Swimming is a great cardiovascular exercise because the swimmer is moving against the resistance of the water, which is 10 times stronger than the air’s resistance. Apparently, this Orlando teacher is seeking some rigorous cardiovascular exercise this spring break, as he plans to swim from Sanford to Jacksonville.
Luther Davis, a physics and astronomy teacher at Lake Mary High School in Orlando, Florida, is preparing to hike, kayak, and swim the 180 miles between Sanford and Jacksonville during this upcoming spring break. The journey will take over eight days on the St. John’s River.
Davis is calling this trip the “St. Johns River Swim” and has been planning this for the last two years. He hopes to demonstrate a single raindrop’s journey through the St. John’s river basin, starting in Longwood and arriving in the Atlantic ocean. This journey will begin on March 16 with a 3.6-mile hike from his home in Longwood, followed by a 16-mile kayak trip across Lake Jesup to reach the start of the swim.
Students and other supporters have been invited to a send-off celebration on March 17 at the Marina at Fort Mellon Park in Sanford, where the swim will begin. Some of his students have expressed their concern about the alligators in the St. John’s River, but Davis is not worried.
“That is a concern that I’ve kind of put to rest for me. It’s not the height of alligator mating season. I don’t have to worry about any of those territorial issues. I’m not going to be swimming through the weeds,” Davis said. “I’m always going to have support vessels within feet of me, and that’s part of their job, too, is to watch for those obstacles.”
Davis is hoping to inspire his students’ hearts with his journey. “Maybe they’ll say I had that physics teacher in high school and he is willing to do something like that. You know, maybe I can do something like that.”
