This summer endurance athlete Jamie Patrick will attempt to set an open-water world distance record by swimming from Milwaukee Bay to Chicago Harbor. It will be a grueling 45-hour, 71-mile test of attrition and human perseverance as he braves inclement weather, cold temperatures, mental exhaustion, and more than 250,000 arm strokes as he attempts to swim into the record books.

 

"When Jamie completes this swim, it will be the longest documented traditional solo marathon swim ever done," said Scott Zornig, president of the Santa Barbara Channel Swimming Association. "There have been 3 or 4 claims globally of longer swims, but these swims did not follow marathon swimming's 139-year-old rules or are lacking in evidence."

 

CLICK TO SUPPORT - THE GREAT LAKE SWIM

 

And with YOUR help, the world will get to see this truly inspirational swim LIVE in Facebook. With several real-time chat options also available, your support will also help launch the first true “social broadcast.”

 

While watching an incredible world-record swim is thrilling and exciting in and of itself, being able to engage with other viewers – and being able to interact with those directly involved with the swim, including Patrick’s support crew – during the LIVE event makes it even more fascinating.

 

We at Ridgeline Entertainment feel this social interaction while watching an incredible event is the future of television and with your support we will bring that future “SmackDab” into the middle of today’s viewer reality with “The Great Lake Swim.”

With multi-Emmy Award winner and producer Doug Stanley calling the shots, this live broadcast will be character-driven; an emotional tale of human perseverance under extreme circumstances.  The story of this event will reach beyond the super human efforts of a single man.  We’ll provide an inspirational story to which people all over the world will relate.

But we can’t do it alone.

 

CLICK TO SUPPORT - THE GREAT LAKE SWIM

 

We need fellow producers such as yourself to help us raise capital. $145,000 in capital to be exact. The funds will go directly to hiring a broadcast crew, securing needed permits, renting production and switching equipment, hiring three daily shifts of boats, captains and safety crews, arranging dedicated cell towers for live communication transmission, paying for bandwidth and hosting fees, capturing and backing up data from each camera, and sorting through the myriad of logistics for one swimmer, fourteen crew members, and 30-plus production team members as we collectively make our way, on both land and lake, from Milwaukee to Chicago.

 

A large portion of your much-needed funding will go to the Content Delivery Network to pay for our “digital pipes,” if you will. That means ensuring the HD video flows smoothly and efficiently through our SmackDab video platform on Facebook. As more and more people view this incredible event, we will need more and more bandwidth to keep the live feed flowing.

We also need financing to rent several cell phone tech modems (LiveU or Terradeck) to allow the IP video signal to go to our central master control center to be switched and packaged for viewing on Facebook. This new cell phone technology is much cheaper and efficient than renting a satellite truck.

 

Speaking of which, to make this special broadcast even more “social,” all viewers will be able to Skype directly into our program and even contribute their own live content by downloading an app that turns their own phone into one of our live event cameras! 

 

Hopefully you now see why we are so excited about reaching our financial goal. We truly want to revolutionize the broadcasting industry by making The Great Lake Swim an engaging and interactive event for everyone.

This swim is certainly one that Ridgeline wants to show the world – and one we feel will be an inspiration to all.

While it will be a world-record swim, Patrick doesn’t care about that. He is doing it to show the world that anything is possible. Whether it is simply turning off the TV and going for a walk or swimming a few laps in the community pool, it is vital to just try to stay active and live life to the fullest.

 

CLICK TO SUPPORT - THE GREAT LAKE SWIM

 

“Near the end of my swim my body will be depleted to a point where it will begin to eat my muscle structure,” said Jamie Patrick. “It’s a fun and scary thought, but I feel it needs to be shared with the world. This swim represents me as a man, a father, an adventure swimmer, as a friend, and as someone who hopefully encourages others to push themselves like I push myself. It may be cliché, but a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Or in this case, a single stroke.”

To put Patrick’s non-stop aquatic endeavor into more perspective, Abou-Heif, considered one of the greatest marathon swimmers of the 20th Century, had to be immediately hospitalized due to exhaustion and dehydration after he swam 60 miles across Lake Michigan. Patrick’s marathon lake swim will be farther, longer, and take place in colder water than the swim that left the “Crocodile of the Nile” in the hospital.

 

Despite all this, at the ripe old age of 43, the loving husband and father from Northern California is ready to attack this amazing challenge.

 

And it’s an amazing challenge we at Ridgeline feel honored to tell in the most transparent and intimate way. Told “SmackDab” in the middle of social media using the most modern interactive tools and wireless broadcasting technologies, we will define what direct participation and interactivity truly mean. 

 

It is our intention to make The Great Lake Swim THE online event of 2014.

 

“Jamie is an amazing character,” said Stanley, CEO of Ridgeline Entertainment. “The mental aura and confidence he emits is unmatched. Of course he is an incredible athlete, but his heart may be the biggest muscle in his body.”

 

In the end, it will take every muscle he has – including all his heart – to finish this incredible swim attempt. As world-renown marathon swimmer and founder of the World Open Water Swimming Association, Steve Munatones, puts it: “In my opinion, Jamie is entering uncharted waters. He will be attempting one of the most difficult swims in human history. I can only think of a few swim attempts that would be comparable over the last 100 years.”

 

Yet, with incredible motivation, endurance, and support from his family and all the amazing Indiegogo friends, a billion-plus Facebook users will have the opportunity to engage in the first ever “social broadcast” as Patrick swims from waters that are uncharted into the waters of Chicago Harbor – and, consequently, into the record books.

 

THANK YOU again for any support you can offer and for sharing this great event and Facebook LIVE broadcast with your family and friends. Go Jamie!

 

CLICK TO SUPPORT - THE GREAT LAKE SWIM