Nyad Scores 1 for Old Folks!!!

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ERhoosier

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After countless failed attempts over the years by a number of accomplished endurance athletes (inc herself), Diana Nyad became the 1st to make the swim from Cuba to Florida unaided (i.e. no drafting in a "shark cage").
And BTW this lady is 64 yrs young! She always says you're never too old to chase your dreams :clap:

Diana Nyad Completes Cuba To Florida Swim At Age 64 (VIDEO/PHOTOS)
 
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My skeptic wife still thinks that it cannot be done....
 
Texas Proud said:
My skeptic wife still thinks that it cannot be done....
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I stumbled across the report that morning, and ended up following her progress throughout the day. Fascinating, but I have mixed feelings about it. There was really very limited real-time reporting. CNN was supposed to be there for the landing, but they were worse than amateurs, and I guess they couldn't get their cameras over to where she drifted too (like you could actually predict exactly where she'd come ashore? Couldn't they prepare for that?). Had to wait for the youtube phone camera reports to get much of anything.

Is it really something that should inspire people? Risking your life, to check an activity off a list? I'm not sure I get it.

But it is just really hard to believe that someone (of any age) could keep themselves afloat w/o assistance for 52 hours. I don't know what it's like to go w/o sleep that long, but could you really keep up physical effort that long w/o sleep? I mean, if you nod off, you start to drown. Could you keep your wits about you?

What's the record hours for someone running?

It's an amazing physical feat, I'm just not sure I see it as a positive thing, I dunno.

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
I stumbled across the report that morning, and ended up following her progress throughout the day. Fascinating, but I have mixed feelings about it. There was really very limited real-time reporting. CNN was supposed to be there for the landing, but they were worse than amateurs, and I guess they couldn't get their cameras over to where she drifted too (like you could actually predict exactly where she'd come ashore? Couldn't they prepare for that?). Had to wait for the youtube phone camera reports to get much of anything.

Is it really something that should inspire people? Risking your life, to check an activity off a list? I'm not sure I get it.

But it is just really hard to believe that someone (of any age) could keep themselves afloat w/o assistance for 52 hours. I don't know what it's like to go w/o sleep that long, but could you really keep up physical effort that long w/o sleep? I mean, if you nod off, you start to drown. Could you keep your wits about you?

What's the record hours for someone running?

It's an amazing physical feat, I'm just not sure I see it as a positive thing, I dunno.

-ERD50
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Is a solo ascent of north face Eiger a positive event? For many years westerners have risked their and sometimes others' lives doing hard outdoor things. Obviously Dr. Sabin has done more for humanity, but I doubt that Diana Nyad is a great virologist, so I applaud her as a gutsy winner. Even though I would never want to attempt to follow in her path. I remember once I swam 2 hours, how peculiar I felt afterward.

Ha
 
haha said:
I remember once I swam 2 hours, how peculiar I felt afterward.

Ha
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Somewhat like a prune perhaps?

The Nyad swim is a great story. She doesn't look like anybody special, so perhaps she will inspire folks to pick up exercising and swimming who wouldn't have done so because of age or physique.
 
2 miles an hour for 50 hours! This is an awesome physical achievement that will go down in the annals of history.

There are no Olympic or other swimmers that have a shot at doing this. I guess that is why it is a world record.

The conditioning, stamina and courage that it took is hard to comprehend.

Makes swimming the English channel seem like a holiday.

Great job Nyad!
 
haha said:
Is a solo ascent of north face Eiger a positive event? For many years westerners have risked their and sometimes others' lives doing hard outdoor things. ...
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I question those as well. I see both sides of this, a part of me is impressed and inspired, another part asks what is the point, why risk anything for this?


-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
I question those as well. I see both sides of this, a part of me is impressed and inspired, another part asks what is the point, why risk anything for this?


-ERD50
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Pushing the human envelope, inc the risk of catastrophic failure, has always been a source of inspiration. Many a 60-something may now reconsider their self-image as 'over-the-hill' when they see a 64 yo lady succeed greatly where much younger athletes have failed. Inspiring others, in whatever endeavor we choose, is a big part of what makes us human.
 
LOL! said:
Somewhat like a prune perhaps?

She doesn't look like anybody special.....
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Spending 50+ straight hrs in salt water has a way of making anyone look like a prune.
 
ERhoosier said:
After countless failed attempts over the years by a number of accomplished endurance athletes (inc herself), Diana Nyad became the 1st to make the swim from Cuba to Florida unaided (i.e. no drafting in a "shark cage").
And BTW this lady is 64 yrs young! She always says you're never too old to chase your dreams :clap:

Diana Nyad Completes Cuba To Florida Swim At Age 64 (VIDEO/PHOTOS)
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Actually she wasn't the first. A guy from Ohio named Walter Poenisch did it in 1978. He's in the Guinness book of records. He did it in under 35 hours too.
 
Since I belong to the geezers for geezers club, this was great to see, although I must admit, I still like to see the young ones succeed at their endeavors even more.
 
Al in Ohio said:
Actually she wasn't the first. A guy from Ohio named Walter Poenisch did it in 1978. He's in the Guinness book of records. He did it in under 35 hours too.
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Nyad was 1st officially "unaided" Cuba-FL swim. Not to get into the controversy of inadequate documentation of his feat, but seems generally agreed that in '78 Poenisch used swim fins and a shark cage (which has a drafting benefit).

Ohio woman celebrates 100th birthday of late swimmer in disputed Cuba-to-Florida feat | The Journal Gazette
 
Al in Ohio said:
Actually she wasn't the first. A guy from Ohio named Walter Poenisch did it in 1978. He's in the Guinness book of records. He did it in under 35 hours too.
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There are some rules to be recognized by whatever organization does it...

Mr. Poenisch did not follow them... and it also looks like he got out of the water at times... so to me that does not count...

Ms Nyad did follow the rules and so is the first....

From Wiki:

Sticklers for the rules on such matters objected that Mr. Poenisch had worn swim fins, used a breathing tube and taken several breaks out of the water during a swim vouched for only by his wife and the captain and crew of his escort boat.
He and his witnesses countered that he could not have made it through shark-infested waters without the equipment and that he took only permissible medical breaks to be treated for jellyfish stings and for regreasing his body.



BTW, I saw a 60 minutes show on deep diving... one guy set a record for some kind of dive, but when he got to the top he needed to do three things in order... he messed up that order so he dive was not recognized...
 
At least neither Nyad nor Poenisch had to stop swimming to pee.

I think Nyad's achievement is inspiring, just as I did her previous attempts. Not necessarily to be the best at something, but to keep doing what one loves regardless of our age.
 
ERhoosier said:
Controversy surrounds many big athletic feats, so prob no surprise. ...
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What surprises me is, with all the effort, planning and money that went into this extreme event, that they would not take some extreme measures to prove that the standards were met.

From what I understand, she had to support herself in the water the whole time. No hanging on to the boat for even a moment, the handlers helping to feed her, etc could not provide any support in the water. Wouldn't you want a couple video cameras running full time to prove this? I don't think there were any independent observers on the boats.

I just can't see doing this, and then leaving those questions hanging out there.

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
What surprises me is, with all the effort, planning and money that went into this extreme event, that they would not take some extreme measures to prove that the standards were met.

From what I understand, she had to support herself in the water the whole time. No hanging on to the boat for even a moment, the handlers helping to feed her, etc could not provide any support in the water. Wouldn't you want a couple video cameras running full time to prove this? I don't think there were any independent observers on the boats.

I just can't see doing this, and then leaving those questions hanging out there.

-ERD50
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I agree... and maybe they do have it, I do not know....


But it seems that some are questioning her GPS readings where she was swimming at 6 mph.... as one guy said on the TV, that is faster than the guy swimming the 50 meter freestyle... then they had someone else showing the currents that were very favorable....

I hope in the end that it is recognized.... and that she did not cheat.... one thing that comes to my mind is that her team is saying she did not cheat.... this is in contrast to Lance Armstrong who would say that he did not fail a drug test....
 
These people questioning this are such losers. Who appointed them guardians of purity? Is her record going to cost them money?

Ha
 
haha said:
These people questioning this are such losers. Who appointed them guardians of purity? Is her record going to cost them money?

Ha
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But official records must conform to official rules. That's what make them official. Without rules, where would you draw the line?

And this is another reason I'm surprised they didn't have it all recorded documented. Let's say she did grab onto the boat for one minute to rest. Even if the officials decided that broke the rules, certainly no one would think it was any less amazing of a feat.

But, if the boat pulled her a long for hours on end at several points - that's a different story. It wouldn't be fair to someone who did it w/o that assistance. And at this point, we don't really know.

Now, if she's doing it just to say she did it as a personal goal, it makes no difference. But she apparently was trying to set an official record, because they made a point that she didn't hold the boat, or use a shark cage (which provides drafting), r get any buoying from her handlers. If she was just doing it for herself, that wouldn't matter. So I think she has brought the skepticism on herself. If she wants it to stand as a record, I think it is reasonable to expect it to stand up to review. Without documentation, it's going to always be questionable (as a record).

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
But official records must conform to official rules. That's what make them official. Without rules, where would you draw the line?
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I don't think about this much. Half of what we assume to be true is phony. In my mind, if I want to bet on something, I want the contest to be clean, but realize that very often it will not be. If some older woman wants to claim that she gave birth to a dolphin, I really would not care.

Do we have baseball records? Football? Boxing? track? Of course. Does anyone who is even partially awake think there is no juicing going on, maybe even juicing with chemicals that we have not even thought of yet?

The age of honor is over, this is the late empire, lie back, have a grape and a glass, and enjoy the action in the arena.

Ha
 
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