30
It’s an expedition of some 30 people. (TEDTalk, 23 Dec 2013, :52)
35
…this group of 35 people—we did this. I didn’t do this, we did this. (“The Science of Diana Nyad’s Swim . . .,” 2:50)
The crew is fantastic. 35 people. All first rate, in both expertise and heart. (Nyad’s blog, 29 Aug 2013)
40
Nyad will be accompanied by a support crew of four boats and 40 people. (CBS News, 31 Aug 2013)
44
“I’m not waiting for any petty little judgment,” Nyad said from her home in Los Angeles. “To think that the 44 people out there would collude in a fraud is absurd. We’ll keep celebrating.” (Miami Herald, 17 Sep 2013, p. A2)
45
Along with the training, the organization of an expedition this size, 45 people out into the wilderness that is the unpredictable and dangerous stretch between Cuba and Florida, is monumental. (Huffpost, 26 Sep 2013)
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The website of FishMonster Magazine* used to host the best inventory of Nyad’s team. That page has disappeared, but you can find an archived version here. Fishmonster’s list gives 40 individuals at sea with Nyad (see spreadsheet).
Fishmonster’s list may have left off one member: Jon Costenbader. Nyad records him as a member of her shark team in a 31 July 2013 blog entry. A month after the swim, federal agents arrested him (archived here) for attempting to smuggle over half a ton of cocaine into Florida from the Bahamas.
Costenbader’s lawyer “spoke highly” of his client’s work with Nyad “during her swim from Cuba to Key West,” but you won’t find Costenbader in Find a Way’s Xtreme Dream Team list (pp. 293-296). He is scheduled for release from prison in 2025.
*Two members of Nyad’s crew, Marlin and Dianne Scott, run Fishmonster. The New York Times features them—as Scott and Deanne Hopp—in the 2008 article, “Trail of Bad Loans Leads to the Couple Next Door.” (Reprinted in the Palm Beach Post.)
