Hardened In The Open Water: Observing Stage Swimmers
Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
Ross Edgley is currently en route in The Great British Swim, an estimated 100-day assisted 3,218 km circumnavigation stage swim around Great Britain, while Ben Lecomte is doing The Swim, an estimated 6-9 month assisted 8,721 km transpacific stage swim from Japan to California, U.S.A. across the Pacific Ocean, and Lewis Pugh is on The Long Swim, an estimate 50-day 560 km unassisted stage swim traversing the English Channel from Land’s End in Cornwall to Dover in Kent in the water.
The trio have prepared well for their long-term stage swims, but they will get stronger as time goes on. Just like Avram Iancu‘s 85-day 2,860 km stage swim along the Danube River through Europe in 2017 and Thane Williams and Jonno Proudfoot’s tandem 458 km stage swim across the Mozambique Channel from Mozambique to Madagascar in 2014, there are certain patterns in these types of open water swims.
Steven Munatones explains, “Stage swimmers usually become stronger physically and mentally as they continue swimming in the water day by day. They become very hardened. They become more resilient because they inevitably face issues they may have anticipated, but they had not yet faced head on in practice.
Their bodies usually become bronzed due to the harshness of the water and sun. Of course, the elements – winds, waves, sun, rain, fog, cold, may physically exhaust them on a daily basis, but these obstacles also energize men like Lewis. Lewis, Ross and Ben – like Avram, Thane and Jonno before them – thrive in overcoming obstacles. They concurrently become both stronger while facing fatigue.
But as the finish becomes in sight – either literally or figuratively – comes nearer, their pace and stroke rate usually quicken. They literally ride higher in the water with a stronger kick and hardened core muscles. Their BMI can significantly change as they gain more lean muscle mass and shed some body fat.”
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