Lake Taupo

From Openwaterpedia
Lake Taupo
Men's team and women's team on Lake Taupo for the Taupo x 3 world record setting relay

Lake Taupo is a lake situated in the North Island of New Zealand and is part of the Still Water Eight. With a surface area of 616 square kilometers (238 sq mi), it is the largest lake by surface area in New Zealand, and the second largest freshwater lake by surface area in geopolitical Oceania after Lake Murray in Papua New Guinea.

Lake Taupo has a perimeter of approximately 193 kilometers, a deepest point of 186 meters. It is drained by the Waikato River (New Zealand's longest river), while its main tributaries are the Waitahanui River, the Tongariro River, and the Tauranga Taupo River.

Open Water Swimming

Lake Taupo is the site of many open water swimming competitions and solo swims and relays including the Oceania Swimming Championships, Lake Taupo Relay, New Zealand National 10K Championships, the Epic Swim Festival, and the 40.2 km Lake Taupo Marathon Swim.

Still Water 8

The Still Water Eight is a group of 8 marathon swims in lakes that is a goal of seriously-minded marathon swimmers who are focused on still-water marathon swims. Successful completion of these 8 marathon swims has never been recorded by a single individual. It was first publicly announced by Michelle Macy in October 2011.

A single marathon swim crossing is 40.2 km (25 miles). Margaret Sweeney was the first person to swim across Lake Taupo in 1955.

Categories

Completion of the Still Water Eight can be recorded in three categories:

1. wetsuit
2. non-wetsuit (i.e., FINA approved swim suits)
3. channel-standard swimwear (i.e., traditional swimming briefs for men and no arm or leg coverage for women)

If the swimmer chooses to swim one of the Still Water Eight swims in a wetsuit, they would fall into the wetsuit category. Likewise if they swim in a FINA-approved swimsuit, they fall in that category. If they swim across all the lakes in channel-standard swimwear, then they fall into the channel-standard category.

Every swim attempt must start and finish on dry land.

Stillwater 8

Lake Taupo is part of the Stillwater 8, a solo marathon swimming challenge created by Michelle Macy:

Lake Taupo Crossings

External links

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