Swim escape from Alcatraz

If Omar Insignares were to be locked up in Alcatraz, he has proof that he could escape.
Insignares, an eighth-grader at Oakwood School in Morgan Hill, took second in the Third Annual Alcatraz Classic Saturday with a time of 30:10.
“It was amazing, it was great,” Insignares said. “It felt like I was in some adventure. I just had to finish it and complete it.”
Insignares said he had no idea how well he was doing until he finished and organizers told him he had placed second.
He was less than a minute off the winning time of 29:24.94, posted by Hunter Wright of Redding.
Insignares, 13, battled the 55-degree temperature of San Francisco Bay as well as the currents and the wind.
“The current was actually going the opposite way of where the finish was, so I had to swim to the right more and that was a bit harder because I had to use a bit more of my muscles,” Insignares said.
The race covered 1.25 miles between Alcatraz Island and Aquatic Park in San Francisco. Swimmers were shuttled by ferry to a point along Alcatraz where they were dropped off to swim back.
“He told me he felt like he was Pi,” said his mother Lucia Insignares, referring to “Life of Pi,” a fantasy novel about a young boy who survives a shipwreck and is lost at sea for 227 days.
The Alcatraz Classic featured 27 young men and women from across the Western U.S. and Great Britain. Just 50 were allowed to enter.
Of those, 25 finished the race. One was pulled out after succumbing to the cold water and a second withdrew because of leg cramps.
Racers were encouraged to be able to swim a mile in a pool in less than 40 minutes, have previous open water experience as well as letters of recommendation from swim coaches so organizers could feel confident about each swimmer’s ability to finish the course.
Omar has been swimming since he was 6, competing for the Morgan Hill Makos.
The most challenging thing about the swim, Omar stated, was the vast openness of the bay.
In a pool, he said, you can see the bottom along with the sides that are mere feet away.
“When you’re in the ocean, it’s complete darkness,” Lucia said. “In the pool, you can at least get to the bottom of pool.”
The other aspect is since there are no sides of the pool or floating lanes to keep swimmers boxed in, Lucia said mentally, one has to form a plan and map out where to go.
Omar started swimming competitively six years ago. His mom said she saw it as a way to get Omar active and didn’t realize the level of skill he would develop.
“I thought it was a form of exercise,” Lucia said. “I didn’t realize he was really good until started swimming and took home so many medals.”
Omar said he plans to continue swimming in open water as well as competitively for his swim club. He hopes to swim the race again and beat his previous time.
“Being able to tell people that I’ve done Alcatraz is just great,” Omar said.