For nearly five years, swimming has been more than just an offseason side hobby for Jaylen Brown. In 2025, he took it seriously enough to have his trainer reach out to Boston College, where Olympic legend Dara Torres agreed to coach him. Brown became obsessive about getting better, reportedly filming almost every lap so he could pick apart his mistakes. Now, that fixation on recording himself in the water has produced a bizarre twist, after U.S. Olympian Michael Andrew stumbled across footage Brown probably never expected anyone else to see.

While in Hawaii, Michael Andrew and his former training partner Patrick Sammon reportedly found a GoPro sitting at the bottom of the ocean. After checking the footage stored on the camera, Sammon shared the discovery on Instagram, where the recordings appeared to show Jaylen Brown swimming.

“Found a GoPro at the bottom of the ocean.” The next message read: “Looked through the footage and this guy looks super familiar…”

Instead of naming Brown right away, Sammon turned the post into a search.

“Help me find him so I can give him his footage back + a free swim lesson lol,” he wrote. Luca Padua then appeared to confirm that the footage belonged to Brown, commenting, “Incredible hahaha. We knew someone would find it! I’ll message you directly 🤙🏽”

Luca and Jaylen have trained together in the water before.

Brown first got into serious underwater conditioning through legendary big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton and Gabrielle Reece, and in the 2024 offseason, he took that work to Bahrain with Padua, one of Hamilton’s protégés.

Brown even joined the fun himself, commenting “😂😢” from his @fchwpo account. Sammon replied, “Come back, and we’ll give you some swim lessons too.”

Brown has used swimming as part of his offseason training for years, but in 2025, he took things much further. Instead of simply using the pool for conditioning, he wanted to become a more efficient swimmer. That led him to five-time Olympian and four-time Olympic gold medalist Dara Torres, who worked with him on his freestyle technique, kicking, head position, and underwater movement.

But why was Michael Andrew in Hawaii in the first place?

Michael Andrew’s return to Hawaii

After the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, Michael Andrew decided to change his training environment. He moved to Tempe, Arizona, to train with the Arizona State professional swimming group.

This came after Andrew fell short of qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics, finishing fifth in the 50m freestyle and eighth in the 100m breaststroke at the U.S. Trials. Later that year, he made a major training change, leaving his longtime setup with his father, Peter, and joining Arizona State’s pro group under Herbie Behm in November 2024. Andrew spent the following season there, later admitting that adapting to the new system was difficult and describing it as a “season of learning.”

In September 2025, Andrew described his season at Arizona State as a learning experience and had already returned to Hawaii temporarily to train with his father and longtime coach, Peter Andrew.

Later that year, the move became permanent, allowing Andrew to resume full-time work with his father in Oahu, where Peter runs swimming programs at Kapolei Aquatics Center, while preparing for the next stage of his career.

Back in Hawaii, Andrew was hardly staying confined to the pool. Surfing, diving, spearfishing, and hiking had all become part of his routine, and he regularly hit the ocean with fellow swimmers. Patrick Sammon was among them, along with Mikel Schreuders and Petra Senaszky, so Andrew and Sammon being out in Hawaiian waters when they stumbled across Brown’s GoPro was hardly unusual.