:: Martin Collis

To sail the approximately 1500km around Vancouver Island is a major sail, nobody has ever rowed around the Island and to swim it was out of the question, until Rob Dyke and his friend Ian Scanlan decided to take a year out and support each other in an epic adventure.

In 2003 Ian attempted Everest solo, without oxygen, while Rob tried to circumnavigate his Island home and managed 900km before a rogue wave off the Brooks Peninsula picked him up like a rag doll and ripped his arm from its socket.

To put the scale of Rob’s swim in perspective, the city of Victoria built a significant rock monument to display a plaque commemorating Marilyn Bell’s 29.5km swim across the Juan de Fuca Strait from Port Angeles (USA) to Victoria. When Rob makes it round the Island I’ll expect nothing less than a building bearing his name.

The distance of the swim is daunting, so are the waves, tides, currents, jelly fish, the whirlpools and chafing from the wet suit, but it’s the cold that’s really scary. I have a background of research in immersion hypothermia and am very familiar with the face-breaking, breath-taking, limb-shaking, gut-aching effects of spending time in the local waters.

Rob wears a hooded wetsuit and goggles but that’s his only protection, no booties, no gloves and definitely no flippers. The thin layer of neoprene keeps hypothermia at bay, but after swimming 4 or 5 hours Rob’s face is swollen and his hands and feet are bloodless and pulpy and his deep body temperature is on its way down.

[Dr Martin Collis boards a Coast Guard helicopter
after spending 45 minutes in the cold waters off Port Angeles
during a hypothermia experiment”. Fall 1975]

In the Christmas 2004 issue of ‘Well’ I included the essay ‘Death’ by Stephen Canning. (If you missed this article it’s well worth reading). Stephen died on Mount Logan, but like Rob he was someone who, in Thoreau’s words, “Sucked the marrow out of life,”

Stephen wrote,

When I die, I want people to say that I inspired them. I don't care so much that they say I was a good man or a kind man or a happy man or a great man. I want them to say that they lived their life a little bit differently because of me. That they saw the world filled with a bit more adventure. That they were a little bit less afraid to do something that they truly wanted.

I’m sure Rob would say ‘amen’ to that. Although I suspect he would also like to be thought of as good and kind, which he is.

The Aquathon is a huge physical challenge, but Rob’s preparation was predominantly mental and spiritual. He went to Tibet to spend time with the mountains and the Buddhist monks and find deep inner strength. The Buddha said, “Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.”

The Buddhist response to pain is not to try and push it away but to move right inside it and Rob is finding himself less and less concerned with the cold and jelly fish stings, focusing instead on the meditative motion of swimming and his unique aquatic journey.

Rob’s preference is to be relatively low-tech and self-sufficient but the help of local sponsors in the form of wet suits, a Zodiac, nutrition, some accommodation and a GPS finder has made a significant logistical and financial difference. Investor’s Group have come on board as a sponsor and the Coast Guard and Canadian Military have added their support. This support is being co-coordinated by the Canadian Red Cross for whom Rob is raising funds.

We celebrated the first day’s swim with a Speakwell barbecue and there’s a fine bottle of champagne waiting for the end of the swim barbecue sometime in late summer or early fall.

You can follow his day-to-day progress, donate to the Red Cross, send Rob an email and check out the sponsors at the Island Aquathon web site, created by Number 41 Media.

Go, Rob, Go!

Update

Rob sent us the following email from the Parksville/Qualicum area today: "Almost 200 km of swimming behind me and it's been awesome. Met a small friend at the coast guard station in French Creek. I have had about 4 tough days in a row earning every kilometer. Hopefully the weather will change and give me a small break. Anyway keep checking the web site and know you are all in my thoughts."