A lot of watermen will have their eyes trained on Oahu this weekend. Sure there’s the Pipeline Masters surfing competition on the North Shore, but there’s also lesser known event taking place off the shores of Waikiki “The Possibly Annual Hawaiian Christmas Loong Distance Invitational Rough Water Swim“.
The swim started in 1980 and has been held every year except 2007 thus the “possibly” in the race’s title. The swim constitutes a double Waikiki Roughwater or 7 km. For those familiar with the Labor Day Waikiki Roughwater swim, this race has the same start location at Kaimana Beach which also is the finish. Unlike the September event the swimmers do not come into the beach at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, but turn a the channel buoy off shore.
For several years the event has been dominated by Rick Heltzel, but in 2012 it was open water standout Eric Nilsson who finished the race in 1:32:54. Former USA national team member John Flanagan (1998 World Championship team 5k swimmer) has also taken the top honors at this race.
In 1991 and ’92 the organizers added a second course that hosted the USS National 10k championships. In 2006 the race served as a qualifier for the first US Olympic 10K trials.
The organizers are big on safety precautions and all swimmers are required to have their own escort. In the spirit of Hawaiian open water swimming, the true measure of the swim is an appreciation (and respect) of the opportunity to swim in the beautiful warm ocean waters off the island.
Good luck to all the swimmers.