It has taken 18 years and plenty of shark scares, but Michael Spalding of Maui has done it all.
Channel swims in Hawaii, that is.
Over the past 18 years, Michael has swum between all the main islands of Hawaii. “I am very stoked to have completed all of them.
Only once did I not complete a channel that I started – when I was bitten by a cookie cutter shark and had to abort the attempt. Two years later I conquered the roughest channel in the world, from Oahu to Kauai [with a relay].”
His official Hawaiian island channel record:
– Auau Channel, August 15th 1983, Lanai to Maui (8.2 miles), 6:13
– Kalohi Channel, August 5th 2007, Molokai to Lanai (9.3 miles), 6:47
– Kaiwi Channel, September 20th 2007, Molokai to Oahu (26 miles), 15:15
– Pailolo Channel, November 30th 1990, Maui to Molokai (8.5 miles), 4:47
– Alalakeiki Channel, April 14th 2001, Maui to Kahoolawe (7.5 miles), 3:30
– Kaulakahi Channel, July 20th 2003, Kauai to Niihau (17 miles), 10:45
– Kealaikahiki Channel, September 11th 2005, Kahoolawe to Lanai (18.5 miles), 11:53
– Kaieiewaho Channel, November 20th 2010, Oahu to Kauai (72-mile relay), 47:55
– Alenuihaha Channel, February 27 2011, Hawaii to Maui (30 miles), 19:46
Michael’s Kaulakahi Channel and Kealaikahiki Channel swims were unprecedented. Humbled by the power of the ocean, Michael retains a healthy respect of the marine environment that surrounds him in Maui. Yet after dozens of shark scares, multitudes of box jellyfish and Portuguese man-o-war stings, hours of swimming in the pitch blackness in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and literally days of marathon swimming in Hawaii…Michael continues to create challenges for himself.
A true channel champion through and through.
Copyright © 2011 by World Open Water Swimming Association