Posted on 08/23/2009 10:46:25 AM PDT by One_Upmanship
That's 3,274 miles, swimming 10 hours a day for 66 days.. on two bottles of wine a day *or 196,440 lengths of your average pool
His website with lots of great photos
And he snacked on piranhas.
FYI More Speedos!
He seems to be a combination of PT Barnum and Mark Spitz!
Does he wear that outfit when he gets shot out of the cannon?
“ORCA” certainly seems to fit. I can only begin to imagine the interesting variety of parasites he was exposed to.
I love really eccentric people they make the world more interesting.
We hear about people who are unhappy with their lives and are told to “pursue their passion.” Many never figure that one out and continue to live their lives in misery. Guys like this are amazing, even if we poke fun at them.
I’m impressed. This guy has “brass ones.”
Gross! I recently went fishing in Northern Wisconsin and the bass were biting on leeches. I used a hemostat to hold the leech while baiting my hook. I could not touch it.
Wow...he has swam all the major rivers of the world and this one seems like a hollywood script. Wow....
Makes Bear (”I stayed in a Holiday Inn”) Grylls seem like a piker.
The movie must be interesting.
Dang good article. Fascinating.
Will wait for the movie to play on Discovery or DVD however.
It is charming. He's is greeted by the locals, a group dances for him and he is given gifts.
This one is incredible: On the river with Martin, Brazil (Mar 7, 2007); he swims like a machine and murky water that I wouldn't put my toe in! Toward the end of the segment he puts on a homemade cloth mask and hat, I presume to protect himself from the sun. Also downing a sports bottle of red wine.
Amazon Virtual Medical Team, Brazil (Mar 5, 2007) segment shows the doctor who has flown in ( a 17 hour flight; 18 hours by boat; the last 5 assisted by the Brazilian army) to do a medical exam. Looks like he has a virtual medical lab set up.
Toward the end is a good short Reuters clip
The Fish Man, as he was called by the local tribes, almost died in the process several times. Towards the end of his marathon ordeal his blood pressure was at heart attack level, his entire body full of subcutaneous larvae and besieged by dehydration and exhaustion.
Martin is an endurance swimmer who swims rivers – the Mississippi, the Danube, Paraná and the Yangtze prior to the Amazon – to highlight their pollution to the world. During this epic journey he suffered from blisters, sunburn, exotic stomach illnesses, all the while trying to avoid piranhas, anacondas, crocodiles, alligators, river sharks, and a small parasitic fish known as the candiru. Martin is also a rather overweight horse-burger loving Slovenian in his fifties, who drinks bottles of red wine to get extra power...even when swimming.
Martin serves as a metaphor for the "Everyman", and prove, once and for all, that one man can make a difference.
The Dude is Worthy.
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