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The hamster wheel, before she sank.
Facebook.com/IrishSeaCrossing
Hear the story from NPR:
It's been a tough week for daredevils. Felix Baumgartner had to postpone his bid to break the speed of sound during a skydive. Chris Todd had to give up his hamster-wheeling walk across the Irish Sea. His machine sank.
As our friends at All Things Considered say, "it's been a frustrating week for daredevils."
Felix Baumgartner had to postpone his attempt to rise 23 miles high in the sky and then jump from a balloon to see if he can break the speed of sound on the way down.
And maybe you haven't heard, but Chris Todd had to give on his "walk" across the Irish Sea in a human hamster wheel.
It seems that Todd, to raise money for charity, tried over the weekend to hamster-wheel 66 miles from North Wales to County Wicklow, Ireland. He made it about 15 miles (after an exhausting nine hours) before winds and rough waves pummeled the contraption.
"I could see the glow of lights illuminating the clouds over Ireland," Todd writes on his IrishSeaCrossing.co.uk website. "Despite the wheel coping well with larger than forecast waves ... late on Sunday night, the rudders were overcome by fighting the force of the waves, which were constantly battering the side of the raft, and eventually both rudders failed."
He got aboard the boat that was traveling alongside. The hamster wheel, alas, "broke up whilst being towed" and is now at the bottom of the sea.
There is video, though, of how the Tredalo did work when it was seaworthy. Courtesy of the Daily Mail, it's posted here.
Click here to find an NPR station that broadcasts or streams All Things Considered. Later, we'll add the show's report to the top of this post.
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