Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
This November, Long Beach native Hank Wise, a local star and coach, began to share the title of King of the Catalina Channel with John York and Sam Neri.
Together with Tina Neill, the Queen of the Catalina Channel, Wise has crossed the Catalina Channel six times in his late-blooming channel career.
“I don’t have to fly around the world to face the challenge of a channel swim,” he once said before setting off on his first channel crossing at the age of 45. “We have the beautiful Catalina Channel in our backyard here in California.”
After his most recent 10 hour 1 minute crossing in November, Wise is being honored for his open water swimming achievement by the Aquatics Capital of America on January 18th 2018 as its annual awards banquet in Long Beach together with Max Irving (UCLA Water Polo) as Athlete of the Year, Adam Wright (UCLA Water Polo) as Coach of the Year, Art Levine of Straight Talk TV (Tom Shadden Citizen of the Year), CSR Children’s Foundation (Organization of the Year), Dr. Rick Adams, Casa Colina (Community Service), Canon Smith (Dick Miller Waterman/Waterwoman), and Special Honoree Takako Kimura of Dragon Boats.
Information about the reception, awards, and dinner on January 18th is available from Lucy Johnson (lucyjohnson1@gmail.com) or Richard Foster (foster@fosterlawandsports.com).
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