Skip Storch attempted to swim from Cuba to Florida on June 2-3, 1993. With great fanfare and great expense, Skip started north from Cuba to his goal of Florida. “During the night, I was exposed to millions of jellyfish. The cage pushed most jellyfish aside, but the exception were the 3-foot orange jellyfish that exploded upon impact. I suffered from many stings, but the 3-inch aprons that were affixed to the top of the surface boom on the cage redirected the man o wars aside.
[The cage] protected me from most of the invasive marine life. But what I swam in was not a shark cage, it was a jellyfish cage.”
Skip’s photos on left show the rolled-up mesh that his team put around his aquatic cage. At most, it was 6 inches below the water line in the bow that served to push away to the sides any jellyfish and Portuguese man o war. The cage was constructed of 6-inch chicken wire and was designed to be towed 100-200 feet behind the boat.
This was important in order to not give any drag assistance to the swimmer. Shark cage designer and swim advisor Tim Johnson and Skip were very careful in their design to purposefully not to produce any forward propulsive aid to Skip.
Unsuccessful, but undaunted, Skip lasted 25 hours.
Later, Susie Maroney’s team took Skip’s same cage design and put a solid vinyl sheet around the cage from top to bottom and lashed it to the starboard of the tow vessel. This did not allow any water to pass through.
Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.