Yudovin enters Hall of Fame after strait swim

Yudovin enters Hall of Fame after strait swim

By Mehru Jaffer

JAKARTA (JP): David Yudovin, 48, does little these days except
strum on the guitar. He may sound like a good for nothing but he
deserves this break. After all, the professional American swimmer
has just surfaced from having successfully negotiated the
treacherous waters of the Sunda Strait, on July 8.

Yudovin, who swims straits around the world, feels that this
one was the most challenging one of all.

"It is not the deepest one I know but the currents are very
strong. When the tide shifts twice every 12 hours and the waters
of the Java Sea flow into the Indian Ocean and back again, the
atmosphere out there can get really hellish. The currents can
prove to be very treacherous," he admitted.

Once he is home his recent victory will be enshrined in the
International Swimmers' Hall of Fame, according to David Clark,
the swimming coach and official witness assigned by the Catalina
Channel Swimming Federation, USA, aboard KM Mega Jaya, the
support vessel that accompanied the swim.

About 125 professional swimmers have had their records entered
since 1965 when the prestigious Hall of Fame was first
inaugurated. It was his 1990 swim from Hokkaido Island to Honcho
Island in Japan that won him the nomination early this year to
enter the USA-based Hall of Fame.

In the two decades that he has been swimming professionally,
Yudovin has also crossed the English Channel, the waters between
North Coronado Island to the coast of Mexico and the channel
between Catalina Island and Los Angeles, nine times.

Listed as one of the great "undone challenges" by Outside
Magazine, the long-distance swimmer first dipped into the Sunda
Strait in 1997 but he failed to swim across for a variety of
reasons.

"We were just not prepared enough. We did not have enough
knowledge of the waters," adds wife Beth who faithfully follows
him on all the swims in a boat, passing him high energy drinks
periodically and providing him with a much needed dose of moral
support.

Yudovin started preparations for this swim way back in
February. He visited Indonesia earlier this year to organize a
crew of local fishermen to learn more about the ferocious waters
from them.

Amazed at his love for the ocean and watching him appear on
the beach with the sun rising behind him, the locals still wonder
if Yudovin with his glistening bronze tan is really from, or out
of this world?

One of them yelled "Superman!" as he returned from the shores
of Ujung Kanggalan on the south eastern tip of Sumatra after the
10-hour, 34-minute swim of 17 nautical miles that started in
Tanjung Pujut on the north west corner of Java.

Margaret Clark, an observer from the Catalina Channel Swimming
Federation declared the swim successful at 2:35 p.m. on the same
day.

Most excited of them all is Enday Muhandar, a local fisherman
who has been Yudovin's friend and guide for the last four months.
Also the captain of the boat that followed Yudovin as he swam in
languid but powerful strokes, Enday was so nervous that he lined
up three dukun (people believed to have magic powers) from the
neighboring kampong to perform a solemn ceremony beforehand, and
another more joyous one after the successful swim.

This is the more endearing aspect of this sport that affords
the Yudovins a wonderful way of traveling around the world, very
different to tourists, making friends with local people and each
time carrying back a little piece of that world within themselves
for forever.

Before he returns to Cambria, his home town in California,
Yudovin remembered to express great gratitude to the kindness of
the ocean to him on that glorious day and also posted a thank you
note to Budi, the Javanese friend who played the piano for him in
Bali.

He wrote," Columbus has successfully sailed to Sumatra". Budi
became a close friend when Yudovin visited Bali to practice his
swimming. He swam from Bali to Java in 1996 and the Nusa Penida
to Bali in 1997.

"As I crawled into the waters of the Sunda Strait I remembered
Chariots of Fire and the theme song from the film Columbus, both
Budi's gift to me. This music constantly played in my mind and
helped me to relax and to concentrate."

The musical memories also diverted his attention from the
deadly jelly fish everywhere that smear the body with poison and
the myriad whirl pools ready to suck anything into the deep.

Apart from the dangers that lurk in the sea, Yudovin
encountered all the wonders as well, like the gigantic sea
turtle, sea birds and dolphins.

"The biological luminescence microorganisms are an incredible
sight while it is still dark. In the transparent waters they are
like a million stars racing through the universe," Yudovin who
has already trekked more than 20 straits, recalled.

Way back In 1978, he suffered a heart attack while in a
marathon swim near Ventura. Of course that was no excuse to make
Yudovin give up the thrill of keeping his feet forever wet. And
tense and tiring as it may have proved to be, the Sunda Strait is
certainly not the last feather in this swimmer's trademark red
cap. For as soon as he is finished strumming on that guitar, he
threatens to sail across to New Zealand to check out the tempting
waters there.