Six days after a shark killed her, Erica Fox's remains are found and swim group honors her memory.

For 20-plus years, every Sunday morning at 11:15am, an informal ocean swimming group called the Kelp Krawlers has gathered at Lovers Point in Pacific Grove to get in the water. The swim took a tragic turn on Sunday, Dec. 21 when 16 swimmers went out and only 15 returned. While swimming back from Otter Cove to the west around the point, group co-founder Erica Fox had a fatal encounter with a shark. 

On Sunday, Dec. 28, the group met as scheduled. But instead of swimming, Kelp Krawlers and their friends walked parallel to the popular swim route from around the point and west into Otter Cove, about half-a-mile to a destination known as "near rock." (A disclosure: This reporter is also a member of the Kelp Krawlers.) 

The walk was followed by a traditional parking lot tailgate—with more attendees, more snacks, an abundance of flowers and remarks from many of Fox's admirers and friends and fellow athletes. The accomplished triathlete ran her first 10K at age 7, said her father, Jim Fox. 

Her husband (and fellow Kelp Krawler and triathlete) Jean-François Vanreusel said Fox had completed 19 Escape from Alcatraz triathlons (including a swim of about one-and-a-half miles, from the island through San Francisco Bay to shore). 

Since they met 30 years ago—at a Halloween party on Oct. 28, 1995, when he was a student at the Naval Postgraduate School, Fox at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies—they have been partners and competitors athletically, Vanreusel said. "In our relationship it was not necessarily competing against each other—it was about reaching your full potential as a human being," he said.

When they met, he said he could barely swim—his style was "European survival swim," which he learned in his upbringing in Belgium. Fox encouraged him to get a coach so he could expand his own athletic pursuits and he did. But still, she was always faster. "I would ask, 'How did you get so fast?' She'd say, 'I'm a fish, I don't know.'"

Many people shared stories of Fox urging them to push their athletic limits. A common theme was her competitive drive, and she persuaded many people to pursue triathlons and push themselves. 

Long-time Kelp Krawler Jim Tiffany took up running at age 50, and said Fox encouraged him to do a triathlon, which has since become part of his life. At the time, he responded with incredulity: "I said, 'That's like climbing Mount Everest,'" he recalled. "She saw something in me that I didn't see in myself."

Tiffany adds, "She was also my benchmark in the ocean. I knew if I could stay within 100 yards or less of her, I was doing great! If I could be in her bubbles, it would be unbelievable." 

Steve Bruemmer, a fellow Kelp Krawler who now swims exclusively in the pool, spoke and reflected on his memories of surviving a shark bite in 2022. He believes Fox likely did not feel any pain, he says. 

The walk and gathering on Dec. 28 took place one week after Fox died, and one day after firefighters located her remains along the shore just south of Davenport in Santa Cruz County on Saturday, Dec. 27. 

Officials from Cal Fire's CZU Unit, Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, the Santa Cruz Fire Department, California State Parks and CHP participated in the recovery effort which relied on a rope system to contend with the steep cliffs. Fox's family members identified her on Saturday. (The Santa Cruz County Coroner confirmed her identity on Monday, Dec. 29.) 

When the group assembled on Sunday, there was no further discussion about the ongoing search mission and tide tables and currents—it was just shared memories. 

"She was our matriarch," says Chris Villanueva, a co-leader of the Kelp Krawlers group who has been swimming on Sundays for almost as long as Fox. "If someone new came, I introduced them to Erica, and she was always welcoming. 

"It was her presence in the community—she was very positive and supportive. Everybody felt like she encouraged people to go beyond their limits and challenge themselves to do what they came here to do, which was go out in the ocean and swim." 

The official search for Fox commenced right away on Dec. 21, with drone operators, dive teams and Coast Guard vessels among others engaged in the search, as well as volunteers with binoculars scanning the coastline. Official search efforts were called off on Tuesday, Dec. 23 but committed volunteers continued to look for Fox daily—from the shore, from kayaks and from underwater with dive gear. 

The ocean was choppy and windswept on Sunday, Dec. 28, leaving most people recreating on shore, including the Kelp Krawlers. On Friday, Dec. 26 as a swell broke around the point, surfers were out catching waves just like usual. 

This is the first fatality from a shark bite at Lovers Point in 73 years, after 16-year-old Barry Wilson was killed on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1952.