Five Oceans of Lewis Gordon Pugh

Open water swimming adventurers like Lynne Cox and Lewis Gordon Pugh are very special people.

Lynne, an inductee in the International Swimming Hall of Fame has an incredible and well-known record of open water swimming success. Similarly, Pugh is another pioneer and great promoter of open water swimming.

Colorfully and uniquely, swims by Pugh can be found at here.

Pugh came up with the 5 Oceans concept - which is a bit different from the Oceans Seven concept.*

Meeting the criteria of 5 Oceans concept means one completes a long-distance swim in the five oceans of the world: the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Southern (also known as the Antarctic) and Arctic Oceans.

Well-known for his 0°C water swims in the North Pole, Pugh also swam in the Atlantic Ocean (1992 English Channel, 1992), the Arctic Ocean (2003 North Cape in Norway), the Southern Ocean (2005 Deception Island in sub-Antarctica, 2005), the Indian Ocean (2006 Nelson Mandela Bay in South Africa) and Pacific Ocean (2006 15K Manly Beach to the Sydney Opera House in Australia).

The "5 Oceans" concept is modeled on the "Seven Summits" concept where mountaineers climb the highest mountain on each of the 7 continents of the world. Lewis said, "There’s something magical about swimming in all five oceans of the world. Already nearly 100 mountaineers have done the Seven Summits, and it’ll be fascinating to see how many swimmers take up this, the ultimate of challenges."

* The Oceans Seven include (1) the Irish Channel between Ireland and Scotland, (2) the Cook Strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand, (3) the Molokai Channel between Oahu and Molokai Islands in Hawaii, (4) the English Channel between England and France, (5) the Catalina Channel near Los Angeles, California, (6) the Tsugaru Channel between Honshu and Hokkaido in Japan, and (7) the Strait of Gibraltar between Europe and Africa.