Kadosh
Kadosh:
It has been some time since I have looked in these forums thankfully someone has called your post to my attention. I struggle in my reactions to this however I will address you points as if you were serious in your accusations.
“I won't get into the problems with tracking stops and starts”
With a GPS unit accurate within 2 meters it was simply a matter of entering a way point at the end of a days swimming and returning to that spot. As for other logistical issues the swim was fully supported by the Red Cross, Canadian Coast guard and a number of exceptional sponsors.
Clarifying some facts you just extrapolated: My body weight at the beginning of the swim was 88 kilos and 97 at the finish. My shortest day of swimming was 1 hour 45 minutes in which I traveled backwards ¾ of a kilometer. My longest day of swimming was 7 and ½ hours and a total distance covered of 35 km (wind, wave, and tide effect distance traveled greatly). I estimate that I consumed on average 5000 calories or more a day and consumed 8 liters of heavily diluted warm Gatorade and FYI it is not impossible to consume that much food a day ( a Big Mac contains over 800 calories eating 6 over the course of a day is no where near impossible)
“I thought it would be fun to look at the amount of water needed to metabolize that much fat. Roughly speaking for every gram of fat consumed you need to consume .06 ml of water.”
I have no idea what mail order university degree program you are enrolled in to get this fact. Pull out any can in your pantry and read the content label and % breakdown for nutritional value. The RDA (recommended daily allowance) for North American diets is 50 grams of fat per day by your reckoning all of us would have to consume 30 liter of water a day to metabolize all that fat…this is regardless of the fact that many North Americans exceed the RDA of fat intake and are clinically obese. That is assuming that your error was clerical and not mathmatical (.06 ml as apposed to .06l or .6l)or assuming that all my calories were fat and 1 lb of fat is 3500 callories or even if I consumed 1kilo of fat per day 1000 g X .06 ml only equals 60 ml not 60 liters)
“It is also interesting to compare Dyke's swimming pace to that of an elite triathlete. Swimming only fractionally slower than the best swimmers on earth are able to do for an hour or so, Dyke is able to maintain what can only be described as an impossibly fast pace over the course of more than 3 months.”
I will just post facts here in rebuttal as it is clear you have done not actually pursued any yourself.
I was a triathlete (professionally) for 5 years. The Ironman which I have completed several contains a 2.4 mile swim (3.8 km) the average elite triathlete completes this in under 50 minutes a speed of approx. 4 km/ph after which they ride 180 km and run 42 km. this pace is by no means impossible. The average time for swimmers competing in the world series of marathon swimming in open water conditions is typically under 5 hours for 25 km of swimming. Most university varsity swimmers train 5 hours a day and swim anywhere from 15 to 20 km per day 6 days a week. I swam varsity at Uvic for 5 years. And once complete a 5 km pool swim 58 minutes. Factor in the positive effects of tides and wind and my pace was not “impossibly fast pace over the course of more than 3 months.” Your idea of what is possible is tied to something other than facts.
Hopefully my time here today hasn’t been wasted disproving the core of your argument and I have tried to be civil. Do take the time to view the swims web page www.islandaquathon.ca look at the pictures and realize that there were often 3 people on the pilot zodiac at all times (were they all in on this elaborate hoax?).If you feel that this is all still impossible I will invite you to Victoria and screen for you the more than 50 hours of video that I have from my effort. Do pull you head out of your behind before you go spouting off on the internet please.
With enduring patience,
Rob Dyke