Skip to content
Diana Nyad's Bimini-Florida swim
paulm
Senior Member
Below from DN's wikipedia.........Can anyone give any insight into this swim ??? (record/not record ????? )
• 1979: In what was to be her last "competitive" swim on her 30th birthday (August 21–22, 1979), she set a world record for distance swimming (both men and women) over open water by swimming 102 miles (164 km) from North Bimini Island, Bahamas, to Juno Beach, Florida (without the use of protective shark cage). Thanks to favorable winds and a following sea she averaged 3.7 miles per hour (6.0 kilometres per hour) and completed the swim in 27 and one-half hours.[19]
Thanks !! Paul
• 1979: In what was to be her last "competitive" swim on her 30th birthday (August 21–22, 1979), she set a world record for distance swimming (both men and women) over open water by swimming 102 miles (164 km) from North Bimini Island, Bahamas, to Juno Beach, Florida (without the use of protective shark cage). Thanks to favorable winds and a following sea she averaged 3.7 miles per hour (6.0 kilometres per hour) and completed the swim in 27 and one-half hours.[19]
Thanks !! Paul
Tagged:
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Bimini to Florida is just under 52 miles.
...anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
...anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
I don't know why the course was chosen, but ...
And another- if someone was to cross the English Channel from Portsmouth to say Le Havre- a distance of approximately 150 kilometre plus direct point to point swim - should that only be viewed as a 34 K English Channel crossing(shortest distance between land mass ) ?? Interested in people's thoughts.....
The swim from Bimini to Juno is clearly current assisted. I’m not sure how such a swim should be measured for the purpose of comparison to a current neutral swim. I don’t know how Jaimie’s proposed route is influenced by currents.
...anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
Agree re comments current assisted Bimini to Juno .
Back to Portsmouth to Le Havre 150 k swim ....I believe that should be considered a potential distance record ?? (It is point to point ,No current assistance...but there are shorter routes across the EC of 34 K ) ????? Thoughts
Had @Haydn succeeded at his Dungeness-Cap Gris-Nez crossing last year, it would have been considered an EC, but instead of 21 miles it would have been 24 or 25 (can't remember exactly. The Dungeness started was used back in the 50s & 60s).
@WayneS's 2012 Mull of Kintyre crossing of the NC. Mercedes Gleitze famously tried it and didn't succeed, but Tom Blower crossed by the Mull of Galloway route in the 50's. @WayneS' crossing isn't considered a standard NC crossing. Mull of Kintyre is shorter than Mull of Galloway but the reason it wasn't done, apart from the usual NC reasons, were even stronger currents and standing waves and if you pass Rathlin Island you are screwed. (The fact that ILDSA doesn't have an actual North Channel committee with marathon swimmers didn't help this situation).
loneswimmer.com
I don't know much about DN's Bimini swim but I would guess that they did not care where they landed just as long as they got across (usual goal in a crossing). In that case the shortest distance should be counted. If they had pre stated that Juno Beach was the goal then the 92.25 miles should be considered.
As for for Jamie's swim, it is going to be in a lake, not crossing from one land mass to another, so point to point distance should be counted.
The extra 50 miles of "swimming" was courtesy of that current. The only way to get across is to use the current to your advantage and consider it in navigation tactics. Gail Rice made it to within 10 miles of the beach in the late-90s and had tracked over 25 miles north when she was pulled out,IIRC. I don't know how far Stella Taylor went in the early 70s, but I'm sure you'll see similar courses.
You can view that swim on a bunch of ways taking several considerations into account. Distance covered very well could have been 102 miles all the while swimming to the US.
The English Channel isn't called the Channel 42K (or whatever the official shortest distance is). We all take/took different courses to get to the other side. All that matters is just getting there.
The Channel is a crossing; plain and simple. Just like the Bimini swim is/was.
The extra distance is just a footnote.
Did she float 'down river' in an inflated inner tube also?! ;-)
They point out, "without the use of protective shark cage"...as if "unassisted".
Why call it "following sea" instead of what it is, "current assisted"?!
Back in the 70s Diana Nyad and Stella Taylor were pretty much it for high profile marathon swims in the US. Shark cages were somewhat of an expected and assumed practice without any contoversy. Maybe it was the "Jaws" effect. For a good time with shark cages, check out Susie Maroney's charted course in her Cuba swim. Slow and all over the place outside of it. Fast, straight, and consistent inside of it.
Manhattan Island is current assist, but no one bats an eye at it. The geography and conditions are what they are, so I don't really understand giving it a label because of these known factors.
With respect to Nyad's promotion(s), I'm also not overly concerned with her because this is how she makes her living. You wouldn't squeeze in some superlatives if it would help sell some books or tickets?
And speaking of Stella Taylor, she was a huge influence on me when I was a camper at Camp Chikopi up in Canada and living in Fort Lauderdale. Bob Duenkel (ISHOF curator) showed us old 8mm movies of Stella's swims from back in the day. She was a total bad-ass, which was out of character from when she was a nun. I hope some of you do some research on her and see what it was like way back when. Look the movies up if your ever down at the ISHOF (before they move to California, IIRC). She's my swimming hero and greatly unappreciated and almost forgotten.
I understand your points and generally agree...but I think "superlatives" is being generous of heart.