Zoggs Swim Diaries: New York to London Swim!

01/02/2017

Zoggs Swim Diaries: New York to London Swim!

IT engineer seeks help to become first person to swim from New York to London!

British IT engineer and extreme swimmer Michael Ventre is hoping to swim 3,800 miles from New York to London alongside a support vessel – a feat which has never been attempted before, which aims to raise millions for Oxfam.

Michael, who successfully swam the English Channel in 2011, plans to make his world-first attempt at swimming the Atlantic in April this year. The unprecedented open water challenge will take him between four and seven months and will present an incredible test of resilience as he navigates everything from orcas, sharks and jellyfish to hurricanes.

Michael has teamed up with Zoggs for this epic event and is currently training in Ireland and England alongside his full-time work schedule as an IT engineer.

Starting in the Hudson river in New York and ending in the Thames in central London, Michael’s challenge is equivalent to swimming the length of Great Britain almost four-and-a-half times.

As well as swimming the English Channel, Michael, who is aged 39, has completed two other ‘Oceans Seven’ extreme swims - the Molokai Channel in Hawaii and the Catalina Channel in Los Angeles. He also swam from Robben Island to Blouberg in Cape Town in 2013 in freezing shark-infested waters and has become an accomplished ice swimmer, participating in the Winter World Championships in Latvia and Finland.

Since partnering with Zoggs Michael has excelled in his training and states that he is in the shape of his life and just keen to get on with the swim. "The incredible comfort and feel of the Predator and Predator Flex goggles along with the Zoggs Fogbuster allows me to swim all day without the need to adjust them until its time to hit the shower!

He recently completed a "typical" training session in a pool in Ireland swimming 20km non-stop! A recent post on his New York to London Facebook page states, "... 800 lengths (25m pool) - 7hrs 31m. Feet up today! At it all again tomorrow! Need your help to keep this going for the big one" in reference to his upcoming epic Atlantic challenge. His final week-long crowdfunding campaign ends on Friday 3rd February with the primary aim of trying to secure the swim and get to the start line in Manhattan.

Michael has been dreaming of swimming seemingly impossible distances since the age of ten when he watched England’s Thomas Gregory becoming the youngest person to swim the English Channel on TV in 1988. Born to British parents in landlocked Botswana, it would be another three years before Michael even saw the ocean, but from that day on he was determined to swim the English Channel - the first of many extreme swims.

To make a pledge by the 3rd of Feb please go to https://select.charidy.com/newyorktolondonswim and help make his dream a reality!

If you would like to find out any more information about Michael or this amazing challenge he is taking on please follow the links below: