Jim Barber jumped into the Mediterranean at the southern tip of Spain at Tarifa and swam across the Strait of Gibraltar to Morocco. Then he turned around and swam back.

Jim Barber went for a swim last week off the coast of Spain.He went to Africa -- and back.
Barber jumped into the Mediterranean at the southern tip of Spain at Tarifa and swam across the Strait of Gibraltar to Morocco. Then he turned around and swam back.
In doing so, he became the ninth person and first American to accomplish the feat. He also did so in world record time: 7 hours, 49 minutes. That was 6 minutes faster than the previous best. He covered about 21 miles.
Ho-hum. It was no big deal for the 51-year-old ultra endurance swimmer from Zionsville who had previously swam the English Channel, navigated the 281/2 miles around Manhattan Island and swam the Catalina Channel off the coast of California.
"The first three hours was a piece of cake,'' said Barber, who added that long open-water swims are 25 percent physical and 75 percent mental. "I think most swimmers can do that kind of a distance. But when you get into the sixth, seventh and eighth hours, it does require a lot of mental stamina to keep yourself going and your strokes going."

Longtime pursuit
Barber grew up on the Southside, attended Perry Meridian High School, and works as a sales engineer at Siemens. He has been swimming since age 10 and has been doing marathon swims (longer than 15 miles) for more than 20 years.

His July 11 Spanish swim was eight miles in each direction. But with strong currents in the Strait where the Atlantic Ocean merges with Mediterranean, the actual distance was closer to 21 miles.

An impressive feat? No doubt. But Dick Sidner, vice chairman of the Indiana chapter of United States Masters Swimming, said the major significance is navigating the currents.

"A lot of people can swim 21 miles, but swimming 21 miles fast enough to make the course is the hard part," Sidner said. "When Jim got to the Moroccan shore and headed back, he was basically pushed wide to the right, to the east, because of the strong currents coming in out of the Atlantic into the Mediterranean.

"If he doesn't make it in a very short period of time, he's going to get taken into the Mediterranean where the coast line drops away. If you look at the geography, it could have gone from a 21-mile swim to 30 miles or more."

The 6-5, 220-pound Barber said the strategy was to swim "like a bat out of hell" in the early going and survive at the end when the currents take a toll. He said the goal was to average 3 mph.

"To hold a 20-minute mile in a pool is pretty easy, but to do that in the ocean is a totally different set of circumstances," Barber said. "The last two miles were the hardest because you were almost swimming in place. The current was pushing me and I was making headway but probably at about half the distance that I had been making."

Endurance swims of this magnitude require plenty of planning and training. In the 12 weeks before the swim, Barber increased his training to a peak of 40 miles per week.

Training not end-all
Bryan Boggs completed the English Channel swim with Barber in 2006. He said the training is important but only to a point.

"You can only train so much in a pool and so much from a distance or a mental standpoint," Boggs said. "I've always said you can only get 60 percent of the way there by training and the other 40 percent is thrown at you in the Channel or in the Strait. Whether it's currents or winds or ships, you just have to deal with that. And that's why Jim is so good at this. He's able to take whatever is thrown at him."

Barber hired a Spanish crew of four to assist him. Two were in a 30-foot pilot boat that stayed 500 meters ahead of him for directional purposes.

The other two were in a 25-foot provisions boat. Barber said he would swim 45-minute freestyle intervals, then stop for 15 to 20 seconds to ingest a 16-ounce nutrition drink.

Barber estimated the water temperature at 62 degrees close to shore. As he got out into the Strait, he said, it increased to 66 degrees. He does most of his training in Morse Reservoir and prefers it colder.

"I actually thought it would be warmer than that, but I was happy with the water temperature," Barber said. "It was close to ideal conditions. When water temperatures get up over 70 degrees, I start to overheat and it would have made that swim a lot more difficult."

Bigger problems for Barber were the sun and salt water. He said his mouth and tongue were swollen from the large amount of salt water intake. The sun, especially on the return portion to Spain, was brutal, too.

"I got pretty burnt on this swim," Barber said. "I did what I could as far as sunscreen before I got in the water. But when I was coming back to Spain, the sun was to my right and the whole right side of my face got pretty well sunburned."

For Barber, the swim was just another quest on his personal bucket list. He still has his sights set on marathon swims in Hawaii, New Zealand and Ireland, but plans to wait a few years before trying again.

After Boggs swam the English Channel, he stayed out of the water for a year. He said he doesn't think Barber would be able to do that.

"I have my doubts, that's for sure,'' Boggs said. "I heard he said the same thing, but I was just swimming with him last night.''

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