Tony Scalabrino is a 74-year-young engineer and world-class weatherman. "Tony is still the go-to man for plotting new routes and deciding on weather conditions for ocean swims," explains Theodore Yach about the former karate specialist-turned-escort pilot. "His technical research over the years has saved swimmers many extra hours. For example, in the early
It appears that Martin Goodman (shown on left), Roger Finch and Theodore Yach were railroading their way to Robben Island in Cape Town, South Africa with the use of some very decent-sized ocean swells at their backs. But as Finch describes, "The rollers were going in the opposite direction." Sometimes the open water is with you; sometimes it is against
In 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Lewis Pugh took the evidence of witnesses from across Africa on the effects of climate change at the Pan-African Climate and Poverty Hearings. Their findings were presented to the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference. And the two continue to cross paths. Today is Archbishop Tutu's 82nd
A leader in the water and in the boardroom. South African Theodore Yach is at 72 and counting. Yach has for more than four decades completed a solo swim from Robben Island to Cape Town 72 times. In 2009 he became the first person to swim from Cape Town around Robben Island and back. But every time, he subjects himself to jellyfish stings, bluebottles,
We have seen open water swimmers fighting valiantly through huge seas with rolling swells larger than two-story buildings. Channel swimmers in the Kaiwi Channel between Molokai and Oahu in Hawaii, or swimmers heading through the Potato Patch as they swim to or from the Farallon Islands near San Francisco also occasionally face arduous conditions rarely seen
On Sunday, Dr. Otto Thaning became the oldest person, at the age of 72, to complete a Robben Island crossing. His time of 2 hours 19 minutes across the 7 km expanse of cold water from Robben Island to Blouberg Beach was faster than his 2007 time of 2 hours 37 minutes at the age of 66. As a heart surgeon, his cardiovascular system seems as healthy as ever.
Roger Finch, a member of the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming and the Half Century Club, lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. 1,263 miles from Cape Town and a large platoon of the South African extreme swimmers, ice swimmers, marathon swimmers and channel swimmers, Finch found it a tough task logistically to prepare for his channel swims in the
So how cold is the water in Cape Town, South Africa? "In Cape Town, we are lucky in that the water temperatures varies all year round and week round so anything from an 8ºC (460ºF) swim to 16ºC (61ºF) swim is possible and probable. But the water seldom drops below 10ºC (50ºF)," explains Andrew Chin. "The coldest I think we have had is around 7.5ºC (45ºF).
There are good reasons why rules and traditions used in one part of the world are not universally used in other parts of the open water swimming world. Marine life is one significant reason for differentiation. Specifically, waters have different levels of risk: open bodies of water can have the absence or presence of sharks and jellyfish. There can be
With Joseph Locke's attempt at swimming 30 miles (48 km) from the Golden Gate Bridge through the Red Triangle to the Great White Shark haven of the Farallon Islands in water that started at 51°F (10.5°C) and then fell to 47°F (8.3°C) as the air temperature hovered just over 41°F (5°C), the amount of cold-water acclimatization training necessary to complete
