He Swam From Tahiti

To Moorea

Fran AAorad, a 29-year-old Ameri can, became the first person in history to swim from Tahiti to Moorea when he climbed from the water at 7.10 p.m. on December 23 after a swim lasting 19 hours 10 minutes.

Morad, a masonry supervisor on the new Taharaa Inter-Continental Hotel, began his swim at the hotel job site overlooking Matavai Bay.

Although the distance from there to Moorea is only about 12 miles, strong currents forced Morad to swim 22 miles to reach his goal.

Three cabin cruisers and a row boat filled with guitar and ukelele playing Tahitians accompanied Morad on his swim, which began and ended in darkness. For the last three hours, he could barely lift his arms.

His only nourishment was liquids and a small piece of ham.

Morad, who was a champion swim mer over short distances at high school, trained for his Tahiti-Moorea epic by swimming from the Taharaa job site to Papeete, a distance of eight miles.

Morad's Moorea-Tahiti swim is the second notable water-sport record to be established in French Polynesia in recent months. In October, a French man, Jean Pierre Marquant, 25, rode the 180 miles from Tahiti to Bora Bora on one water-ski. • See also "Photogenic Moorea", p. 37.