What is your first memory of the Natatorium?

My first memory was when we went to Hawaii when I was 11 years old. I was a competitive swimmer at home in Portland, Oregon.

It was something that was an important part of my life at that time. I don’t know how my parents found [Olympic assistant coach] Soichi Sakamoto and swimming at the Natatorium, but I would guess it was my father because he was the one who was most motivated about my swimming.

I ended up there going and swimming every day [of our trip]. Sakamoto was the coach and he did things differently.

What did it feel like to swim there?

Swimming in salt water is very different from swimming in a chlorinated pool. On one hand, the saltwater is wonderful because you’re much more buoyant, but if you’re not used to swimming in saltwater—and at that time nobody wore goggles—[it would burn your eyes].

There were vents right on the edge of the beach and the seawater would come in and fill the pool. So there was a certain amount of sea life that also came into the pool, and the sides of the pool had a nice growth of seaweed on them.

As kids we weren’t always all that serious and so when you would practice kicking you’d have a kickboard and you could kind of harvest the seaweed as you went down the pool and lob it at people in other directions. That was not a feature of chlorinated pools and a lot of fun.