Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

54-year-old Jim Barber and 47-year-old Victoria Rian, stalwarts from the Indianapolis (Indiana) open water swimming community, touched down near Sandy Beach on Oahu after swimming across the Molokai Channel in 14 hours 42 minutes.

The tandem swimmers, veterans of the English Channel and Catalina Channel, started at 9:15 pm and finished at 11:52 am. “They were jellyfish free until around 5:00 am,” reports Linda Kaiser from Oahu. “Jim got some good man o war stings on his arms. Both said the stings were really painful, but the conditions were very good.

Their tandem swim was not as glassy as Cameron Keith’s swim, but they just faced very light winds, if any. They had a bit of tidal resistance over the Makapu’u Shelf, but not for very long. Fortunately, the surf was down at Sandy Beach and the lifeguard swam out and pointed them into shore, as the lifeguard tower announced their arrival.”

Both marathoners were very tired and sore. Barber commented, “It hurt. I can barely move now. This was the hardest swim he has done, but the water was very warm.”

“Thank you so much Goro Sulijoadikusumo, Roz, Dean Hawks, Roberta Norwood, Captain Ivan Shigaki, and Jarod. Jim and I couldn’t have done Molokai without our crew,” said Rian.

Copyright © 2014 by World Open Water Swimming Association