He\u2019s not under arrest \u2014 but he sure could use a rest.<\/p>\n
In September, 49-year-old New Yorker Michael Moreau<\/a> jumped off the southern tip of Manhattan \u2014 and didn\u2019t emerge until he\u2019d swum up the East River, through the Harlem and down the Hudson to complete the famed and formidable 28.5-mile loop.\u00a0<\/p>\n The (flutter) kicker: He did it all in handcuffs, and in well under 10 hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n Moreau\u2019s felony-flavored feat earned him two Guinness World Records<\/a> \u2014 one for completing the longest open-water swim in handcuffs, and one for becoming the first (and fastest) swimmer to circumnavigate the city\u2019s waterways in shackles.<\/p>\n New Yorker Michael Moreau, 49, swam the 28.5-mile loop around Manhattan \u2014 in handcuffs. Michael Moreau<\/p>\n Why?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhy do anything?\u201d Capri Djatiasmoro<\/a>, a fellow marathon swimmer and member of Moreau\u2019s support crew, asked. She conquered the same 20 Bridges Swim Around Manhattan<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 albeit with the luxury of her limbs \u2014 on her 63rd birthday in 2014, and said the rush of the open water feels as illicit as Moreau\u2019s steel-strapped wrists symbolized.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAfter I swim, I\u2019m high as a kite,\u201d Djatiasmoro, co-founder of Coney Island Brighton Beach Open Water Swimmers<\/a>, said. \u201cI guess normal people, nonswimmers, could relate it to the high after a great workout or incredible sex.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But Moreau\u2019s moat-ivation wasn\u2019t kink. It was part nautical nature, part unfinished business, part desire to probe the outer edges of merman mastery.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I started hearing these stories about people who had not given up on the opportunity to really test the limits, I thought, \u2018Why can\u2019t I do this thing?\u2019 That was the beginning of my journey of trying to figure out how I was gonna realize my potential,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I knew I needed to do it in the water.\u201d<\/p>\n Born to swim\u00a0<\/p>\n Moreau, a creative director on land, has long been a fish in the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAccording to my parents, I could swim before I could walk,\u201d he said. \u201cI pretty much told them, before I could even speak, that my desire was to be in the water. That\u2019s what I was made to do and where I was made to thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n He swam up the East River, through the Harlem and down the Hudson. Michael Moreau<\/p>\n Moreau made waves as a high school and college swimmer, winning national championships and setting at least one record that still stands today. But he eventually hung up his goggles \u2014 and didn\u2019t pick them up for the better part of 20 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then, in his mid-40s, the water called. Freestyle phenoms like Diana Nyad and Ross Edgley seeped into his social feeds. He couldn\u2019t shake the feeling there was more in the tank.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe first thing that went through my head is \u2026 that\u2019s wild. Why would you even do anything like that?\u201d<\/p>\n Michael Moreau<\/p>\n The challenge? Setting a goal that didn\u2019t feel like a victory lap of his youth. The solution?\u00a0Ultramarathon open-water swimming<\/a>, or generally any non-pool, nonstop outdoor swim over 10 kilometers.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s more than 430 lengths of a standard 25-yard pool \u2014 plus the uncontrollable currents, conditions and creatures of the natural world. Add in logistics like coordinating boat traffic, reading tides and securing a skilled crew for safety and support, and the prospect requires the kind of mental and physical prowess elite lap swimmers rarely hone.\u00a0<\/p>\n When he took up ultramarathon swimming in his 40s, he hired a coach and built up to handcuff level. Michael Moreau<\/p>\n \u201cI thought, \u2018This is uncharted territory for me. This is something that I feel like I need to pursue,\u2019\u201d Moreau said. \u201cAnd I kind of went out at full force.\u201d<\/p>\n He hired a coach, put his social life on ice and set his sights on one of the most treacherous, choppy and marine-life-laden open-water conquests: Hawaii\u2019s Molokai Channel swim, a 42-kilometer deep-ocean course with only about 100 finishers to date<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Moreau became one of them in 2024, stroking through the night in 13 hours and 11 minutes \u2014 the 14th fastest time in history. He surfaced still thirsty.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI wonder if there\u2019s something a little bit off the beaten path that is a little bit more controversial,\u2019\u201d Moreau thought. There was: handcuffs. The jailbird jangles had restricted Egyptian pro swimmer Shehab Allam<\/a>\u2018s wrists in 2022. His record-holding 11.6 kilometers was the distance to beat.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe first thing that went through my head is the same thing that I think goes through a lot of people\u2019s heads: That\u2019s wild. Why would you even do anything like that?\u201d Moreau said.<\/p>\n But the next thing that went through his head was an aquatic equation he became determined to solve: If up to 90% of a swimmer\u2019s propulsion<\/a> comes from their arms, how does one swim when their hands are tied? \u201cThen to me,\u201d Moreau said, \u201cit became more of a technical challenge.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n At his peak, Moreau racked up weekly distances nearing 65,000 yards, or 37 miles. He did it all with restricted wrists. Michael Moreau<\/p>\n The best way to crack it, he deduced, was to lean on his historically strong breaststroke kick. And the best stage on which to attempt it, his logic later went, was the best city in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n So after sailing past Allam\u2019s record by returning to Hawaii in handcuffs in May 2025<\/a>, Moreau set out, yet again, to do what no man had done before: swim the city\u2019s perimeter in a literal bind. \u201cIf I\u2019m able to pull this off,\u201d he thought, \u201cthis will be the defining moment of my open-water career.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNonswimmers don\u2019t want to hear about it because they go, \u2018Oh my God, you swim in the Hudson River?\u2019 I wouldn\u2019t stick my finger in there.\u201d<\/p>\n Capri Djatiasmoro<\/p>\n Swimming upstream\u00a0<\/p>\n Like members of any sporting subculture, plenty of open-water swimmers pursue maniacal-to-mortals exploits that fly under the mainstream radar.\u00a0<\/p>\n In New York, enthusiasts embark on annual Urban Swim<\/a> adventures like circling the Statue of Liberty or front-crawling beneath the Brooklyn Bridge. About a hundred people pay $5,500<\/a> to take on the 20 Bridges Swim Around Manhattan, just one-third of the so-called \u201cTriple Crown\u201d of open-water swimming. And if the only thing a lap around the Big Apple wets is an athlete\u2019s appetite for more, they can do it all over again<\/a> and loop the city twice.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then there are the superhuman stunts, like reverse-swimming around Manhattan<\/a> \u2014 that is, against the currents \u2014 and powering around the island in butterfly<\/a>. Just last year, a local therapist and artist became the first to swim around the borough \u2014 and then run around it too.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m training in a pool with a silicone ring tied around my arms and everybody is thinking I\u2019m doing this weird drill,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of second-guessing.\u201d Michael Moreau<\/p>\n \u201cNonswimmers don\u2019t want to hear about it because they go, \u2018Oh my God, you swim in the Hudson River?\u2019 I wouldn\u2019t stick my finger in there,\u2019\u201d Djatiasmoro said.\u00a0<\/p>\n But since the early 2000s, she\u2019s helped organize swims like a 10-miler from Coney Island to Red Hook, and has only once been whacked by a seal, sturgeon or something else lurking in the great unknown. \u201cIt was very funny,\u201d Djatiasmoro recalled. \u201cI just kept swimming. That was it \u2014 one smack.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet even she was alarmed by Moreau\u2019s proposition to take on the city\u2019s seas in chains. With limited arm mobility, how would a crew swiftly hoist him, if necessary, out of harm\u2019s way? \u201cHe mentioned handcuffs,\u201d Djatiasmoro recalled, \u201cAnd I said, \u2018Wow. Good luck with that.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Swimming a marathon distance in handcuffs requires \u201can adaptation to remove one of the biggest elements that can support you in any swim, which is the hands, and put all the focus and the efforts on your legs and lower body,\u201d the former record holder Allam, 35, told The Post. He commended Moreau\u2019s effort, adding that he expected his record to one day be broken.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI know how much effort it takes to be achieved, maybe more than anyone,\u201d Allam said.<\/p>\n Locked up and locked in\u00a0<\/p>\n Moreau wasn\u2019t deterred. He moved apartments to access a 25-yard, 24-hour pool. He trained in rough conditions off of Coney Island, fueled by the liquid carbs stashed in the buoy that trailed behind.<\/p>\n At his peak, Moreau racked up weekly distances nearing 65,000 yards, or 37 miles. He did it all with restricted wrists and without leaving his demanding day job.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m training in a pool with a silicone ring tied around my arms and everybody is thinking I\u2019m doing this weird drill,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of second-guessing. There\u2019s a lot of self-doubt. There\u2019s a lot of: Is this even worth the trouble?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But the more Moreau practiced, the more he bolstered his body and mind. He repeated visualization exercises and came to trust that the most mentally paralyzing dangers \u2014 from motorboats and sharks to dead bodies and deadly bacterias \u2014 were more rare than common.<\/p>\n On the day of the swim, his crew included another ultramarathon swimmer, his sister, a boat captain, a kayaker and a Guinness World Records officiator. Michael Moreau<\/p>\n \u201cYou eventually learn how to adapt yourself out of that mindset and realize what you need to focus on is your swimming, how you\u2019re handling the waves, how you\u2019re handling the currents, your breathing,\u201d Moreau said. \u201cYou try to manage everything that is in your control.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Then, on the morning of Sept. 9, 2025, Moreau locked up and jumped in. His crew \u2014 including Djatiasmoro, his sister, a boat captain, a kayaker and a Guinness World Records officiator \u2014 coasted by his side.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was euphoric,\u201d Moreau said when he reached Hell Gate, a tumultuous mix of three tributaries near Randall\u2019s island, well before the required time. But his elation didn\u2019t last. Turning onto the shallow, disorienting and reverse-flow waters of the Harlem felt like hitting a \u201cbrick wall,\u201d Moreau said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even kicking down the Hudson \u2014 considered the \u201chome stretch\u201d with over 12 miles to go and the Statue of Liberty in view \u2014 presented a perilous twist: Construction on the Lincoln Tunnel had created a current that threatened to pull him straight under a barge. \u201cI had no idea until after the swim\u2026how dire that situation was,\u201d Moreau said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Construction on the Lincoln Tunnel had created a current that threatened to pull him straight under a barge. Michael Moreau<\/p>\n (Jail) breaking 10\u00a0<\/p>\n Nearing Brookfield Place, Moreau\u2019s kayaker relayed thrilling news: If he hustled, he could break 10 hours. Most unshackled 20 Bridges swimmers finish in seven and a half to nine and a half hours; Moreau\u2019s goal was 11.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHell yeah, let\u2019s do this,\u201d he thought. When his sprint-kick to the finish clocked a 9 hour and 41 minute time, Moreau said he \u201clet it all out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the culmination of everything that led up to it \u2014 the uncertainty, the amount of doubt in my mind about: Have I gone past even what is humanly possible?\u201d he said. \u201cTo have that far-fetched pipe dream \u2014 where literally everybody is telling me, \u2018You\u2019ve gone too far, this is madness at this point\u2019\u2019 \u2014\u00a0 finally crystallized into reality\u2026was monumental.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking back, the triumph left Moreau with more than two Guinness World Record plaques and one case of cellulitis, a painful but treatable bacterial infection, in both legs. \u201cThis is really a testament that there\u2019s no limit to how big you can dream,\u201d he said. \u201cYou should never stop doing that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n As for his next big dream? \u201cIt may be too early to say.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t