world longest swim

[idiveinmud]

hi i was wondering if anyone had ever heard of how long some body has swam in scuba under water(as in 3 km).if there is not a record like this how long have you ever swam thanks if you can help me



mike

 

[MarkUK]

I am sure there is a record for the longest distance covered underwater on scuba equipment, but not sure if it was 'how far on one tank' or 'how far on multiple tanks - brought down by handlers - before you get knackered'.

An American woman was the first woman to scuba across the English Channel, and she did it on multiple cylinders brought down to her as she crossed.

When we were training for my cross-Channel relay dive for the men's cancer charity, the seven of us who did the crossing were scuba diving up and down Horsea Island lake, which is 1km long. By the end of training, three of us could do 1km in 21 minutes, and 2km in 47 minutes, all on one 12-litre tank. Mind you, this seemed hard work, especially doing this distance every couple of hours, but nothing prepared us for the 21.9 mile Channel crossing. Man, that was hard work – and as it is the world's busiest shipping lane, it certainly made things interesting when a large cargo ship went by...

Mark

 

[Sam Miller III]

There are several;

1956-Zale Parry and the late Dick Anderson rode a Healthways wet sub to Catalina. A distance of about 20 to 25 miles depending on departure points.

1960 (?) Cal Gonger swam his Aquian, a special propulsion device to Catalina

1960s--early possibly 1963-5 a east coast woman Jane Bal???? set a number of distance records underwater. SDM gave considerable copy space to the records, until it was determined that record breaking underwater was flirting with a potential diaster.

Since that time very little press or atention has been give to these stunts.

If you were panning one forget it!

SDM

 

[Sam Miller III]

It was Jane Bal??? who swam the English channel, along with several other bodies of water.
After these swimms she disappeared, never to be seen in the diving world.

 

[ItMustBeJames]

nothing prepared us for the 21.9 mile Channel crossing. Man, that was hard work – and as it is the world's busiest shipping lane, it certainly made things interesting when a large cargo ship went by...

That sounds incredible! Do you have a write up of what that was like? How far down you had to be to avoid the ships, what it was like when they passed overhead, if you were in close proximity to your buddies, did you have to surface, how did you navigate, etc? I'm new to diving and I'd never even immagined such a thing before you mentioned it. What was it like?

sorry for the thread hijack, but this sounds amazing!

-James

 

[MarkUK]

Thanks Sam, I couldn't remember what her name was. Wonder where she went when she disappeared off the world dive map?

James – It was bloody silly doing a relay crossing of the Channel, but it was for a men's cancer charity and we raised over £50,000, so it was worth it. Check out www.orchid-cancer.org.uk/content-frameset.aspx?expand=Events&file=E-10000mm&attemptCookies=true

We were only at 5-6m and following a frame made of scaffolding pole that was towed by an official cross-Channel swimmer's boat. The shipping traffic was warned we were going across, but some still passed within 200-300 yards of us, and the noise and vibrations were incredible. We were in the water for 30 minutes at a time, on our own, but we had full-face masks so we could talk to the tow boat. The next person then jumped in off the support vessel and we did an underwater changeover. The vis was only 3-4m too, so that made things interesting!

Mark

 

[ItMustBeJames]

We were only at 5-6m and following a frame made of scaffolding pole that was towed by an official cross-Channel swimmer's boat. The shipping traffic was warned we were going across, but some still passed within 200-300 yards of us, and the noise and vibrations were incredible.

Wow. I don't know if I'll be able to bring myself to do anything like that in this lifetime, but it sounds incredible. Thanks for sharing.

-James

 

[drbill]

A local diver, Jon Council, did an around-the-island (Catalina) "dive" for charity about a year ago. The minimum distance for that would be about 54 miles. However, he used a DPV and I believe he did surface to change tanks.

Not something I'd ever consider... too close to being great white shark bait!