CNN
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Maya Melhige eventually stopped counting her jellyfish stab wounds. That was how often they were burning on her skin.
At this point, Melhige was already a few hours after a 27-mile swim across New Zealand’s Cook Strait, slowly becoming immune to the small burning sensations that covered her body. Finally, her face – her nose, ears, and even her lips were stuck on them.
“Constantly, 25 times a minute – over and over,” is the frequency with which a 17-year-old Californian estimates she is stabbed. This is equivalent to one for every three times. This is an aggressive exposure therapy for those who claim to be afraid of jellyfish.
“Even when I was in the water, I already said, ‘I’m so scared. I don’t want to see jellyfish,’ adds Merhige. “So I was fighting mentally with myself to overcome that fear.”
Confronting her biggest fear is what Marhige did again and again while swimming in the world’s most challenging and unforgiving waters.
Crossing the Cook Strait, which separates New Zealand’s North and South Islands, was another step towards her goal last month to become the youngest person to complete the Ocean 7, with a series of brutal open waters swiming around the world.
Before graduating from high school, Melhige managed to cross the Cook Straits through Hawaii’s Molokai Channel, the Catalina Channel off the coast of Los Angeles, and the British channel between England and France.
Her to-do lists include the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland, the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco, and the Tsunami Strait of Japan.
“I want to be the youngest, which means I have to do them by January 2028,” says Merhige. “I want to complete all of them and I’m really excited about what I’ve left behind.”
In line with the guidelines of the Marathon Swim Mars Federation, only swimsuits, not swimsuits, can be used by people who are open for solo, unassisted marathon swims.
Merhige is led by a support boat and pauses every 30 minutes to receive feed from the crew. The intersection of Cook Straits is said to have been the hardest swimming ever. It was revealed the next day when I struggled to lift my arms above shoulder height.
The physical sacrifice of stroke after stroke for more than half a day was exacerbated by choppy oceans and strong currents. That means Marhige swam 27 miles instead of 13.7 and was in the water for over 14 hours instead of the planned seven.
But what was tested more than anything was her spiritual determination. Especially when the large wind turbines marking the end of the swim seemed never near. Merhige said the best solution was to stop swimming in the distance and get hooked.
This is one of the reasons why she prefers to tackle marathon swims at night, and can’t worry about how far she has to go, or what kind of sea creatures lurking in the ocean below.
“If I can’t see them, I just say myself: I don’t care, I don’t see it,” says Mahige – of course referring to those very scary jellyfish. “If you can’t see them, they’re not there, so I’m just pretending it’s not happening.
Another perk to cross the Cook Strait at night – Marhige went almost throughout the entire swimming – was able to get a glimpse of the shooting star and avoided the midday sun’s fever of New Zealand’s punishment.
Also, getting sunburned means there is no risk of sunburn. If you have a high school prom a few days later and want to avoid arriving by wearing a swimming cap on your forehead, that’s useful, Marhige points out.
As obstacles progress, poorly-timed tan lines are relatively minor lines when it comes to swimming in the world’s most dangerous oceans.
Melhige struggled to start hallucinating as he swam across the length of Lake Tahoe in 2022. “I thought I was lured with a part of it and thought I was swimming with a stuffed animal of the size of a human,” she says.
However, due to the many challenges she encounters while swimming, Marhige still claims that she is happier underwater than anywhere else. She explains that she is a “safe place” where she considers herself a complete visitor to her environment.
“This has become this wonderful relationship,” says Mahige. “I love being in the water. I definitely love it more and more. I respect the ocean and water more than I did when I first started swimming.
“I’ve been doing mental exercises underwater so I can adapt myself to deal with any situation. Even if it’s scary, I know I can overcome that fear. That keeps me safe and that makes me feel safe.”
Merhige has now completed 10 marathon swims, but by definition it measures at least 6.2 miles (10 kilometers).
With the nonprofit swimming across the United States, she has raised over $130,000 for pediatric cancer research.
The thoughts of those living with cancer motivate Melhige in her darkest and harshest waters.
“I have a child in the hospital literally going through chemotherapy and going through radiation. If I can get through that, I can continue swimming. That’s nothing,” she says.
“I tell myself I’ve been thinking it over and over again. “This is bigger than me. There are people who are rooting for me, and there are people who are doing this.”
Mahige also faces her own recent health challenges. In March 2023, she ruptured a benign tumor in her pancreas during a ski crash, causing severe pain and required surgery.
She returned to the water two weeks after the surgery, but two months after she went in and out of the hospital for further treatment last year, Merhige completed the crossing of the English Channel.
More surgeries are on the horizon this summer. In other words, another sea swim hasn’t appeared on the card this year. It will have to wait until 2026, when Merhige hopes to complete two, perhaps three, perhaps three of his remaining swims in his first year at university.
She is currently in the previous truck and hopes to be in school on the East Coast. It’s on the other side of Berkeley’s hometown.
“I don’t think any of my top schools are close to the water,” says Mahige.
According to Merhige, water is where she feels “the most of her” and has no intention of saying goodbye to that part of her identity while she is in college. But is there one bonus to being on the East Coast? Jellyfish are very far away.
