Leahi Camacho Sets Record as Youngest Person to Swim Kaiwi Channel
26 miles of ocean between O’ahu and Moloka’i conquered by 17-year-old from Kona
Published in
1 min readAug 18, 2013
Leahi Camacho just swam the 26-mile stretch of ocean between O’ahu and Moloka’i and set a new world record as the youngest person to cross the Kaiwi (or Moloka’i) Channel.
Leahi, a 17-year-old from Kailua-Kona on Hawai’i Island, successfully crossed “one of the most grueling and treacherous bodies of ocean on the planet.”
She left Moloka’i in the late evening of August 17 and arrived in Hawai’i Kai, O’ahu, around 1 p.m. local time on August 18.
Nearly 30 people have crossed the channel. Keo Nakama of Pu’unene, Maui, was the first person recorded to have accomplished the feat in September 1961. Nakama was 40 years old at the time.
(Mahalo to Tom Kuali’i for sharing Leahi’s quest with me!)
