Pinoy Aquaman greets 2017 with 6.8-km swim
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Jan. 1 (PNA) — Pinoy Aquaman, Lawyer Ingemar Macarine, greeted the new year with a 6.8-kilometer rough open water swim that took him two hours and 26 minutes to finish.
Macarine dared the rough Calape sea early morning on New Year’s Eve.
The experience reconnected the Pinoy Aquaman to his first successful channel crossing three years ago when he braved the 4.8-kilometer sea from Basul Island to Mainland Surigao City.
Macarine was also the first man to swim from Basul Island to Surigao City in two hours on December 30, 2013.
Macarine will make his 25th channel crossing on Jan. 7, his first for the year, from Camiguin Island to Balingaon in Misamis Oriental.
It would be intended to promote tourism in Camiguin and for cleaner seas, Macarine said.
Pinoy Aquaman’s latest milestone was his supposed 12-mile English Channel challenge last August 9.
He left the country in July for the one-month acclimatization training in Folkestone.
However, the extremely rough waves prevented him to pursue the dare.
Prior to the UK experience, Aquaman made his 2016 Independence Day swim on June 12, crossing the 16.83-kilometer Cebu Strait.
It was his “first ever successful solo swim” and unassisted, braving the thunderstorm in 5 hours and 49 minutes from the Light House in barangay Cabacungan of Cabilao Island, Loon to the shores of barangay Bulasa in Argao, Cebu.
Macarine’s crusade for clean seas pushed him to several open sea swimming that earned him the “Aquaman” tag.
For his “lifetime advocacy for clean seas and beaches” the World Wildlife Fund-Philippines conferred him the “Hero of the Environment” Award in November 2015.
Macarine was also third-placer in the “2015 World Open Water Swimming Association (WOWSA)’s Man of the Year” award.
He has been known as the first Filipino from the Philippines to swim the one-kilometer Lucky Lake Swim in Lake Lane in Orlando, Florida in March 2014.
In April 2014, he made a record as the first Filipino to swim from Alcatraz Island Penitentiary to San Francisco City in California, United States, a 2.7-kilometer battle in one hour.
He also made a record as the first Filipino to conquer the Chesapeake Bay and the second man in history by swimming 8.1 kilometers from Bay Bridge Marina to Sandy Pointe Park Beach in Annapolis, Maryland, United States in June 2015.
Macarine was the first man to swim from Balicasag Island to mainland Panglao island in October 2014, a 13.4-kilometer swim in six hours and 45 minutes.
Macarine was the founding president of Surigao Runners Club, the first running club in the CARAGA Region; and member of Triathlon Bohol, Team Solomon Running, and Triathlon Surigao.
He was two-time full marathon finisher for the 42 kilometers category, joining Cebu City Marathon in January 2013 and Davao City Marathon in March 2013; two-time Ultra marathon finisher for the 50 kilometers category, joining La Union Unity 50-kilometer Ultra Marathon in February 2013 and Sundown Bohol 50-kilometer Ultra Marathon in April 2013; a four-time finisher in the Iron man 70.3 finisher (1.9-kilomter swim, 90-kilometer bike and 21-kilometer run, joining Cobra Iron man 70.3 in Cebu in August 2013, Cobra Iron man 70.3-kilometer in Cebu in August 2014—finisher in Cobra Iron man (1.9km swim, 90km bike and 21km run); Eagle man Iron man 70.3-km in Cambridge, Maryland in June 2014, Cobra Iron man 70.3-km (Relay-90km bike leg).
He was also a finisher in Tabuelan Triathlon (2km swim, 90km bike and 21km run) in June 2013; 21-km Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon in San Francisco, United States on April 6, 2014; Surfers Path Marathon (21km category) in Santa Cruz in California on May 17, 2015. (PNA)
BNB/ANGELINE VALENCIA/SSC
