Steven Munatones talking about open water and answering questions.

Steven Munatones the most interesting swimmer, coach and much more… answering questions to Ori Sela the founder of WEST swimming technique and marathon open water swimmers in Israel.

Every long distance open water swimmer asked 1 question and Steven with his great enthusiasm and his passion to give and tell more about open water said yes right away:

 

Q1. How many years did you swim in the pool before you jumped to open water?

A1. I first started to swim in Santa Monica Beach before I started to swim in the pool

Steven 1

Q2. What was your longest swim? And coldest swim?

A2. Two-way crossing of the Tsugaru Channel was the longest in terms of time, 12 hours 53 minutes.  But it was not long (38 km).  I have swum longer swims (lac Memphremagog between Vermont, USA and Magog, Quebec, Canada and the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim) but they were shorter in terms of time.  My coldest swim was the 1984 Swim around Atlantic Island where the water dropped to the mid-50 (about 12-13°C).  I was taken to the hospital after I stopped swimming.

 

Q3. What do you like to eat in 10 hours swim? ( do you eat every 45 min, 30 min?)

A3. I ate every 20 minutes, very quickly 2-4 seconds of small pieces of bananas or peaches or pieces of chocolate towards the end of the swim.

 

Q4. What was your weekly km when you won the world championship in the 25K (how many km a week)

A4. That was a crazy time when I was coached by Penny Dean and training with some of the fastest pool swimmers in the world.  I was doing between 15,000 – 20,000 meters per day, up to 5 days per week.  I would do at least one pool training session and one ocean training session 5 days per week, one day was rest and one day was a long ocean swim.

 

Q5. If someone took you “swimming” what would you do instead?

A5. [I am not sure that I understand this question.]  But my favorite sport is water polo which I played for many years and which I love to coach and watch.  My children play water polo, I watch water polo, I research water polo, and I write about water polo.  Since the 1970s.

 

Q6. Here do you see open water swimming in 5 years?

A6. The different niches in the sport will continue to develop in different ways.  That is, the ice swimming community will be closer to have regional or continental championships.  The FINA and professional marathon swimming circuits will continue to develop different ways to promote itself and the athletes will continue to get faster as they understand better how to train and race faster.  The marathon and channel swimming community will continue to grow and add more swims, islands and channels to explore.  The swim holiday markets will continue to explode and add many more tours and camps.  The number of local ocean and lake swims will be 2-3 times as large as the number of people who do open water swimming will continue to explode.  People will continue to swim in the 60s, 70s and 80s.  

 

Q7. What was the day that you said “today I swim for fun” and stop competing professionally? Was it hard?

A7. I always swim for fun – even when I was racing and a professional marathon swimmer.  Even when I was training hard and many hours a day, I thought it was fun.  Sitting on an escort boat for hours, writing about other swimmers, volunteering for events, sharing information with other swimmers, swimming butterfly in the ocean, swimming around islands, swimming down or up rivers…this has always been fun.  I never felt stressed or worried.  Even when I was in the hospital for hypothermia, I was thinking, “What an interesting experience…”  

 

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