Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. Chris Lechner is a 56-year-old American hand surgeon and adventurer from Asheville, North Carolina. He paddled solo 277 miles (446 km) in the French Broad River in North Carolina and attempted a non-escorted 80-mile (128.7 km) open water swim across Lake Michigan with a paddleboard in tow. He was rescued