Courtesy of WOWSA, English Channel.

Karina Yazmin Almanza Hernandez is an accountant by profession in Mexico City, a PADI open water diver instructor, and an open water swimmer with a cause.

“In 2017 I started my swimming project to obtain the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming as a personnel objective. But then early last year, I became motivated from my previous swims to transform my personal project into a project with cause and make my strokes to help in someway. I contacted the Aquatic Committee in the YMCA Mexico where I train, and we worked together to start a campaign named Brazadas por La Educación (Strokes for Education).”

The campaign raises funds for the education of children with limited resources in the state of Morelos. “This cause supports children in vulnerable situations and low economic resources, providing them with the different necessary elements to continue their elementary studies in a very nice environment at YMCA Camohmila Camp. This project started 30 years ago and I jumped in to help to obtain more resources in benefit for the kids.

We all have a dream to fulfill, a challenge to overcome that drives us to give the best of ourselves and that means to me this challenge and doing it for the benefit of children motivates me much more,” she said before she completed her last leg of the Triple Crown across the English Channel.

She completed the 10 km El Cruce in Cancun and the 22 km Reto Acapulco Aguas Abiertas in Acapulco before she embarked on the first leg across the Catalina Channel in August 2017 (11 hours 47 minutes). She then tackled the 45.9 km circumnavigation swim around Manhattan Island in the 20 Bridges Manhattan Island Swim (9 hours 42 minutes) in August 2018 and just completed her crossing of the English Channel on October 9th 2018 in 13 hours 18 minutes.

“It has been a wonderful journey each day.”

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