[3] During his travels in his early years he was fabled to have swum a one-mile race in the Columbia River, against Big Red Fish, a Pacific Coast Indian.

Sundstrom lost badly, but observed that the Indian swam with his arms recovering out of the water and with rapid thrashing legs, now called a flutter kick.

It terminated at Oak Point, near Hart Island, a railroad link in the Bronx in Manhattan Harbor and was swum with the Statue of Liberty around the mid-point.

[1] At the peak of his long-distance feats, in the August of 1885, he was the first person to circle Manhattan Island in four hours, a distance of 16 miles from the Battery to High Bridge, a swim he accomplished with Denis F. Butler.

[5][1][6] When the New York Athletic Club was being constructed in Manhattan in 1885, Sundstrom was first hired to work the baths that February, and then served as their inaugural swimming instructor beginning in 1890.

With his reputation growing as a result of his work as NYAC instructor, and his many wins as a local long distance swimmer, Sundstrom was selected to supervise swimming for the New York City Schools.

The world records and national titles of his championship swimmers could be partly attributed to Sundstrom's careful training techniques and his work refining and improving the front crawl stroke.