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.