Underwater marathon man emerges from Loch Ness

The Independent (U.K.) ^ | 10/10/03 | Paul Kelbie

[Pokey78]

Lloyd Scott emerged from Loch Ness in an antique diving suit yesterday after a 12-day walk below the surface to claim a record as the world's first underwater marathon man. But he reported no sightings of the legendary monster.

Mr Scott, 41, a former firefighter and professional footballer from Rainham in Essex, spent more than a month training and qualifying as a diver before taking to the Loch to raise awareness of a fundraising drive for the charity Children with Leukaemia.

Mr Scott, himself a survivor of leukaemia, began his underwater journey on 28 September at the opposite end of Loch Ness in Fort Augustus and spent up to four hours a day under the 37F (3C) water, to a maximum depth of 30ft, wearing the 180lb diving suit.

Covering an average of three miles a day in almost zero visibility Mr Scott, who has previously worn the same outfit in more conventional land marathons in London, New York and Edinburgh, said the journey had been a real adventure.

"I've had to cope with poor visibility, which has at times been nil, I've had to work against the resistance and the pressure of the water," he said as he emerged from the water at Lochend, near Inverness. "The air line also kept getting caught and I also had to deal with a build-up of carbon dioxide in the helmet. It's also very cold and very lonely."

Mr Scott is already planning his next unusual fundraising stunt - cycling across Australia on a penny farthing bicycle.

[A CA Guy]

Remarkable, did an underwater home follow him where he could rest and use the facilities or was this some kind record in constipation as well?

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[BeerSwillr]

cycling across Australia on a penny farthing bicycle. Read that line quickly and you can easily be amused. We anyway I can...

[IYAS9YAS]

Mr Scott, himself a survivor of leukaemia, began his underwater journey on 28 September at the opposite end of Loch Ness in Fort Augustus and spent up to four hours a day under the 37F (3C) water, to a maximum depth of 30ft, wearing the 180lb diving suit.

Looks as though he took breaks and started out the next day from his previous spot.

[Prodigal Son]

I think he did a couple miles a day. After he was through, he surfaced and started again where he left off the next day.

[blau993]

I heard a report of this on the radio the other night, and when I heard him say he dove to a maximum depth of only 30 feet, I wondered if perhaps I had misunderstood what he said. Maybe I am being particularly dense, but isn't Loch Ness an awful lot deeper than 30 feet? What was he walking on? Is it more accurate to say he swam across Loch Ness under water? He talked about wearing a canvas suit, which I took to mean the kind of rig that hard hat divers wear. That is a pretty bulky outfit to swim in. I guess I am having trouble visualizing just what he did.

[Rummyfan]

Doing the New York Marathon......

[fourdeuce82d]

Well...sounds like an idiot, but at least the "cause" is reasonable. Better than doing it to bring attention to "the threats of GM food" or some such.

Guy probably would help more by getting a job and paying taxes...but oh well.

[Winniesboy]

Apparently there's a shallow ledge running the length of the loch, and he followed this throughout. The maximum depth of Loch Ness, which lies on the Great Glen fault, is 754 feet!

[blau993]

Thank you for the explanation. I wouldn't have known the Loch was 754 feet deep, but I knew it was a whole lot deeper than 30 feet.