Blind Swimmers Swim From Alcatraz To San Fransisco

Open water swimming can be challenging and gruelling for most of us – but imagine the added challenge if you were vision impaired!

A group of awesome swimmers have completed the swim across the San Fransisco Bay – from Alcatraz Island to San Fransisco. And each one of them is blind.

This was a history making swim as it was the first ever to be completed by a vision impaired swimmer.

PHOENIX (CBS5) –

Three blind swimmers from the Valley have completed a historic swim across the San Francisco Bay.

They are the first blind swimmers to accomplish the feat. The 18th annual “Alcatraz Invitational” is a 1.25 mile swim from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco.

Max Ashton, 18, finished in just over fifty minutes.

Katie Cuppy, 19, and Tanner Robinson, 24, both finished just over an hour and fifteen minutes.

It is another spot in the records books for Max Ashton.

Max is used to being a trailblazer. He climbed Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro at age 13. He has also hiked the Grand Canyon rim to rim.

Now he’ll take on the cold water and unforgiving currents of the San Francisco Bay.

“I like adventures and challenges in my life, and I just need something to keep me going,” said Max.

Swimming in a straight line is the biggest challenge for these visually-impaired swimmers. The group has had plenty of practice doing open water swims in Lake Pleasant. Max and the others each have three guides, one on each side who will nudge him if he veers off course. The third guide lags slightly behind in order to make sure everyone stays together.

“We’re going to show the world that having a visual impairment is not going to stop you from doing things you want to do,” says Max’s father Marc Ashton, who is also CEO of the Phoenix-based Foundation for Blind Children.

Read the article here – Blind Swimmers Swim From Alcatraz to San Fransisco

A huge congratulations to each one of these swimmers – Max Ashton, Katie Cuppy, and Tanner Robinson – who went for their dream despite their challenge – and completed the open water swim to create a new record.

If blind swimmers can swim from Alcatraz Island to San Fransisco – what would it take for you to give it a go!