"kai" means "ocean"

in Hawaiian

• Once again this year, KAI~Sports has networked with the major rough-water swimming organizations and events in both Hawai'i and California to bring you a compilation of the top performers from the two states. The Top 6 Finishers of any one of the four "grand slam events" are nominated for each category -- boys and girls 1-Mile and boys and girls 2-3 Miles.

California-Hawai'i select OCEAN SWIMMERS - All-America Awards (National-select Archives)

For the 1-Mile Swim, the major long-standing events include the Seal Beach 1-Mile, "Cholo's Waimea Bay 2000" or 2K ( roughly 1-Mile), and the grand-daddy of them all, the La Jolla Roughwater, 1-Mile Triangle Course, which kicked off in 1916. Long Beach's Sea Festival Alamitos Bay 1-Mile was removed from the events due to non-availability, and the most  recent add, starting in 2010, is the Alcatraz Challenge 1.5-Mile in Northern California.

For the 2-3 Mile Swims, the major long-standing events include the International Surf Festival, established in 1962, Hermosa-to-Manhattan 2-Mile Swim, now known as the "Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier," the prestigious Waikiki Roughwater 2.4-Mile Swim, started in 1970, and Seal Beach 3-Mile, which started in 1969. Long Beach Sea Festival Naples Island 3-Mile, which was also started in the same era, is presently removed due to event cancellation, and a fourth major may petition to be included.

• These lists serve as the top high school age All-America Roughwater (Open Ocean) Swimming award -- and they're the ones which highlight athletes competing in the California-Hawai'i area. These lists are culled from the overall segment which features more than two-thirds the high school ocean swimmers in the USA.

  Individual Awards are available for swimmers at a cost (described in the order forms and on the Awards tab).

  Congratulations to the swimmers, their high schools and their hometowns for these prestigious accolades!

South Bay Southern California Awards (Regional-select Archives) (link not available yet)

• This section is in work. It will feature the ALL-AREA TEAMS for both boys and girls high school age student-athletes as well as an ALL-DECADE TEAM. Refer back to this section as it matures.

High School - All-League Awards (Local-select Archives) Photo ©2008 Shelley Kemp Photography

• This section features the ALL-LEAGUE TEAMS for both boys and girls Swimming and Diving for the Bay League and Pioneer League. The certificates are PDF files and are downloadable and ready to print -- by swimmers, parents, coaches and athletic directors -- free of charge! The Top Time in each event is based on the "one-individual-event-per-swimmer" maximum policy -- since often a swimmer has more than one event that he/she has reigned supreme in -- in order to spread the wealth and foster more swimmers as All-League.