Long-distance swimming is like backpacking, but instead of walking, you swim, and instead of carrying a backpack, you have a waterproof floating bag that you push in front of you. Your bag contains food, a tent, a sleeping bag, clothes, etc. – similar to what you would bring backpacking or bike touring, or on any other self-powered, self-supported, multi-day excursion. You wear flippers, goggles and (if it’s cold) a wetsuit.
You can go down a river, around a lake, or along a chain of lakes, very much like what you would do in a canoe, but you don’t go as far each day, and you have much less equipment to worry about.
(If you get too tired to swim, you won’t drown because you can use the bag as a flotation device.)-- AO, Feb 25 2004 The voyage of Kon Tiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kon-TikiThe ultimate rafting trip [normzone, Oct 04 2004, last modified Aug 24 2010] (?) not quite sure why, but [tsuka] asked me to link this picture for him... http://hem.spray.se/kendoka/rrt/sbs.jpg...it might actually *be* him [po, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] The Swimmer http://www.talkingp...ReviewsSwimmer.html [po, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] I'm all up for this, but the volume of people I'm going to find to go along with me will be pretty limited.
I do go out freedive hunting off Boomer's Beach in La Jolla, and I'll take food and Gatorade with me, but [a tent, a sleeping bag, clothes] is going to limit your mobility severely.
In a downstream capability this might be fun, but I can see a problem. If you leash to your gear, this could get you drowned. If you don't, this could get you sleeping on the bank in your wetsuit after you lose your gear.
Definitely for calm waters only. I think the kayak crowd is going to give you a run for your money.-- normzone, Feb 25 2004 I don't see why you need the shore at all. Change from a floating bag to a raft with tent, and you could make cross-lake (cross-oceanic? perhaps some true athletes) journeys.-- Worldgineer, Feb 25 2004 I wouldn't want to sleep inside a closed, floating tent. Sleeping on a raft would be fun.-- Tranai, Feb 25 2004 I regularly sleep on a 22 foot boat during diving season here in So Cal. Sometimes it's very pleasant. Other times it's - strenuous is a good choice of word. When conditions get rough, it makes for an odd night's sleep, but that's the price I pay to be on the ocean. It's beautiful out / down there.
[see link]-- normzone, Feb 25 2004 My intention was that you should get out of the water and sleep on dry land at night. Pushing a 35-pound floating pack would not limit your mobility too much because (a) you’d be swimming mostly in a straight line, and (b) you could rest your arms on it allowing you to kick more efficiently with your fins. You’d probably want to stay attached to your gear via a strap with a quick-release buckle.-- AO, Feb 26 2004 don't let the fish bite..-- sweet, Feb 26 2004 My legs are tired. And my abs are killing me. And I've been pruny for days now. Are we there yet?-- k_sra, Feb 26 2004 You have as pets a collection of agressive abalone ? Not legal in this state....-- normzone, Feb 26 2004 I swim competitively, and after doing a 1500m long course in roughly 20 minutes, half the muscles in my body were cramping up. A wetsuit is definitely a must, and as an alternative to a floating bag, I'd recommend a waterproof, buoyant backpack of sorts.
Of course, you could always have a buddy drive the dingy along beside ya.-- WordUp, Feb 27 2004 I did snorkel the Merced river in Yosemite a few years back in a wetsuit with shorts, shirt and sandals in a wet bag on my bag. I just made certain that I got out and dressed long enough before sundown that the summer air dried out my clothes before sunset. Fun times.-- normzone, Aug 24 2010 Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the swim distance of an Ironman only 2 miles? Which means that distance is considered equivalent to a 26 mile run or a 100 mile bike ride.
I think that's going to limit how far you can go with this idea unless you've got a fairly strong downstream current.-- MechE, Aug 25 2010 swimming is say half as fast as walking... could be done [+]-- FlyingToaster, Aug 25 2010 The energy output is significantly (something like 3- 4 times) higher for a given distance. Sustaining travel is going to be difficult, not impossibly, but difficult.
And a slow swimming pace (so a sustainable one) is closer to 1/4 to 1/6th as fast. It takes a moderately high pace to be half as fast as walking.-- MechE, Aug 25 2010 random, halfbakery