Nine of us from the Mauna Lani Masters Swim Team showed up as early as 6:30 am for the Kukio Blue Water Swim on the morning of Saturday, September 28, 2019. The venue could not be better with a swim start from Kua Bay adjacent to the Pu’u Ku’illi cinder cone looming large in the background. Like last year, this early morning included a gentle rain that produced an incredible rainbow above the beautiful and majestic cinder cone reminding of how blessed we are to be able to take part in these fun events. The Kukio community itself is situated on the shoreline including the Manini’owali Beach. The beach itself is secluded and small and has plenty of white sand extending into the water which forms the shoreline at Kua Bay. The water in the bay is crystal clear and the beach is more difficult to reach than other nearby white sand beaches as it’s entrance is unmarked and only accessible by either asking for shoreline public access at the guarded and gated Kukio community entrance or entering from the Queen “K” high...

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The Mauna Lani Masters Swim Team decided to head over to the North Shore on Oahu this year for our summer get away swim from Laniakea to Pua’ena Point on July, 20th 2019. This race is part of the North Shore Swim Series which is a “5-race festival of progressively longer swim events giving swimmers the opportunity to swim the “7 mile miracle” of Oahu’s famous North Shore” according to the race sponsor’s website. The North Shore Soap Factory sponsored this race and provided great after race food, refreshments and awards. Our summer get away last year was on Labor Day 2018, members of our group participated in the Lana’i to Maui Channel Crossing relay race which was epic but we decided to create some different memories on our pursuit of all things swimming!! We all stayed at the Turtle Bay Resort which exceeded all expectations regarding quality of food, room size and amenities not to mention the beautiful location on the north shore of Oahu. The Turtle Bay Resort is far enough away from Honolulu to fe...

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Swimmers gathered on Saturday, June 8 th from around the island for the annual Hapuna Rough Water swim race sponsored by the Academy Swim Club in Waimea. This year’s race was coordinated with the Keep Puako Beautiful organization’s celebration of *World Oceans Day’s 10th Anniversary” which featured a Beach Cleanup and gathering including games and prizes (contact info-keeppuakobeautiful@gmail.com). It was breezy but the water conditions were perfect and fortunately Coach Dave had given us a head up at Friday’s swim practice to expect a very strong south to north current. He works as a Dive Master for Blue Wilderness and informed us that on his Friday morning dive, he had experienced one of the strongest currents he had ever experienced nearby to Hapuna Beach. Our Friday’s warm up session at practice prepared us to swim extra long and steady against the current and not let our strokes become choppy which would eventually wear us out! Great advice and training from Coach Dave as he was exactly right. During my...

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Team “Mauna Lani-3 Fast, 3 Furious” made our way to the Kona airport to take the Mokulele flight to the Kapalua airport on Maui early Saturday morning before 7:00 am of Labor Day Weekend. Months before we had all decided to participate in the 47th annual Maui Channel Crossing Race from Club Lanai to the Ka’anapali Beach Resort where we would also stay and enjoy the pre and post race festivities. We were all anxious for the experience as our group likes open water racing but this was going to be a far different experience swimming involving an escort boat and swimming as much as 5 miles offshore from either island. The swim race is one of the most well known masters swimming events in the nation even though most open water swimmers are never able to participate due to Hawaii’s unique and isolated location in the middle of the Pacific. The fortunate participants came from all over the mainland US, as well as Australia, and beyond to compete. The race is composed of teams of six swimmers in various configurations and a few...

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My masters swim group met early Saturday morning at 6:30 am to ride together to Kona for the 2018 King’s Swim sponsored by Kona Aquatics and Bike Works. Kona Aquatics has been headed by coach Steve Barowski for the last 30 years and has a large, age group swim program as well as an established masters program that includes many local triathletes that train at the Kona municipal pool at the Old Airport. This pool is the only 50 meter pool on this side of the island and from what I understand, Steve Barowski helped specify the pools dimensions to ensure it’s suited for large swim meets and multiple practice venues. Their pool makes our 25 meter pool in Mauna Lani look like a small pond but I still feel pretty lucky to have a legit lap pool in my own community! We arrived at the Kona Pier and registered ourselves including the necessary body marking where I received number “77” on both upper arms. Someone said to me in passing “Lucky 7’s” before I entered the water for a warm up and I thought to myself-well “ma...

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