An energetic jump into the Red Sea as part of the 4 seas in 24 hours challenge!
10 swimmers, 4 seas, 24 km in 24hrs. Sound incredible? Well, it really did happen just a few weeks ago in May! A team of Israeli swimmers completed the incredible feat of swimming 4 bodies of water as well as coordinating travel between the seas so they could complete their mission exactly on time. These intrepid swimmers swam through the Mediterranean, Lake Kinneret (or the Sea of Galilee as it is known also) The Dead Sea and The Red Sea all in 24 hours. The Dead Sea took some extra preparation as the swimmers needed to strategize how to swim across such a challenging body of water with an incredibly high salt content. In the end, snorkel masks protected them from the dangerous salt content as they focused on their swim.
The beautiful photo you see at the top of the page was taken of the swimmers as they swam through and over a reef in the Red Sea by photographer Marcos Schonholz of Hoopoe Digital Photography.
The focus was to raise awareness for the contamination that is occurring daily at an alarming rate in all of our oceans and seas. Plastic Pollution has become a huge focus in the media recently and for good reason. New non-profit organizations are springing up quickly to combat this rapidly growing problem. Surfers, swimmers, ecologists, marine biologists and beach-lovers everywhere are taking to the oceans and seas to talk about cleaning it up. Teaching people to clean up after themselves before they leave the beach is all about creating respect for what visitors to the beaches and oceans come to enjoy. Even just littering close to the beach can increase the pollution when winds scatter trash along the beaches and the tides carry it away.
The sad reality of today’s oceans and the effects on sea life. Photo Credit: forgeskiphire.co.uk
“The rate of trash going into the ocean must slow significantly, or the rate at which we are taking it out will not really make a difference,” noted Oded Rahav, one of the swimmers on the Cyprus-Israel Swim team.
The team itself is made up of 10 swimmers ranging in age from 40 to 70 years old. The senior member, Udi Erell is the 70 year old and keeps the “youngsters” motivated. The rest are Ben Enosh, Luc Chetboun, Doron Amosi, Ori Sela, Yair Palti, Erez Amir, Adina Fauer, Avishag Turek, Oded Rahav, and Ram Barkai. The initiator for this particular project was South African-Israeli Ram Barkai, who wasn’t able to make the swim but was instrumental in helping the team plan. The mixed group of men and two women have solidified as a team over the years and learned how to handle, as a team, the logistics and planning required to successfully complete these events. You can see how it has knit them together in their camaraderie and joking when they train and even in the middle of a tough swim through treacherous waters.
The six swimmers that set the World Record swimming from Cyprus to Israel- Left to right: Oded Rahav, Ben Enosh, Udi Errel, Doron Amosi, Luc Chetboun, Ori Sela. October 14, 2014. Photo Credit: Yehoshua Yosef
This team’s solid work ethic and passion for making a difference went a long way to helping them pull off a World Record for longest open sea group relay swim after swimming 380 kilometers (236 miles) home from Cyprus in a challenge also meant to highlight ocean pollution. The previous record was held by a team of Americans that swam 366 kilometers.
Taking their name from this huge achievement, they are most focused on the awareness and change they can inspire people to. One of the obstacles they faced while swimming from the Mediterranean island to the Israeli coast was the proliferation of floating plastic bags. This has been a main motivator for the team and given them the drive to make their voices heard through swimming. They set this record back in October of 2014 and the team has not slowed down since.
The Pan American Colibri Swim team members and their countries flags. Photo credit: Charl Rorich
Two of the team also took part in the Pan American Colibri Swim which had its origins in the Dead Sea Swim. The Dead Sea swim took place on 15 November 2016, when a group of 28 international swimmers from South Africa, New Zealand, Spain, Denmark, Wales, UK, USA, Palestine, Jordan and Israel completed an unprecedented swim across the Dead Sea in order to raise awareness about the environmental demise of this sea and to create urgency for immediate action. The cross-border swim was politically complicated, but was ultimately successful in social and environmental perspectives.
The Pan American Colibri Swim was also politically charged but ultimately successful as well. The Dead Sea Swim participants, the Cyprus-Israel swimmers, and our own MadSwimmers from South Africa all were enthusiastic about joining this new initiative. The idea and the planning came from the initiators, Jean Craven from Madswimmer SA, Kimberly Chambers, a well known swimmer from New Zealand, Antonio Arguelles, also a well known swimmer from Mexico, and Oded Rahav from Cyprus Israel Swim.
Great Shark Swim, Israeli swimmer Oded Rahav. Photo credit: Charl Rorich
Speaking of our MadSwimmers, remember the Great Shark Swim? It happened this past December off the coast of Port Shepstone, KZN to Mbotyi Wild Coast, Eastern Cape. And yes, yet again, Israeli swimmers from the Cyprus Israel Swimmers took part. 20 Madswimmers (16 from South Africa and 4 from Israel) swam in aid of shark conservation and for Madswimmer’s children’s charities.
So what is next for this Israeli team of swim activists? Their eyes are fixed on the goal of creating and joining inspiring projects to make the small ripple that will hopefully create a tidal wave of positive change. In this present state of tensions between South Africa and Israel, we hope the next project will be a collaboration yet again between these two groups with big hearts.
