A FORMER pupil from Mount House School. Tavistock has launched himself into the history books to become the first person to swim in all five oceans. Lewis Gordon Pugh, 36, completed this record-breaking task on Friday, January 27 as he finished his last long distance swim in the Pacific Ocean. He dived into the ocean at Manley Beach in Australia and swam 15kms to the Sydney Opera House to end the challenge. The swim, which took up to six hours and one minute to complete, has happened weeks after he broke the world record for the most southern swim ever completed in 0 degrees Celsius water off Antarctica. He swam in all five oceans of the world, the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic and Southern oceans. Lewis said the swim in the Pacific was the easiest despite swimming with blue stinging jellyfish and the possibility of a shark attack. Lewis said the hardest was the Southern Ocean, swimming with icebergs and leopard seals around. He has pioneered more swims than any other swimmer in history. He has completed long distance swims in the Atlantic Ocean (English Channel, 1992), the Arctic Ocean (North Cape, Norway, 2003) and the Southern Ocean (Deception Island, Sub-Antarctica, 2005), and most recently the Indian Ocean (Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa, 2006). Lewis was born in Plymouth and was educated at Mount House Preparatory School where he learned to swim in an outdoor pool. If anyone wishes to find out more then visit his website, http://www.lewispugh.com">www.lewispugh.com.
