Serbian swims the amazon in 46 days (5450 km).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/17/serbia-darko-novovic-amazon-swimming
I assume the water flows quickly, but is this possible?
Amazing.
There was a great documentary about the last fellow who did this (Martin Strel) and how he slowly went insane. I can’t recall the name now, but if you get a chance to see it, do. You’ll see that the water moves that quickly.
AP
Big River Man
.
I gotta see that. But still, this guy was apparently in the water swimming 16 hours/day.
I met a guy who had a bunch of arctic swim-type records. It’s a different world.
Any of them parasites run up his Johnson?
Any of them parasites run up his Johnson?
That plus there’s pirhanna, any number of poisonous snakes, plus what else? Crocs?
It’s pretty courageous I’d say.
Crocs present the greatest danger. The article said he swam in some sort of a net contraption to keep him safe from them. It’s funny what he said about the water and how disgusting it was. Yum.
River monsters! There’s the man-eating catfish there…I’m most afraid of the parasites in the johnson though
ahh… I swam Devilman twice in south jersey. let him try swimming in that water :o)
Insert pink of course
Awesome, I just got the DVD on ebay.
Has anyone noticed how unlean most endurance swimmers are? Fat just doesn’t seem to matter.
There was a great documentary about the last fellow who did this (Martin Strel) and how he slowly went insane. I can’t recall the name now, but if you get a chance to see it, do. You’ll see that the water moves that quickly.
AP
Great documentary. Strel was a little crazy before he started the swim, but it was sad and disturbing to see him at the end.
yeah the guy is a slob…you wouldn’t expect that.
I don’t know that I’d call him a slob, but more fat than you’d expect.
I have some friends who’ve packed on the pounds post-swimming career and can still throw down some amazing times with nil training. Much better than me with my now-noodly arms.
I think the blubber might even help…
Slob may have been a bit harsh. But the dude is huge. I give him mad props for doing what he does though.
I’m reading the River of Doubt right now which is about Teddy Roosevelt’s discovery of this main tributary of the Amazon. It gives a very real discription of how truly dangerous that river is. In addition to all the creatures IN the water, add in the rapids? And the native people? And who knows what else??
That’s a crazy idea in the first place.
As others have said, he did it all in a cage, so I’m not sure how dangerous it really was.
Dont you have to pack the pounds on for a distance swim ? I saw a documentry on a english channel crossing where the swimmer puts on a lot of fat for calorie’s and I guess the cold ? When I swam in High School there was this guy who was way out of shape with a huge beer gut that could swim butterfly like noo one else. He held the county and maybe state record to if I recall correctly
I don’t think you have to pack on the pounds for distance swimming, but it doesn’t seem to hurt like, say, running.
For channel swimming, that’s a different story. It’s effing cold and the official body that regulates it won’t let you wear a wetsuit, so effectively you have to have a bunch of body fat. I looked into doing it at one point, but decided it was incompatible with my (very modest) running/tri goals.
OTOH it’s possible to be pretty slender and fast. David Davies (best UK distance guy) is 6’2", 159 pounds:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Davies_(swimmer)
Davies did a 14:45 in Athens, and he got a silver in the 10k swim in Beijing. Not bad for a skinny guy.
Actually it looks like he gained some weight for OWS.