James Pittar, the incredible blind swimmer from Australia, is more than halfway towards the first completion of the
Oceans Seven (to the best of our knowledge). To date,
James has completed a crossing of the English Channel, the
Catalina Channel in Southern California, the
Cook Strait, the
Strait of Gibraltar, around
Manhattan Island and numerous
other marathon swims.
A
documentary of James' swim in New York City can be seen
here (
Swimming with Skyscrapers).
The
Oceans Seven includes (1) the
Irish Channel between Ireland and Scotland, (2) the
Cook Strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand, (3) the
Molokai Channel between Oahu and Molokai Islands in Hawaii, (4) the
English Channel between England and France, (5) the
Catalina Channel in Southern California, (6) the Tsugaru Channel in the northern Pacific Ocean between the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido in Japan, and (7) the
Strait of Gibraltar between Europe and Africa.

He is currently planning his assaults on the
Irish Channel, the
Molokai Channel and the Tsugaru Channel which will be charity swims on behalf of the
Fred Hollows Foundation, an organization whose vision was for a world where no one was needlessly blind.
Copyright © 2009 by
World Open Water Swimming Association