That doesn't sound too bad. Warm water ? Wetsuit ? Freshwater ? No currents ?

It's in no way comparable to swimming the English Channel though.

Looks like this Belgium swimmer had a fairly eventful Channel crossing last week:

Another successful solo swim was achieved by Carl Plasschaert on the 1st September. His time was an amazing 12hrs and 06mins (subject to ratification) with pilot Eric Hartley and observer Keith Oiller. Carl landed on the rocks approximately 1/2 mile south of Cap Gris-Nez at 19:11 hrs. Carl is reportedly only the 14th Belgian to successfully complete a solo Channel Swim and did so in the worst conditions that the observer had experienced in the past 2 seasons. A south westerly wind of 20 kts was recorded with an estimated 8 ft swell with breaking waves over the last 5 hours of the swim.

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´Get the most aero and light bike you can get. With the aero advantage you can be saving minutes and with the weight advantage you can be saving seconds. In a race against the clock both matter.´

BMANX

I just used my nylon feeding line tied one end to the front ring of my boat and the other end tied around my waist.

But whoever shot him in the head with an arrow was the descendant of someone else who floated 1000 miles to another shore while nibbling on coconuts. Somebody was the first to make it to all those South Pacific islands. And look at Hawaii--it's more than 1000 miles from the closest island. Just think how many people died sailing to nowhere before a man and a woman landed.

I would think that would chafe like mad.

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Swim - Bike - Run the rest is just clothing changes.

+1 Different water can have totally different conditions. Maybe the English channel isn't a high jellyfish area so there would be no reason for them to need protection from them. They can keep their "EC" rules in the English channel and they can come try the Cuba to Florida swim with "CF" rules. Jellyfish protection allowed. Or if someone else wants to be the first to complete the Cuba to Florida swim without jellyfish protection and outdo Nyad, then have at it.

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"If you can't win, make the guy ahead of you break the record." - Anonymous
Runner's High

Very awesome!! Why not just tow the 4th boat that you need to be sanctioned? :)

Which brings up an interesting discussion. Which of the following is more bad ass--swimming the 20 mile Catalina Channel (for example. Insert any of your favorite channels) either:

1. No wetsuit, but with a navigation/feeding boat that will also block wind/chop and pull the swimmer in case of trouble. (ie: Catalina Channel Swimmer Federation rules); or,
2. Wetsuit, but no boat at all for navigation/feeding/drafting/rescue. Entirely self-supported and solo.

I'm not concerned about which federations would sanction it: that's bureaucracy and ego. I want to discuss which is harder, and why no one does the latter.

I think option 2 would be harder simply from a navigation point of view. I don't see how a stand alone swimmer could set the course to navigate the currents and reach shore.

I agree. That's why I wonder how the "no wetsuit" rule has become the standard of purity. It's like saying, "I'm going to run across the Sahara, and it will be pure, solo and unassisted because I won't wear shoes." But neglecting to mention you'll have a Land Rover blazing trail, providing food and water, and rescuing you if things go wrong.

I want to see a new generation of bad ass open water swimmers dispense with the dinosaurs locked in their arcane and irrelevant rules.

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That reminds me of watching Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman in The Long Way Down when they were in a Nth African desert doing their EPIC,BADASS,AMAZING ride on BMW 1100s and fully supported from Ireland to Cape Town and they come across a German cyclist who was five years into a solo trip around the world.Ewan turns to Charley and says something like "Don't you feels like a pussy now?"

I cracked up!!

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Ya, I think once you're out of sight of the shore you're aiming for, you'd be hard pressed to navigate your way over there. I suppose you might reach shore eventually after swimming 30 miles or so and ending up 5 or 6 miles down, or up, from where you were aiming for.

On the whole though, I think you're fighting a losing battle though, as OW purists have been "no wetsuit" for like 40 or 50 yrs or more. That's a lot of tradition to go against. What I'd like to know is how fat would I have to get??? Are we talking no visible abs at all, or even full-blown love handles??? I wonder if anyone's ever done an evaluation of the relative BMI of those who've swum the Channel, i.e. does it take a BMI of 25, 28, 30, or what???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Ha!

It's definitely nature's way of reminding us to keep our egos in check. Like when I'm cross-country skiing and get passed by a pregnant lady pulling a ski-Burley. http://www.burley.com/home/bur/page_3256

If I had the 4th boat I wouldn't need to tow any boat! lol

Ok when I did my 16km trial swim in lake ontario the water went from calm to 3-4ft swells I only had one boat (27ft) as the support boat, no kayaks or other support boats needed for the trial swim.
I only had a shortened crew of my wife and daughter (to time my feedings and pass me my food), my swim master, ( official from SSO watching my swim) his niece a second swim master in training and the Captain, at no time did i swim along side the boat except to get my feed, I did not swim behind the boat or along the wake, for the most part the boat was usually about 20-30ft to my right so I could see it and the crew to call me for my feedings, then I would swim up to the boat.

Would i do the swim without a support boat? without or with a wetsuit? No way! You need a boat for sighting and crew for feeding, they navigate and the swimmer follows along on the open water sighting off the boat. The only time on a Solo swim that you would have boats, usually zodiacs beside you is while you swim at night, then they are on both sides of the swimmer about 5 ft from you to keep you in sight.
Could you swim solo on open water swim with a life preserver,..I mean wetsuit? Yes, anyone can swim long with a PFD, er I mean a wetsuit! ;) but the challenge is to swim naked (no wetsuit) because when you get tired with a wetsuit, you can easly rest floating on the water at any time for as long as you want, but try treading water naked after swimming for hours on end? .

When I swam pulling my boat, the boat was my lifeline while in the middle of the lake if I got in trouble, unless I had a heart attack? lol I carried my feeding on the boat I pulled, which was all liquids attached to a line hanging over the side of the boat that I could reach while I swam tethered to the boat and I always had sight of the shore which made my swim possible, and of course no wetsuit used. But could this be done across a large body of water? probably, but i wouldn't recomend it because once you lose sight of land in the water swimming you have no Idea where you are or where you are going, With no land to sight you could be swimming in circles! thus the reason for the navigation boat with GPS to keep the swimmer on course.

My advice is to learn to swim open water without a PFD, er wetsuit, before attempting any solo swimming and do it safely with support! :)

"Which brings up an interesting discussion. Which of the following is more bad ass--swimming the 20 mile Catalina Channel (for example. Insert any of your favorite channels) either:

1. No wetsuit, but with a navigation/feeding boat that will also block wind/chop and pull the swimmer in case of trouble. (ie: Catalina Channel Swimmer Federation rules); or,
2. Wetsuit, but no boat at all for navigation/feeding/drafting/rescue. Entirely self-supported and solo.

I'm not concerned about which federations would sanction it: that's bureaucracy and ego. I want to discuss which is harder, and why no one does the latter."

No chafing, just put the line around my waist, adjusted it till it was comfortable and away I went.

Good question. It looks like some research has been done. Here's one study. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...articles/PMC1724380/ (free pdf download).

They studied 8 marathon swimmers in a 6-day relay, water temps 9-11 C (48-52 F). They found a strong correlation between body fat (skinfold measurements) and the length of time they could stay in the water.

The % fat is not listed, but just going by bmi--the lightest swimmers were in the 22-24 range, and could stay in the water 20-30 minutes at a time. The heaviest ones were 26-30+ bmi, and could stay in the water longer than an hour at a time.

So while an "average" triathlete might have the natural insulation do a channel swim, a lean competitive one, possibly not.

Most the guys I've known to do EC aim for 20+% body fat . If you are super fast maybe less but even if only in for 8 hours you need all the padding you can get.

Sure, but for a couple thousand years sailors have been crossing oceans with celestial navigation. For a daytime swim a watch, the sun, and some knowledge (and application) of navigation are all that's needed. I've done it on land while trekking.

Night time you might be hosed if there's cloud cover (no moon or stars), but that's part of the adventure, no?

Just because it's hard doesn't mean it's impossible! Let's hear it for the new breed of adventure swimmers!!!

Do they look like this?

www.johnvanwisse.com


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Methinks that his channel swimming weight:


Is quite different from his Kona weight:

Ya, think he's prob about 35-40 lbs heavier, which is about what I'd prob need to gain myself if I wanted to try the EC. I think I'll stick with warmer swims:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Firstly, huge props to anyone who can swim these distances in any conditions!

There's just no point in trying to compare the English Channel to the Staright of Cortez or Lake Tahoe or pretty much any other body of water. I grew-up swimming in (certainly not across!) the EC and have sailed in it a great deal. That is a scary body of water, even in a boat! The currents are huge as the water funnels through the Straights of Dover (where the crossing is shortest); the water is always freakin' cold even in "summer" (which, by US standards basically doesn't exist there! :-) ) and even a "flat" day has considerable swell/chop. On top of that, it's like a super highway for shipping - very scary!

Swimming the Channel is an enormous achievement and I would respectfully suggest that a VERY small number of Ironman finishers could complete it unless they had undergone significant "Channel specific" training.

It seems to me that the EC swimmers should be happy with their own accomplishments - why do they have to be compared to Nyad's (and vice versa)?

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http://rogersroadrash.blogspot.com/

Since you actually used to live on or near the EC, when you saw people trying to swim the Channel, did it appear that they were getting any sort of draft off of the boat??? Just curious, no plans to try:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."