This just might be the craziest task a person has ever set out to accomplish. Ok, actually there area lot of really crazy things people decide to do, but this certainly goes high up on that list: Marathon swimmer Ben Lecomte is going to swim across the Pacific Ocean. From Tokyo to San Francisco, Lacomte will spend a solid six months swimming eight hours a day though the planet’s largest ocean.
Why? Because he wants to raise awareness for environmental issues. “Before anything else, I am a father and as a father, the future of my children concerns me because, as we all know, our way of life is not sustainable,” he says. “I don’t want to be passive and pass on to my children the liability we are tagging on to our environment. We can all make a difference once we realize how we can be better stewards of the environment and our own ecological footprint, make appropriate daily changes and inspire others to do the same.”
And to top that off, this isn’t the first time Lacomte has swam from coast to coast across a giant body of water. In 1998, he stepped into the water off the coast of Massachusetts and didn’t stop until he hit dry land, which turned out to be France, 73 days later. So now Ben Lacomte will wear as many as four 2mm wetsuits, flippers and a snorkel for 8 hours a day until he finishes the 5,500 mile journey. At the end of those eight hour swims, he’ll climb back onto his boat to rest, then using GPS he’ll make his way back to the exact location where he finished the day before. At least think of all the money he’ll save on airfare.
