Alcatraz Island Archives – World Open Water Swimming Association

Tamás Patkás, Mányoki Attila Head To San Francisco Bay
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Steven Munatones 08/03/2022 No Comment

Mányoki Attila will travel to San Francisco Bay with Tamás Patkás who is a Hungarian para swimmer whose nickname is Tomi Rocky. Mányoki explains, "I will help and support one of my Hungarian friends who will swim from the Alcatraz Island to San Francisco. He lost both his legs in an accident and he swims with just his body and his arms. Two years ago, he

Gary Emich Discusses Alcatraz On WOWSA Live
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Steven Munatones 03/06/2021 No Comment

Gary Emich has completed 1,059 crossings of the Alcatraz Island that he discussed on the 4 March 2021 edition of WOWSA Live with Ned Denison of the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame

Helen Tonge’s Alcatraz Escape Route Swim
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Steven Munatones 07/20/2020 No Comment

Helen Tonge's Alcatraz Escape Route Swim Courtesy of Pedro Ordenes and Kathy Winkler, Water World Swim, San Francisco Bay, California. Helen Tonge from Glossop in Derbyshire, England visited San Francisco and became fascinated with the stories of how various prisoners had tried to escape from The Rock, Alcatraz Island. She transformed that fascination of

Alex Kostich Wins Swim Around The Rock
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Steven Munatones 08/11/2019 No Comment

Alex Kostich Swims Around The Rock Courtesy of Water World Swim, Alcatraz Island. Alex Kostich came very close to breaking the original 5.25 km Swim Around The Rock course record set by Oliver Kusch in 1:10:09 in 2011. While Kusch started and finished at Aquatic Park, today's longer 6 km course started at Crissy Field, rounded Alcatraz, and finished at

Will Records Fall Around The Rock?
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Steven Munatones 08/08/2019 No Comment

Will Records Fall Around The Rock? Courtesy of Water World Swim, San Francisco Bay, California. Oliver Kusch and Aubrie Smallwood hold the course records for the 3.6-mile Swim Around The Rock. Kusch set the men's record in 1:10:09 in 2011 while Smallwood set the women's record in 1:24:25 in 2014 in the course that starts at St. Francis, heads around

Honorary ESPY Award Given to James Savage
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Steven Munatones 07/26/2019 No Comment

Honorary ESPY Award Given to James Savage Courtesy of ABC 7 News, San Francisco, California. An Honorary ESPY Award was given to San Francisco open water swimmer James Savage who has swum the length of the Golden Gate Bridge four times. "My mom said this award is a pretty big thing," said the 7-time Alcatraz Island swimmer. "I'm just doing something that

Gentlemen’s Agreement Across Alcatraz
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Steven Munatones 09/02/2016 No Comment

Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. Back in 1993, Gary Emich did his first Alcatraz Island swim and then started doing the same crossing an average of one Alcatraz Island swim a week for 20 years. During the decades, Emich has had to face conditions that ranged from tranquil to treacherous. But his relentless march to his 1,000th crossing

Frank Coghlan Left A Legacy
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Steven Munatones 02/08/2016 No Comment

Courtesy of Sally Coghlan McDonald, San Francisco, California. Frank Coghlan was an American open water swimmer from California and a member of the South End Rowing Club for nearly 40 years and swam in the San Francisco Bay almost every day until he was 80 years old. Over the course of his career, Coghlan completed over 50 Alcatraz Island crossings and

1,000 Crossings Took 20 Years
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Steven Munatones 02/06/2015 No Comment

Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. It took 20 years for Gary Emich to complete 1,000 crossings between Alcatraz Island and the shoreline of San Francisco in northern California. He not only completed the crossings by steadily averaging one swim a week for 20 solid years, but he also carefully documented each and every crossing and later

The Wonderful Water World, Swimming From Alcatraz
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Steven Munatones 12/12/2014 No Comment

Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. Silicon Valley has a great way to make profound things simple. The Google search engine, the iPhone, and the Facebook interface are examples that come immediately to mind. So it does not surprise us that Pedro Ordenes and his colleagues at Water World Swim in San Francisco, California have developed a