Fifty-year-old Frenchman Ben Lecomte will embark Sunday on a swim from the coast of Chosi, Japan, and intends to stay in the water for six months.
Update: Lecomte is waiting for a piece of equipment to arrive in Japan and will now depart between June 2nd and 4th.
By the end of those six months, Lecomte plans to have swum to San Francisco; he would be the first to swim the Pacific Ocean.
Lecomte, who has been preparing for the upcoming swim for four years, in 1998 claims to have become the first person to swim the Atlantic Ocean without a kickboard. In that attempt he covered 3,700 miles in 73 days – it’s unclear how that happened, however, because that works out to roughly 6.5-minute miles. That would be an impressive distance to run in 73 days, let alone swim, leading to many questions about the veracity of the claim.
As he did in the Atlantic swim, Lecomte will spend his nights on a sailboat. That swim was not verified by Guinness World Records because the sailboat drifted each night, so he did not necessarily begin in the morning where he left off.
This time, he is scheduled to swim for eight hours and says he will ideally cover 30 miles each day – that’s averaging 16-minute miles for about 5,500 miles. He will be accompanied by an eight-person crew and has financial backers including Discovery lined up. Seeker.com, will also feature video updates throughout the swim on its “The Swim” homepage.
Additionally, 13 institutions (including NASA) will conduct scientific research on various aspects of the swim, including water quality, trash presence, and the effects of the swim on Lecomte’s body. He will wear an extensive amount of equipment to track his state for both safety and scientific reasons.
To train for the massive undertaking, Lecomte swims six hours a day in open water.
“But an adventure like this is really mind over matter,” he told the Washington Post. “I’m not trying to swim faster than anybody else. I’m just trying to log my time and my hours per day. What is important is knowing what you’re going to do with your mind.”
wpDiscuz
No.
The world-wide dearth of scientific data on finger “pruny-ness” will finally be corrected.
100×100’s isn’t enough, eh?
How can he swim 16-minute miles for 5500 miles in OPEN WATER at 50 years old?!? 16 minutes for a mile is incredibly fast…
Favorable ocean currents, I suppose.
wind and current
RIP
Stupid
I read in another article he plans on 40 miles per day for 8 hour days. Even at 30 miles per day, no way can he do that amount of yardage in 6 mo unless the ocean current is traveling at 2.0-3.0 mph the entire trip
I also saw that 40 miles/day article. According his website, he is shooting for 30.
Martin Strel (Slovenia) swam the length of the amazon (3,274 miles) in 66 days… anything is possible.
That’s WITH the current. A RIVER current.
correct, I looked it up after you’re point and it seems ocean currents are MUCH stronger and faster (of course depending on where you are and which direction). interesting.
Very excited to see Ben Lecomte swim the Pacific Ocean! So, Go Ben Go!