Dan Foster

Canadian Dan Foster completed the 42nd crossing of Lake Ontario, with a time of 19 hours 12 minutes on 15th August 1998, at age 33. Starting from Niagara-on-the-Lake in the early morning at 12:37 am, he finished at the Leslie Street Spit in Toronto at 7:49 pm. At the time of the swim, Dan was working as an Audio-Visual Technician and living in Mississauga, Ontario.

Dan competed for seven years as an age-group swimmer and, at the time of his Lake Ontario swim, had competed for the Etobicoke Masters Swim Club for five years. In 1997, he completed the Key West open-water Swim, placing 12th (10th man) with a time of 4:36:40 in a field of 70 swimmers who completed the course.

Dan's successful Lake Ontario swim came after a cancellation on the previous weekend due to rough conditions; however, his swim on August 15th encountered westerly winds of about 15 knots shortly after the start, with the waves increasing to 2 metres before dying down to almost nothing around 8:00 am. The water remained constant at about 70 degrees F throughout the swim, except for a warm start at 74 F in the Niagara River. The winds and waves in the early stages of the swim took their toll on Dan, who was greatly fatigued at the completion of the ordeal.

​