Jim Cotton, the founder of the 3.85 km Waikiki Roughwater Swim, passed away on October 18th.
Daughter Jenny Cotton explained, “My beloved Papa Jim has sailed away up to heaven where all his beloveds are waiting. He is now resting in peace and love. I was with him until 5:30 pm while I played Hawaiian Gabby Pahanui, old Bluegrass and I sang Amazing Grace…and other tunes while I held his hands, patted his swimmer’s chest and kissed his big forehead.”
Swimmer and surfer was a legendary Renaissance Man who lived a very colorful life, but his legacy will be carried on due to his vision and enthusiasm for swimming in the ocean.
Waikiki Roughwater Swim
Cotton was one of the founders of the Waikiki Swim Club, Waikiki Roughwater Swim, and Maui Channel Swim, and was one of the first members of the Waikiki Swim Club, its first president from 1971-1974. Later on, he created the Waikiki Roughwater Swim DIY Completion Certificate program.
The volunteer-run Waikiki Swim Club was founded in 1971 in part to support the development of the Waikiki Roughwater Swim and masters swimming in Hawaii.
Because Cotton had been surfing the Waikiki south swell for seven years before creating the Waikiki Roughwater Swim – that would later become the inspiration behind the swim leg of the Ironman Triathlon – he knew that the occasional summer south swell from southern hemisphere storms was strong and there could be crashing white water way out in Waikiki Bay. For this reason, the main middle leg of the swim was set far out into the ocean.
The start and finish locations at both ends of Waikiki Beach featured deep-water bouyed channels. So during big surf these channels remained swimmable and became the start and finish legs. The start and finish sites offered plenty of beach-side space and facilities.
Maui Channel Swim
Cotton started the Maui Channel Swim in 1972 when he was inspired by Bob Roper. The Waikiki Swim Club was the initial event sponsor and was vital to its first decade of success and growth. In the early years, Waikiki Swim Club teams paid no entry fee and member’s entry fees were waived for the race. With such an enticing opportunity to swim in such a grand setting, it was very competitive as to who made the various teams.
Cotton explained, “Bob Roper of San Francisco Bay: the Swimming Pied Piper of no small fame. He has been organizing and swimming all the main Bay swims since the 1960s. He and his father were major athletes in the Olympic Club going back into the 1920’s. He and Frank Blair used to meet at the indoor odd-length basement swimming pool and knock off incredible intervals before going to work as pool plumber and sheriff respectively.
Bob got wind of our first annual Waikiki Roughwater Swim and in 1971 brought out the first team of non-Hawaii teams to our new swim. They were the then-rare, year-round San Francisco Bay cold water swimmers. They were a rugged lot, some firemen and others who complained that the Hawaiian waters were too warm, it made them nauseous.
Intrigued by these swim animals, I invited myself to San Francisco. Bob said, ‘I’ve been thinking about the first inter-island swim.”
So the vision was set.
“That was the hard part back in those times: getting the unheard-of done. I grabbed the idea and did all the leg work since I lived in the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor on my Tahiti Ketch, recently in from a circumnavigation.”
Organizing a swim between islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where sharks, whales and dolphins regularly migrate between the volcanic islands was not easy.
Cotton continued, “We sailed over to Lanai and Lahaina on Maui and picked a starting beach. That pretty sandy beach of the Maui Channel Swim start had rocks under the water so everyone remembers me as the founder of their cut feet.”
Gorgeous water, abundant marine life and a budding rivalry between swimmers from California (San Francisco) and Hawaii (Honolulu) between the island of Lanai and Maui was a perfect setting to a masters relay classic. “The founding swim team included Bob Roper, Dennis Rice, Frank Blair, Bumpy Jones, Sam Montgomery and Lew Cook. During the second year, the illustrious swimmers of the time included Joel Wilson and Alex Shastakof, participated.”
Jim Cotton with Harry Huffaker, circa 2010
© 2026 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“
World Open Water Swimming Federation, a human-powered project