Ram Barkai, Kieron Palframan, Ryan Stramrood and Andrew Chin are South African open water swimmers who became the first men to swim around the tip of South America.
Ram Barkai is a cold water swimmer from Cape Town.
Together with Toks Viviers, they did three swims in rough water, against strong currents and in water between 3.9°C and 8°C.
The three swims were: 4.5 K across the Strait of Magellan, 3.2 K double crossing of the Beagle Channel and 2.5 K around Cape Horn.
The South African cold water specialists will be joined by the following swimmers in their next cold water expedition:
Rafal Ziobro (Poland), Zdenek Talmicka and Petr Tomasek (Czech Republic), Jack Bright (United Kingdom), Nuala Moore and Anne Marie Ward (Ireland), Alexander Brylin (Russia), Paolo Chiarino (Italy) and Anna-Carin Nordin (Sweden) have all committed to the 86 K (53 mile) relay crossing of the entire width of the Bering Strait.
The Bering Straight separates Russia from the America’s and the water will be below 4 degrees Celsius for the swim.
The crossing is planned for 18 July – 10 August 2012. The swimming relay starts on the Cape Dezhnev (Russia) and finishes on the Cape Prince of Wales (USA)
