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MSF Documented Swims - 2017
evmo
Sydneydev
Congratulations to @thelittlemerwookie - her recent 19-hour, 32-mile Lake George swim is the first MSF Documented Swim of 2017:
http://marathonswimmers.org/swims/2017/block-lake-george
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Woohoo! Well done @thelittlemerwookie - fab swim and very nicely documented. Great start to the season!
Thanks @Jaimie - for the enthusiasm, as well as all the help
And thanks @evmo - for tracking and ratification wizardry!
Beautiful green hills. I hope there were some moments of delight @thelittlemerwookie.
Thanks for posting the course photos as well.
Bravo! A champ
Zane Hodge's 23.5-mile two-way lengthwise swim of the unusually shaped Lake Chicot, Arkansas, is now published:
http://marathonswimmers.org/swims/2017/hodge-chicot
As far as we can tell, this is probably the longest unassisted swim ever in Arkansas.
The swim was observed and expertly documented by Forum member and marathon swimmer @mjstaples. Nice swimming, Zane, and nice documenting, M.J.!
@evmo - that's not oddly shaped at all, at least for those of us who have lived near major rivers. That is an oxbow lake
Today I Learned! Thanks @timsroot
Take the Randy Beets!
)
Sherri "Sam" Mason's 14.75-mile swim across Lake Chautauqua in western New York, is now an MSF Documented Swim:
http://marathonswimmers.org/swims/2017/mason-chautauqua
The swim was observed and documented by Cindy Nelson of the Lake Erie Marathon Swimming Association.
Well done, Sam and team!
A couple months ago @Karl_Kingery quietly undertook a very adventurous (and as far as we know, unprecedented) swim across the length of Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming. It is one of the jewels of Yellowstone National Park, itself one of the jewels of the U.S. National Park system.
This was a 20.0 statute mile swim at over 7,700 feet (2,350m) elevation in brisk freshwater that typically maxes out at 60 degrees F in summer.
Karl and his observer did a wonderful job documenting the swim. I highly recommend reading Karl's narrative report, which provides a fascinating window into the thought and attention to detail that went into planning the swim.
Well done, Karl and team!
http://marathonswimmers.org/swims/2017/kingery-yellowstone/
Very cool swim!! (Hey Boo boo...)
Woooohooo - congrats @Karl_Kingery and team!
Thanks, everyone, this sure was a fun swim to research and go do. The planning was really just as much fun as the actual swim was. Yellowstone is just such a wonderful place to be and there is so much history there. Justin Whaley and Pareesa Goshtasebi are two of the best people and most capable crew members that I know and really made this swim feasible.
Ticonderoga, NY local @Bridget Simpson completed the 32-mile length of Lake George in August, becoming only the 11th person to do so since it was pioneered by Diane Struble in 1958.
Documentation of her 28 hour, 6 minute effort is now published here:
http://marathonswimmers.org/swims/2017/simpson-lake-george
@Bridget previously discussed her swim on the Forum here.
Yay @Bridget and team! Such a beautiful swim - big congratulations! And I am very impressed you were able to climb up onto the rock - the rockst around were so slippery!
August 10 in Ticonderoga is "Bridget Simpson Day". Too cool! Many congrats!
@Karl_Kingery: Your narrative took me back to a place I've never been! The Thorofare is the only part of Yellowstone I'd really like to hike, so mention of ranger stations, Fishing Bridge, the mountain highpoints, the numbered campsites recovered all my earlier, still unrealized plans in one fell swoop.
Your swim also followed, for the greatest part, a canoe trip made by a former Yellowstone ranger who developed rapidly progressive ALS and got permission from the Park to make a last trip, by canoe, in the company of three friends in 2014. (They did get to stay in the ranger stations, because, rangers.) A Week in Yellowstone's Thorofare by Michael Yochim is an eloquent if somber tribute to this wonderful body of water and still wild land in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Congratulations, and special thanks for adding another layer of personal knowledge about this wonderful place. (Yes, it's cold water!)
Congratulations and super well done, Bridget!
WOW!!! Thanks everyone, for the lovely comments! I had a blast, and was totally stunned by the level of community support in my area. This forum has been so helpful on many fronts-- I'm glad I found you!!! :-D
Yes, @Jaimie Diane's Rock was slick, then getting across the small channel to my friend Joan's point was more slipping and sliding! Jim put solar garden lights on the rock for me, but I took so long getting there, I think they were no longer lit. (WHY didn't Diane use the boat launch as her starting point??!) ;-)
What a beautiful adventure! :-D
Another pair of impressive swims by recent IMSHOF inductee @Jaimie Monahan have been published as MSF Documented Swims:
Thanks to @Jaimie, @Arik, and @Fil for making the extra effort to document these swims and preserve them for the history of our sport.
Fabulously done, @Jaimie and team!!
Congrats Daniel Abel and team on a beautifully documented swim around Rarotonga in the Cook Islands.
http://marathonswimmers.org/swims/2017/abel-rarotonga
Love Daniel's detailed narrative and the stunning video put together by his team; also a copy of the original 1985 Cook Islands local news report on the first two swims around Rarotonga (Dan was the first in the clockwise direction). Great stuff all around.
The sheer chutzpah of undertaking this swim impresses the hell out of me.
Rarotonga's largest sporting event is VakaEiva, a week long outrigger canoe festival. It is a big water race. Canoes over 40 feet long flood completely, they get thrown around by waves, currents will slow you to barely a crawl... Massive round of applause for this one.
An amazing swim by a terrific person and team. Many congrats @DanAbel and @Chloe and team! Love the historical newspaper clippings, the narrative, and THAT WATER. Gorgeous!!!
The video is so fantastic! This is great. Yowza! Congratulations!!
Frankly, the effortless eggbeater kick for feeds is causing great envy. :-) Kudos on a great swim with a great cause.
A couple months ago Brian Lanahan undertook a very adventurous 50+ km (31+ mile) swim around James Island, near Charleston, South Carolina. Indeed this swim was nominated as a finalist for this year's Yudovin Award for Most Adventurous Swim. It also required a fair bit of planning and technical knowledge to time the swim with the complicated tides around Charleston Harbor.
Brian's swim was competently observed and documented by Janine @j9swim, and is now preserved for the growing history of our sport.
Congratulations and well done to Brian, Janine, and team.
http://marathonswimmers.org/swims/2017/lanahan-james-island
Amazing and inspiring swim, Brian!
Molly Nance, Lincoln, Nebraska
Beautiful!!!
Favorite line from documentation:
The crew was treated to sightings of many dolphins and Monarch butterflies, it was a magical day, except when the swimmer projectile vomited 3 feet in a perfect arc for at least 5 minutes.
WAY TO GO! I love the write up and realism!
With the accompanying log entry: "swimmer purged.....feels better." Such..................... conciseness! (Is that a word now?)
What a marvelous set of narratives- both Janine's introduction, and Brian's words. Brian- I love how you noted the moonlight bubbles, and the image of cheering yourself on. I wish I had felt brave enough to attempt a three foot arc of vomit! (I kept thinking it would have been a good thing to have practiced in training for my swim, but does anyone really do that?!) I'm so glad it helped you feel better!! I bet if felt like magic to settle down again.
After such detailed and long term preparations, I'm so glad you got your magical day. :-D It sounds like the time allowed you to train to the course, giving you a home water advantage, so to speak.
Open water is a lovely place to be, and it is nice that small fish can feel welcome. :-) Just don't diminish your accomplishment. You set a brisk pace, and managed to use the current to your advantage with what sounds like very precise calculations. With your stroke count, you certainly weren't riding the waves to get where you were going. Quite a pace!
Congratulations on your grand adventure, and many kudos to your fabulous team.
A clever fast fish, not a small fish, I would say! Well done!
Two weeks before her world record 168 km Lake Champlain swim, @ssthomas completed 31km on an unprecedented route in Grand Lake, Oklahoma, in disgustingly hot water (86F at the start).
While merely a training swim for Sarah, it was well-documented and is now officially ratified as a MSF Documented Swim.
http://marathonswimmers.org/swims/2017/sarah-thomas-grand-lake
@SydneD and team did a wonderful job documenting her swim around Culebra in Puerto Rico.
http://marathonswimmers.org/swims/2017/didier-culebra
Proud to add it to the growing library of MSF Documented Swims -- 54 of them since 2013.
Way to go, @SydneD ! Much deserved recognition!
Many congratulations, @SydneD.
Thank you! Couldn't have done it without my amazing team. So so lucky to have these folks in my corner.
well done and great write up
Last October Dave Van Mouwerik swam a loop from Aquatic Park, San Francisco, out and around Angel Island, and back to Aquatic Park. His documentation is now published here:
http://marathonswimmers.org/swims/2017/van-mouwerik-angel-island
Dave's epic, beautifully written personal narrative is especially worth reading, skip directly to it here.
The RTAI is one of the more challenging 10-mile swims around, with strong cross-currents along most of the route, cold SF bay water, windy afternoons, and lots of traffic competing for the same shipping lanes.
Dave is the 11th individual to complete this swim since 1984 - the full list can be viewed here: https://longswims.com/events/round-trip-angel-island
Congrats, Dave!
https://vimeo.com/251688556
Tremendously challenging swim under any circumstances. Well done and fabulous documentation.
Thanks for all the hard work.
Congratulations to Pablo Fernández Álvarez on completing the first documented marathon swim across the Senegal / Gambia border:
http://marathonswimmers.org/swims/2017/fernandez-senegal-gambia
Observed by Arfang Jobe (technical director, Gambia Swimming Association) and escorted by two boats from the Gambian Navy, Pablo swam 16.1 km from Plage d’Or, Senegal, across the mouth of the River Gambia, and finished at Banjul, capital city of Gambia.
Love this one! So cool!
But what's that crazy thing he's doing where he moves his legs?? Should I be doing that?