended against it (trying the 12-mile swim) for me. I decided to scrap my plans because I couldn’t stay there forever.”

Lisiecki says it took him a long time to get over not making the swim, but eventually began swimming again and soon surpassed 1,000 miles of training by November 2013. He realized he had open-water goals he could try to reach, and a reason to try.

“There needs to be more and more awareness of CHD,” he says. “About 1-in-100 children is born with some kind of congenital heart defect. Now I have started the Heart Challenge Swim Association, a charitable organization.”

He tried the swim starting at Birch Bay Village, but had to abandon it twice.

“I suffered spasms of the ventricular systems because of the cold air,” he says. “I took deep-breathing exercises. Later, on my third swim on Aug. 7, it helped me twice to turn around and float for five minutes.”

Born in Germany, Lisiecki received training in what he calls “mechanical tool machine building” and emigrated to Hamilton, Ontario, in 1959. He came to Boeing in 1967 and worked on the first 747 jetliner.

Beginning in 1970, he realized how much he hungered to be self-employed, and began a career involving numerous businesses, including several fitness clubs and weight-loss clinics, combined with his love of travel. In the mid 1990s, he embarked on an international trip making contacts with Rotary clubs in 20 nations in North, Central and South America.

One of his indelible memories is a 1,200-mile journey down the Amazon River on a commercial barge. That was just one of his outdoor quests. Others include climbing Mount Rainier, scuba diving off the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean, and sailing from the Pacific Northwest to Mexico.

This story was originally published October 28, 2015 at 3:03 AM with the headline "Lynden man goes the distance for a good cause."