Kelowna ultra-athlete Nick Pelletier is attempting to swim the entire length of Okanagan Lake.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ INSTAGRAM
August 01, 2023 - 1:30 PM
If you see an 18-person crew out on Okanagan Lake moving together in kayaks and a pontoon boat in the next couple of days, it is likely the safety team for swimmer Nick Pelletier.
For the third time, Kelowna’s ultra-endurance athlete is attempting to break a Guinness World Record by swimming the entire length of Okanagan Lake — a distance of 106 kilometers — in 40 hours.
Pelletier, 25, started swimming just after 5 a.m. today, Tuesday Aug. 1 from the most northern part of the lake near Vernon and plans to complete the swim at the southernmost point in Penticton according to his Instagram account @npadventure.
The athlete fell short of completing the swim on his first attempt in 2020 due to chafing wounds and on his second attempt in 2021 due to a shoulder injury.
In a recent Instagram post, Pelletier said his previous two attempts at the swim ended in “excruciating pain both mentally and physically” and he isn’t guaranteeing his third attempt will be any different.
According the Guinness Book of World Records, the fastest time to continuously swim the entire length of Okanagan Lake is 40 hrs 57 min 11 sec and was achieved by Adam Ellenstein from the USA in July 2016.
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Pelletier called the swim a “war of attrition” and “an environmental challenge in the truest sense” where there isn’t control over Mother Nature. He later wrote he’s “scared as hell to re-enter that water,” and expressed gratitude for the people in his life who have supported him.
Pelletier is raising funds for the Canadian Mental Health Association Kelowna and donations can be made here.
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