Besides being a eco-friendly swimsuit line made from recycled components by AQUA GREEN, an Eco Swim is defined as any open water swim or charity swim that 1) calls attention to the environment 2) is conducted in an eco-friendly or sustainable manner 3) is held in protected area 4) or includes education or raising money for environmental conservation.
Eco Swimming is a trend that is on the rise in open water swimming as global warming starts to seriously effect the animals and areas in which open water swimmers frequent. Eco Swims, both solo and large group events, are happening all over the globe. Besides the incredible endurance and training the sport takes, Eco Swims are effective because of the incredible human stories behind them and what people are willing to go through to raise awareness. Eco Swim’s are no easy feat. In order to get their message across, eco swimmers put themselves through sometimes highly dangerous conditions. Two particular stories have caught our attention.
Eco Swimmer Jen Schumacher in Spain after crossing the Strait of Gibraltar. She is wearing Eco Swim's Eco Classic polka dotted bikini.
Jen Schumacher is a Sport Psychology Consultant and swim teacher at California State University, Fullerton. She is an avid open water swimmer and began marathon swimming in 2009, when she crossed the Catalina Channel in a time of 9:02, the fastest female time of the season. Jen went on to compete and place 7th overall and 4th woman in the esteemed 28.5-mile Manhattan Island Marathon Swim in 2010. She completed a record-breaking 17.5-mlie crossing of the Kaulakahi Channel in Hawaii, between the islands of Kauai and Niihau.
Jen is now racing to become the first person to complete the Ocean’s Seven, a series of seven of the most challenging and iconic channel swims in the world. Jen’s training involves long coastal swims with her training partner (Uncle Dan) and alongside her mother, Barb, in a kayak. During training, Barb collects trash – mostly plastics – that the group encounters out in the ocean. Jen’s clean-up swims have instilled a sense of urgency to change the way we treat our environment and protect our oceans, motivating her to dedicate her swims to raising awareness for various marine conservancy organizations.
Lewis Pugh
Lewis Pugh is an environmental campaigner, a maritime lawyer and an endurance swimmer. He was the first person to complete a long distance swim in every ocean of the world. He frequently swims in vulnerable ecosystems to draw attention to their plight.
Lewis has witnessed the devastation to the environment in some of our most precious and important global areas first hand. Lewis traveled to the North Pole and swam in below freezing waters for 18 minutes, a dream he had had since he was a child. His story, which he told at a TED talk, is incredibly moving and unbelievable. His most recent swim was a 1km swim across a glacial lake on Mt Everest to draw attention to the melting of the Himalayan glaciers and its consequences.
