THE ULTIMATE EXAMPLE OF DIVING IN THE DEEP END

As depicted in Miguel Endara's short film (above) Swim1000 started on August 10th 2012 when Dave jumped into the Missouri river at Chamberlain, South Dakota and began swimming towards St Louis, Missouri, towing his gear with him on a carbon fibre raft.

58 days later Dave and his team, who were paddling on Lakeshore Stand Up Paddleboards and in a Mad River Canoe, reached St Louis, MO after a 1001 mile journey, one of the longest swimming journeys in history.

Dave had not swum more than 100 metres in one go before this journey began so the early weeks of the journey, which happened to be in a lake system without current, were slow going. It took one month - half of the expedition's allotted time - to cover the first 180 miles, and just one more month to cover the remaining 820 miles.

Dave swam pulling and pushing his gear on a raft donated by the British swimmer Haydn Welch. Without doubt, the swim was the hardest journey of his life so far, needing an estimated 3,203,200 strokes to cover the 1001 miles. Read about the gruelling final weeks of the 58 day trip in this blog entry.

The journey was also a fundraiser for the breast cancer awareness charity CoppaFeel!, whose ongoing creative work to encourage young people to check their boobs and avoid late detection of cancer continues to save lives.

PHOTO GALLERY

ROUTE MAP

SWIM1000 Playlist

TRANSPORT: WETSUIT and RAFT

During the planning phase Dave prepared for a self-sufficient solo journey, so even when he decided to bring a team onboard he stuck with the original motive and swam pulling Hayden Welch's unique, 25kg raft behind him.

He wore Orca 3.8 wetsuits throughout, as well as Zoggs Predator Flexgoggles.