IT was during the summer of 1997 as Montgomery "Monte" Monfore was holidaying on Bali that an article in the Bali Echo caught his eye. It featured a fellow Californian, David Yudovin, who had set a world record the previous year for swimming the Bali Strait, the channel that separates Java and Bali. The strait had only ever been conquered by five swimmers—coincidentally all from California—with Yudovin the fastest to complete the dang