https://youtu.be/_GDx9pqHQjU

EPIC SWIM Maui is an official project of the United Nations Ocean Decade and will be the first expeditionary swim around the island of Maui.

The expedition is sponsored by Kristen Lindblad and Sven-Olof Lindblad – who together with Robby Seeger (shown below Kristen and Sven-Olof) will produce a documentary film that will feature some of the world’s best open water swimmers from six continents, as well as scientists, indigenous leaders and environmental champions who are all focused on improving the health of our oceans.

The event is scheduled to start July 7th when the swimmers will swim around the 12 Mokus (districts) of Maui. There is planned a series of community gatherings at the beginning, middle, and end of what organizers anticipate may be a 20-day circumnavigation swim.

The swimmers will include

• John Clark of Hawaii
• Andrew Donaldson of Scotland
• Bárbara Hernández Huerta of Chile
• Prabhat Koli of India
• Nathalie Pohl of Germany
• Jonathan Ridler of New Zealand
• Yvette Dickson Tetteh of Ghana
• Sarah Thomas of the USA
• Dr. Mostafa Zaki of Egypt
• Ryan Leong of Hawaii
• Stefan Reinke of Hawaii

Visit epicswimmaui.com to learn more information.

It will be the second time one of the Hawaiian islands will be swum around. Dr. Steve Minaglia and Marek Lehocky completed a 24-stage 206.47 km non-continuous stage swim around the island of Oahu between March and November 2022. A circumnavigation swim around Maui is another approximate 100 km longer than Oahu.

Kristin is an scuba diver, kite surfer, and ocean swimmer based in both Maui and Charleston, South Carolina. As a bilingual journalist, photographer, and writer, she has published works in Scientific American, Newsweek, and Virgin.

Kristen also serves as ambassador and adviser to Oceanic Global, Beneath the Waves, WildAid, Ocean Unite, the Reefline of Blue Lab Preservation Society, PangeaSeed Foundation, and Cultural Sanctuaries Foundation. She also runs the Wanderlust Fund that provides critical funding to organizations dedicated to cultural and environmental protection, global relief efforts, children, and the arts – like the Epic Maui Swim.

In 2018, Kristin launched OCEANSCAPES, an artivism platform inspired by years of collaborative ocean exploration and experiential insight. Combining art with storytelling and science, OCEANSCAPES reveals the power of beauty to inspire both empathy and action.

Sven is a similarly talented photographer whose work has appeared in Smithsonian Magazine and National Geographic Magazines in addition to his published photography books on Alaska, Baja California and Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park.

He has photographed elephants and wildlife in Kenya and assisted filmmakers on a documentary about the destruction of African rain forests. His early exposure to nature and wildlife taught him the importance of maintaining natural resources and understanding the cultural background of remote regions of the world.

In 1979, Sven launched Lindblad Expeditions, an innovative travel company offering marine-focused expeditions aboard small ships. Lindblad has built his company around a core tenet: to provide travelers the opportunity to discover for themselves the natural, cultural and historic regions of the world and to provide thoughtful approaches that make such travels enriching, responsible, safe, fun and memorable.

In 2004, Lindblad formed a multifaceted strategic alliance with National Geographic that combines the strengths of these two pioneers in global exploration with the goal of further inspiring the world through expedition travel. This mission, coupled with the company’s longstanding commitment to conservation, has positioned Lindblad Expeditions at the forefront of environmentally sensitive expedition travel and resulted in numerous travel and environmental awards.

The United Nations Environment Programme also recognized Lindblad’s accomplishments, naming him to their Global 500 roll of honor.

Lindblad is a member of the General Assembly of the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands; serves on the Board of The Safina Center and on the Board of Trustees of RARE; is a founding Ocean Elders which brings together global leaders to pursue the protection of the ocean’s habitat and wildlife; and serves on the Board of Advisors for Pristine Seas.

For more information, visit www.epicswimmaui.com.

© 2024 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

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