Earlier this month, two Hilo swimmers braved the cold of San Francisco Bay to compete in the Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim.
After competing in the 6-mile Alii Challenge Rough Water Swim along the Kona Coast, Mina Poppas, 21, and Jean Ouye, 30, decided they wanted to do something similar elsewhere.
“After swimming in the Alii Challenge, Mina and I were thinking of what to do next,” Ouye said. “The Alcatraz Swim is one of the more famous open-water swims and was a bucket list swim for me.”
According to a website for the race: “Every swimmer dreams of making the ultimate ‘ESCAPE’ from the historical island prison located in the middle of the San Francisco Bay! This is the swim the Anglin Brothers and Frank Lee Morris successfully attempted in their escape from Alcatraz on the night of June 12, 1962. Who knows where they are now? Who cares?!! Now it’s YOUR turn!”
Ouye met Poppas as her coach 10 years ago when Poppas swam for the Hawaii Island Swim Club as a youth swimmer.
“I’ve been swimming since I was 7, and Jean was one of my first coaches,” Poppas said. “We’ve been swimming together for so long, we decided to do more challenges together.”
Ouye and Poppas moved from the pool to ocean when the COVID-19 pandemic caused many public pools to close for months, and then reopen with minimal time slots available.
Open-water swimming provides many variables and can be more challenging, depending on conditions.
“It’s nice to do both, and open water has introduced us to a larger community of open-water swimmers,” Ouye said. “I haven’t swam in open water outside of Hawaii, though, so I was a mostly worried about how cold the water would be, but it was a fun way to challenge ourselves.”
Although the Alcatraz swim is only 1.2 miles — much shorter than the Alii Challenge — Ouye and Poppas found the 62-degree temperature made the swim difficult, especially since they competed without wetsuits.
Despite the challenges, Poppas finished the race in fourth place at 34 minutes and Ouye finished 76th at 46 minutes.
“From start to finish, the experience was awesome,” Poppas said. “It was super hard, cold and murky, but I would still do it again.”
Traveling to San Francisco also allowed Ouye and Poppas to visit family and friends they haven’t seen in a while.
“We both also have family in the Bay Area, so it was really nice to have the support there, and I got to see relatives I haven’t seen in a few years before the pandemic started,” Ouye said. “After the swim, we had time to explore the wharf and eat clam chowder bowls.”
Poppas is starting her senior year at the University of Vermont, where she competes on the swim team.
She is majoring in biology and plans to go to medical school in the northeast, then return home to Hilo to practice medicine in her hometown.
“I am so proud to see Mina compete at a D1 level and grow as a swimmer year after year,” Ouye said. “It’s been amazing to see her talent grow with time.”
Although Poppas will never stop swimming, she plans to take a break from competing or coaching after finishing her undergraduate degree this year.
“I swim about 20 hours per week, seven days a week, which is a lot,” Poppas said. “The program has built me in the right direction, but I think I need to take a bit of a break.”
Poppas may have plans to stop competing after college, but she still wants to continue to challenge herself and compete in open water swims with Ouye.
“After the San Francisco swim, Jean and I thought it would be amazing to try to do a race like this in every state,” Poppas said. “I think it would be so fun to swim somewhere new and across the country. I also definitely want to swim across the English Channel.”
Until the next challenge, the local swimmers will continue enjoying their time in the salt and chlorinated water as a coach and competitor.
“This was such a fun time for the both of us, and we’re looking forward to doing something again,” Ouye said. “After we finished this one, we immediately began thinking about our next one.”
Email Kelsey Walling at kwalling@hawaiitribune-herald.com