Calm swim for 100th strait crossing
An American-born swimmer has made history, notching up the 100th crossing of the notoriously difficult Cook Strait
‘‘Dead calm’’ conditions saw Sydney’s Marty Filipowski, 53, complete the marathon north to south swim in about nine hours.
He touched land north of Perano Head, on Arapawa Island, north-east of the Tory Channel entrance, about 6pm yesterday.
Despite understandable exhaustion, Filipowski said he was ’’absolutely over the moon’’ at his latest open water achievement.
‘‘Every swim is different and you prepare for the worst but it was a beautiful day on the water.’’
Filipowski only discovered his ability to swim long distances in 2011 but took to it quickly, swimming the English Channel in 2013 before setting his sights on several other marathon races.
He made the decision to tackle the Cook Strait crossing more than a year ago, not knowing he could be achieving a milestone.
‘‘When I booked in to do the crossing I never thought I would be the 100th so it was a surprise.’’
Philip Rush, a Cook Strait swim veteran, was on the support boat and said the crossing had looked to be in the bag all day with no real challenges along the way.
‘‘Every swim is different and you prepare for the worst but it was a beautiful day on the water.’’ Swimmer Marty Filipowski
‘‘The water is oily and it’s been like this basically the whole time. There was a little bit of fog and rain first thing but it opened up and it was here for the taking.’’
The first recorded successful crossing of Cook Strait was by Kiwi Barry Devonport in 1962. Since then only 89 others have achieved the feat in either or both directions.
Rush said the low success rate came down to the strait’s changeable conditions, as well as the distance – 26km.
‘‘People don’t realise how difficult it is. It’s probably one of the hardest pieces of water in the world to swim.‘‘
Rush, who has completed the crossing eight times, said he would have liked to have nabbed the 100th crossing title, but was just as happy to help a fellow swimmer achieve the goal.
‘‘I still get a buzz every time we come into the finish.’’