Californian sets ocean-swimming record in Karimunjawa
Jakarta Post, Indonesia
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Karimunjawa Islands, Central Java
In early morning darkness and a strong wind, Californian ocean swimmer Monte Monfore prepared himself at a pier at Karimunjawa islands to swim a 12.5-kilometer channel in the South China Sea.
That morning early in June some people who knew about the swim thought Monte was crazy, and for good reason. The wind was particularly strong and the waves treacherous. But Monte did not budge.
“It’s going to be a terrible swim,” Monte said to his video man, filmmaker Dean Tolhurst.
Nevertheless, after attaching a fluorescent light stick to his swimsuit he dived in anyway, under the stars and the moon.
Dean, photographer Robert Barkman and a boatmen from Kura Kura Resort on Menyawakan island hurriedly boarded a speedboat to join Monte in the ocean. The boat was loaded with crates of drinking water and an energy drink for Monte’s swim.
Assisted by a global positioning system (GPS) device in the boat, Monte swam westward to Kumbang island, an uninhabited and picturesque island at Karimunjawa National Ocean Park.
Earlier, the swimmer, who had broken numerous world records in ocean swimming, estimated the swim to take two to four hours.
The rough seas and the high winds turned the swim into an arduous four hours, four minutes.
For almost the first two hours, Monte was forced to swim against the current. Throughout his swim, he adhered to three basic rules of ocean swimming: No fins, no wetsuit and no touching the boat.
After hours of forging ahead free-style, Monte finished his swim and stepped on a white sand beach at Kumbang island, cheered on by the boat crew.
Swimming in the ocean, or open-water swimming, is a totally different sport to swimming in a pool. The sea has elements like waves and the wind, while unfriendly sea creatures like jellyfish can sting.
To be an ocean swimmer one has to be comfortable with the water — currents and all.
“I feel at peace swimming in the ocean,” said the former Tokyo-based English teacher.
Monte aimed his Karimunjawa swim at publicizing the United Nations World Food Program. Previously, Monte swam Bali Strait as part of publicity for the WFP’s Fight Hunger program. (The video of his latest feat can be seen at www.fighthunger.org.)
Monte, who has been living in Bali for two years, began ocean swimming in 1998, when he broke a world record swimming Bali Strait on one of his visits to the island.
Since then he has regularly planned to break or set additional world records.
His next target is to swim the 17-kilometer Badung Strait from Bali to Nusa Penida in September this year.