Italian swims from Alcatraz with hands, feet bound

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An Italian pharmacist swam from the former prison island of Alcatraz to San Francisco with his hands and feet tied on Friday, the first such feat in more than three decades.


"I'm feeling good but a bit cold," Alberto Cristini told Reuters shortly after completing the roughly 2-mile (3-km) swim in an hour and 50 minutes. "The currents were strong when I started out but everything turned out well."


A resident of Rovigo near Venice, Cristini, 43, had his hands and legs tied with thick rubber bands. He wore a black wet suit, pointed his hands forward and kicked with his legs.


By the time he arrived at Chrissy Field near the Golden Gate Bridge, he looked pale and his eye were bloodshot.


Although currents between Alcatraz and San Francisco were said to be so strong and waters so cold that no prisoner could escape, others have made the swim.


Health club trainer Pedro Ordenes claims hold the record for most unshackled swims between Alcatraz and San Francisco at 238. "This is one of the most difficult channels of water in the world to cross because of the currents," he said.


Fitness guru Jack La Lanne, 89, who was born in San Francisco in 1914, pioneered an Alcatraz to San Francisco swim in 1955 while handcuffed.


"It's tough," he said in an interview from his home in Morro Bay on California's central coast. "I congratulate him, I think it's terrific."


La Lanne repeated the swim on his 60th birthday handcuffed and with his legs shackled -- and while pulling a 1,000-pound (450-kg) boat.