Fastest swim crossing of the Tsugaru Strait (male)

The fastest swim crossing of the Tsugaru Strait between the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido by a male swimmer is 6 hours 11 minutes 17 seconds, achieved by Steven Munatones (USA) on 29 July 1990. He was swimming from Cape Tappi, Honshu, to Cape Shirakami, Hokkaido. The record was verified by the Tsugaru Strait Swimming Association.

The following day, on 30 July 1990, Munatones made the return journey from Hokkaido to Honshu in a time of 6 hr 39 min.

The Tsugaru Strait, aka Tsugaru Channel or Tsugaru Kaikyō, is a 19.5-km (12.1-mi) stretch of water with fast-moving currents between Aomori on Japan’s main island (Honshu) and the northern island of Hokkaido, connecting the Sea of Japan to the Pacific Ocean.

Munatones was the second person ever to swim across the strait, preceded only by his compatriot David Yudovin, who traversed the channel on 7 July 1990 in a time of 13 hr 10 min.

The Tsugaru Channel is part of the Oceans Seven challenge: the open-water swimming community’s equivalent of the Seven Summits, which was first proposed by Steven Munatones (who founded the World Open Water Swimming Association). In addition to the Tsugaru Strait, it also requires the crossing of six other challenging waterways around the world: the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland, UK; the Cook Strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand; the Molokai/Kaiwi Channel between Oahu and Molokai Islands in Hawaii, USA; the English Channel between England and France; the Catalina Channel between Catalina Island and the southern California mainland, USA; and the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco.