For many years Jason Kloss chased the goal of crossing the Huron just like his grandfather did decades prior, achieving his goal in 2011 and eventually raising money and awareness for mental health in subsequent swims.
Kloss, who grew up in Huron County before moving to London in his teens and now making his home in Paris, was involved in swimming at an early age including being on the Huron Hurricanes Aquatic Club swim team.
“I swam for most of my childhood…. until I was 13. At that point I thought that it wasn’t ‘cool’, so I stopped and didn’t really do much swimming for a long time. After high school I went to college for police foundations as I wanted to be a police officer. I did some work as a security guard and drove an armored truck, delivering money to banks…I always wanted to be a cop but at some point, I realized that I wasn’t sure that’s what I wanted to do anymore. It also wasn’t really conducive to having a family, and that was also something that I wanted to do [and then] made the decision to stop pursuing that career. I liked business and sales, so I took that path instead, and got a job doing sales initially,” he explained.
However, Kloss would dive back into swimming in his 20s with an important goal in mind.
“I was going through the interviews, getting rejected and not getting where I wanted to be. Then I thought back to my grandpa’s swim. I was down at the lake, thinking about always wanting to swim across Lake Huron. At that moment, I decided to do it and started training,” he said. “I got in the pool for the first time since before high school…[and] I swam a few laps and was completely gassed. But I told myself to keep coming back every day and swim a little bit further. I kept going back, doubling my distance, until I was doing 200 laps in the pool, and then 400 laps. And then started doing open water swims and progressing from there.”
Kloss’ grandfather, Richard, had swam across Lake Huron three decades prior, and it was something that he wanted to do.
“I always admired his swim; I heard the stories of it through the years [and] I always wanted to do a similar crossing…until one day I decided to do it. When I was ready, I remember calling my grandpa, and told him I was thinking of doing the swim across Lake Huron. And he said, ‘Sorry? What was that?’ And I caught on to what he was getting at. It’s because I said, ‘I was thinking of doing it…[rather] than saying I was going to do it.’ I realized that I was doing this: I was going to swim across Lake Huron. And he was so supportive asking me what I needed…and evening going out and buying me a wetsuit.”
Nevertheless, Kloss recalled stories from his grandfather while being there to celebrate the achievement.
“I remember hearing the stories about him doing his swim and being up against 12-foot waves through most of the night. It took him 36 hours to complete…36 hours of nonstop swimming [and] eating blended up mush for most of the nighttime while battling hallucinations too. And then I remember watching video footage, not him literally crawling out of the lake because he was exhausted. This was also on his on his 50th birthday where I was, getting a chance to blow the candles with him that night,” he said.
In 2011, Kloss would complete a 65 km swim across Lake Huron, raising $22,000 for cancer research, while building up his confidence.
“It was proving to myself that I could do it. I had a lot of rejection when I was trying to become a police officer, getting different jobs along the way. I had people telling me that I couldn’t do something because of my age or because I wasn’t experienced enough…so, swimming was just something that I always wanted to do and something no one could tell I couldn’t do. This was something that I decided I could do and worked hard to accomplish it,” he said.
With the death of his grandfather, and losing a close friend, along with finding the effects that COVID had on the people’s mental health, Kloss wanted to swim again while in the midst of launching a new company, which close to four years on is thriving.
“I’d worked for some global companies for several years and when the pandemic hit, I just needed a change. I did a couple of job switches, moving through different things, and decided that just wasn’t really what I was looking for. I knew I wanted something different. Around this time, I had a friend who killed himself, and my grandpa had died of dementia, and I said, life’s too short to not do what I want to do. I told my wife that I was thinking of starting my own company [and] asked her if she was able to support us for the foreseeable future. She said yes, and I started [SoloSquid]…it was a lot to take on. It was very lonely in the beginning….going out on your own, starting a new company and trying to make it work,” he noted. “I started to swim again around this time, just for my own personal and mental health and mental health. [And] I got to a point where I was doing a couple of hours in the pool, and then got thinking about mental health and the effects that COVID had on so many people. I wanted to do something positive with my swimming,” he noted.
However, the budding entrepreneur took time to train and build awareness before his swim in 2023.
“Having the business reminded me that when I was swimming, [especially] to cross a lake, it isn’t something you go out and just do overnight. It’s small, consistent and incremental increases in the activity and what you’re doing and increasing the distances. It was about taking it one day at a time, growing it slowly, making things work and it really helped me get in a good mental state,” he reflected. “It was almost a year of training and in prepping for the swim, and then raising money and awareness through sponsorships and everything else that’s involved with it….right up until getting stepping foot in the water for the first time to start it. We raised over $57,000 for Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in 2023 and, to date, we’re at just over $76,000 in funds raised.”
Despite not finishing the crossing in 2023, Kloss still raised a lot of money for CAMH and surpassing the 30th Kilometer in his swim, allowed someone to donate to the cause in the memory of a loved one.
“That swim was supposed to take me 18 hours. I was in the water for almost 19 hours…covering 38 kilometers, but at one point, I got stuck in the current for several hours, where I was more or less swimming in one spot. Then we had a storm coming in….and at the pace that we were going…it was going to be another 13 hours in the in the water and we wouldn’t have beat the storm either. So, I had promised my child that I would come home, so it wasn’t worth dying for. So, I had to make the decision to call the swim off,” he recounted. “The interesting thing is because even though we didn’t make it all the way across, I was able to make it far enough to fulfill all 38 kilometers that were dedicated to someone, which was nice to have achieved.”
While Kloss has taken a hiatus from opening swimming for the past year and a half, he has continued to put time for any opportunity for advocacy.
“The last attempt was in 2024 and I didn’t attempt anything in 2025, but I still exercise quite regularly to stay in shape…I’ve almost avoided getting back in the pool, because start training too early, then, get an idea to try and do another crossing, and I just don’t have the bandwidth to be able to take that on. And I’m just the kind of person that once I start, I can’t stop,” he explained. “But I have continued to be an advocate and talk to people. Through the swims….I have found that people feel more comfortable talking to me about their mental health struggles….asking for my advice and more or less to vent. So, it’s been nice to have built that trust with people. And again, I try to talk about these issues any chance that I get.”
Going forward, Kloss has kept his swimming journey at the forefront of everything he does, as it has kept him mindful and seeing the bigger picture.
“This year I’m going to do some shorter swims maybe [while] staying involved with the CAMH community. I still keep in touch with them…because I’m always willing to support the foundation and their message and to speak in front of groups of people, talking about the importance of my journey with physical fitness and mental health, and how that felt me and, personally, but professionally, and getting me through the building this business [and] just keeping me level headed,” he said. “I have also learned…to take things one lap at a time. it’s just, and we’ve adopted the phrase, ‘just keep swimming’. Because I think that’s true, whether it’s swimming across a lake or just getting through life…you just gotta keep going [and] keep moving forward…I think these days it’s about having that immediate gratification and everything is instant. It’s easy to get something…which is one or two clicks [of the mouse away]…sometimes we don’t have to rush things. We have to realize that things take time and it’s about taking it one lap at a time…[to] keep going. Just keep swimming and not be in a rush as things will work out.”
