This guy won the recent Superfrog HIM, and now he’s doing IMH while working to increase the SEALs’ visibility. (A strange turnaround… It used to be that they tried to minimize it.)
I’m a big SEAL groupie- I read all the books. Those guys are amazing. Absolutely astounding.
I doubt he is in the top 100
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Thats because he has to carry anyone that quits to the finish line. No man left behind.
I’m with you. My boy G is a SEAL corpsman and sniper (oh, the irony!) in Coronado. The dude’s a beast, as are all his friends. Balls of steel on those guys.
Any idea what the entrance requirements of that 500 yard swim, 1.5 mile run are? Could your typical triathlete handle it? Would the push-ups and such get us?
S.A.S. is way sicker than navy seals.
I confess to being a SEAL groupie as well. Those guys are bad ass and the one’s manning the aid stations at Superfrog were nice guys to boot.
Here’s some requirements I dug up:
1200m pool swim with fins - 45min
1 mile bay swim with fins - 50min
1 mile ocean swim with fins - 50min
1.5 mile ocean swim with fins - 70 min
2 mile ocean swim with fins - 95 min
4 mile run - 32 min
That’s for the first of three phases. The times gradually go down. You can read more here:
http://www.specialoperations.com/Schools/BUDS/default2.html
OH YEAH??? My daddy can beat up your daddy! ;p
Most of your stronger triathletes could probably handle SEAL physical requirements pretty easily given a little preparation time. But, man, nothing could make me even pretend to think I’d tolerate sitting in freezing water for hours on end…I HATE the cold.
ot
do they teach those guys how to fold their underwear with cardboard-reinforced super precision?
and how to iron their clothes with a multitude of razor sharp and oh-so-critical creases?
and how to polish numerous useless pieces of brassy bits?
if yes, then those seals are indeed some tough mothers…
My guess would be that a good age grouper could meet the physical requirements, but from what I have read and seen (there were NAVSPECWAR guys in some of my classes in the military) it takes a lot you can’t readily test for to be successful in Navy Special Warfare.
First off, the one thing that always amazed me was their resistance to cold. No matter where SEALs operate, they face exposure to adverse cold. From training facilities in Alaska and Norway to the Shahi-kot Valley in Afghanistan SEALs are forced to operate in conditions of extreme cold frequently while wet. I doubt that is something you can train for. I hate being cold and wet.
The other thing I noticed about Naval Special Warfare operatives is a quiet competence you see in very few other services (but most of them within J-SOC). The level of determination to their basic agendas is incredible. I feel sorry for any adversary trying to get the better of a Navy Special Warfare Team.
"I doubt he is in the top 100 "
realy !
I think it is a great goal. I think he will do it.
Thom
i used to work with a former special forces soldier when i was a police officer in kansas. very nice guy, with a wicked dark sense of humor. he and i got along great.
physically, he was an above average athlete, but not a superman, like so many myths about the seals (and other SS troops) hold. we talked about this at length … we worked midnights together, so we had lots of time to talk.
he said that an above average athletic person in good shape who was willng to work extremely hard could handle it physically. the hard part is the mental/psychological challenge. that’s were they seperate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. he said he knew lots of physically gifted people who washed out because they didn’t have the mind for it. likewise, he knew people who were somewhat less phsycially gifted but had amazing mental focus and were psychologically bullet-proof. they made it, despite the phsycial limitations.
this isn’t to say that athleticism is unimportant. clearly it is. but the mindset is even more important.
my friend’s special skill, that he picked up is specops: he spoke several dialects of russian fluently. odd that he was a russian linguist but routinely butchered the english language.
Agreed - Navy SEALs are fit, but they aren’t otherworldly. For many years, the Navy SEAL team that entered in the Eco-Challenge failed to even finish, much less podium. You’d think that sorta thing was right up their alley, yet they couldn’t hang in that particular arena.
I’ve actually met and rode with the girl who was the 4th on the SEAL team that finally broke thru and finished an Eco-Challenge, albeit nowhere near the leaders. She was an excellent mtb’er, although you wouldn’t know it to look at her. Best compliment I could ever give her was, she rode just like a guy - same skills, same speed.
I believe (from speaking with a friend who went through the program) there is also a requirement of 50m underwater. I have never made that one. To make it worse, you start by falling into the water at one end of a 50m pool and then doing a flip to disorient yourself. I can’t even make it through one 50m length from a push. 25m, no problem. 35m, can do. 40m, just barely. But 50m is so far a no go for me. I think that’s the toughest one.
And as Tom said, being cold and wet (add disorented to that list) is a huge part of the training. That part scares me to no end.
And I guess I’m kind of a wuss and I like my high paying, zero-risk-of-physical-danger workplace 
Most triathlete’s could easily do the physical run, swim requirements involved with BUDS. It’s the mental stuff and the day in day out degradation and wear and tear and the freezing cold that gets people. Some peoples bodies just can’t take the punishment. If you let the instructors into your head you will believe that your weak and worthless and quit. My class, 205, started with 138 and we graduated with 28. I could be a little bit off with those #'s but that is what I recall. If you would of told me to pick the 28 that made it on the 1st day I would of picked dead wrong. It is super mental.
Kerry Classen
“Agreed - Navy SEALs are fit, but they aren’t otherworldly. For many years, the Navy SEAL team that entered in the Eco-Challenge failed to even finish, much less podium. You’d think that sorta thing was right up their alley, yet they couldn’t hang in that particular arena.”
The Navy Special Warfare Team at Discovery Channel Eco-Challenge 1996, British Columbia, failed to finish when their female member (not a member of NAVSPECWAR) said she was withdrawing from the race. This happened at a transition to a difficult climb in the race. When the team dropped out, they gave our team (The U.S. Air Force Team, Team #39, Team Phoenix under the leadership of Air Force Survival School instructor Jeff Managhan) all their food.
That is just one time that Navy SEALs have been of assistance to me.
It is only 50 yards but you are right, you jump in feet first and do a somersault underwater and are not allowed to push off the wall to get going. You can push off the other side, but all off 1 breath. My class had a few people just not make it and a few other’s that passed out. One guy passed out right before the end and smacked his head into the wall.
Kerry Classen
tell us about the other times
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My guess would be that a good age grouper could meet the physical requirements
As much as I’d like to think we triathletes are gifted, I don’t think most triathletes would be able to handle the physical strength required to make it through the training. Holding logs over your head, pull-ups and dips when wet and tired, etc. No offense to most triathletes, but they’re great at endurance but skinny little guys when it comes to strength.
Me? I couldn’t handle the cold. I cry in my wetsuit if it’s less than 65 degrees.