Beautiful, Becca. Mann Masters Maui Nui

Beautiful, Becca. Mann Masters Maui Nui

Steven Munatones 08/19/2019 Kaiwi Channel Association, open water swimming No Comment

Beautiful, Becca. Mann Masters Maui Nui In 20 Hours 53 Minutes

Courtesy of Steve Haumschild, Maui – Molokai – Lanai, Hawaii.

“The media and many swimmers define difficult, challenging, long, and cold solo marathon swims as epic,” observed Steven Munatones. “With so many marathon, ice and channel swimmers pushing themselves well beyond expectations, there are indeed many epic swims. And global open water swimming world is always seemingly raising the bar higher and higher.

Becca Mann is now one of those swimmers and has accomplished a certainly epic swim by completing the first 57.58 km Maui Nui Triangle Swim where she swam between the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai and back to Maui.

Mann is who normally a world-class swimmer in the pool, churning up world-class times in the 400 individual medley, 200 butterfly and all the distance freestyle races is also among the world’s fastest 10 km competitive swimmers. But her experience and track record among the marathon swimming community was non-existent, save for a Maui Channel crossing that she did at the precocious age of 10.

Yet she asked for really cool, really beautiful swim possibilities.

Immediately upon hearing about this opportunity in Hawaii, she accepted the challenge of the Maui Nui Triangle Swim with a quick yes and a smile.

She teamed up with Michael Twigg-Smith and Steve Haumschild, and was inspired by Harry Huffaker who was the first person to attempt this triple channel crossing. Lots of email correspondence followed and a plan was set in place, right after Mann won a bronze medal in the 1500m freestyle at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.

She flew from Peru to Hawaii and without worrying about jet lag or travel fatigue, she walked into the Pacific Ocean off the shores of Maui and headed to Molokai across the 15.75 km Pailolo Channel. 4 hours 1 minute later, she walked on shore on Molokai and headed towards Maui across the 26.5 km Kalohi Channel. 10 hours 10 minutes later, while fighting currents, she walked on the shore of Lanai and then set her sights on a finish on Maui.”

Haumschild reported from her last leg across the Auau Channel en route to Maui, “We have a glassy ocean with small to medium current. These conditions helped us on Leg 2 between Molokai and Lanai, but it impacted Leg 3 to Maui as expected. She started on Maui. During Leg 2, she fought some mean head current. From Lanai, she swam towards the finish at Black Rock on Maui, 15.33 km across the Auau Channel.

Becca is jacked with energy and swimming on a mission. She is a phenomenal athlete of a different caliber.

History was made today. Becca is so well deserving of this. What an incredible attitude and an athletic achievement. Everyone is stoked.”

Mann was escorted by Captain Michael Twigg-Smith with the assistance of Haumschild and finished the 57.58 km Maui Nui Triangle Swim in 20 hours 53 minutes.

Haumschild’s Delorme Tracker is here. He reported the following information:

15.75 km Pailolo Channel from Maui to Molokai, started at 1:00 pm on August 18th
Pailolo Channel finished at 5:01 pm on August 18th
26.50 km Kalohi Channel from Molokai to Lanai, started at 5:09 pm on August 18th
Kalohi Channel finished at 3:20 am on August 19th
15.33 km Auau Channel from Lanai to Maui, started at 3:29 am on August 19th
Auau Channel finished at 9:53 am on August 19th
Total time for 57.58 km: 20 hours 53 minutes

Crew: * Captain Michael Twigg-Smith
* Escort kayaker and chief Steve Haumschild
* Kayaker Shelley Oates-Wilding
* Relief Captain Mike Scott
* Feeder/mother Beth Mann
* Kayaker Kainoa Lopes
* Crew member Ecar Roush
* Planning and organization conducted by the Kaiwi Channel Association.





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