In a mushroom kayak, Sam Shoemaker crossed the Catalina Channel. See it in Pasadena.

In a mushroom kayak, Sam Shoemaker crossed the Catalina Channel. See it in Pasadena.

Sam Shoemaker traveled more than 26 miles across the Catalina Channel, braving strong winds and choppy water. He paddled alongside a whale for miles and at one point hallucinated due to sea sickness. And the Los Angeles-based artist did it in a kayak made from a single mushroom, one he grew outside his Lincoln Heights studio. Shoemaker says he just wanted to hang out with other nerds and identify mushrooms around L.A, “but like every artist, I t…