I saw on 60 Minutes II this evening a feature story on a woman who swam about 1.2 miles in the Antarctic waters. She was wearing nothing more than an ordinary swim suit. Wow!
I saw that same show last night. Although the water looked decievingly nice, but a little wavey, you could tell it was definitely cold when she got out and they were talking to her and her teeth where chattering a mile a minute.
Gives me reason not to complain at practice when I think the water is to cold in the morning :-)
greg
That was so awesome!!! Though the coldest I have gotten into was 65 degrees and that pretty much sucked. She's great for even trying it and to keep going.
The Woman featured on 60 minutes was Lyn Cox, out of San Diego:
"US long-distance swimmer Lynne Cox made two swims from a
tourist ship in Antarctic Peninsula waters recently.
Both swims were made from the landing platform of
US-based tour company Quark Expedition's ship 'Orlova'
to points on shore. Cox's stated goal was to become the
first person to swim a mile in Antarctic waters.
The first swim, which was a "practice" for her mile
attempt, took just over 22 minutes in 36 degree water,
while the mile in Neko Harbour, where the 33 degrees,
took 25 minutes.
Cox has previously swum the English Channel, and between
the Diomede Islands in the Bering Strait.
Three zodiacs and an emergency physician accompanied
the swimmer during both swims, as did a film crew from
CBS. A story on Cox's swims is scheduled to appear on
"60 Minutes" some time next month."
From Swim Info.com
You can also read the Press Release.
Lyn was also featured in the February 3 edition of the New Yorker Magazine.
Not for me, thanks. I find it hard enough to jump into a heated outdoor pool in the middle of the winter. I was also down in the Antarctic back in January and saw LOTS of leopard seals.
When I was a diver with the Coast Guard (early '70's) we did an Arctic dive (500 miles north of Spitzbergen). It was really cool! (I mean fun.) I had a quarter-inch wetsuit on and we peed in the suit to create a warm barrier. We made about three dives like that lasting about 20 minutes each. Talk about clear water! We could see the whole length of the ship - 269 feet. Never seen anything like that since.
Gosh, just when I was thinking my four non wet suit swims in the San Francisco Bay were cold......
As to why? Because it's there....I am impressed! Big time!
