The Region - News from Sept. 17, 1987

A Corona del Mar attorney became the first American--and the world’s second person--to “walk” across the English Channel, covering 22 miles of open ocean on a pair of 11-foot plastic pontoon-like devices attached to each foot. Standing upright and using a double-bladed paddle to propel himself, Daniel M. Hodes crossed the channel from England to France in good weather and calm seas in just under six hours. A triathlete who took up the obscure sport of “water walking” because he was “bored,” Hodes, 32, crossed the Strait of Gibralter earlier this summer. He said his next challenge is the 50-mile-long Panama Canal.