BLIND
AUSTRALIAN SWIMMER,
FIRST IN THE WORLD
Pedro Ordenes and Gary Emich,
presently Alcatraz world record holders
welcome James Pittar (center)
from Sidney, Australia, the first blind athlete ever to swim
a round trip and around the island. June
22, 2003
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 Blind
Australian swimmer, James Pittar,
who just last year swam the Strait of Gibraltar and
the English Channel a couple of years before that, has again
made swim history.
At 5:50 a.m. on Sunday morning, June
22nd, accompanied by Alcatraz swim world record holders Gary
Emich (162 swims) and Pedro Ordenes (163 swims), James
plunged into the chilly 58 degree water from the beach at
the world renown South End Rowing Club.
With Gary navigating
on James' right in a kayak and Pedro swimming on James'
left, the trio made a quick crossing in 46 minutes.
However, James was not about to stop and was, in fact, just
getting warmed up. At his insistence, he
circumnavigated the "Rock" before heading back to
San Francisco a mile and a half away.
After 2 hours 31
minutes and 58 seconds and against a very wicked ebb tide
that kicked in, James reached San Francisco's Aquatic Park
becoming the first blind swimmer to conquer Alcatraz and
with a round trip to boot.
Afterwards at
breakfast, James who is in the States on holiday (and who
swam the Chesapeake Bay a week earlier, stunned diners with
news that his parents were unaware of his plans to swim
Alcatraz while here and that they will probably ground him
once they find out.
Once James comes off
"restriction" we'll try & find out what his
next swim attempt will be.
By Gary Emich
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