Lake Pontchartrain Conquered By Lafayette Swimmer

15 hours!

That's how long it took 47-year-old Matthew Mosely to complete a swim across Lake Pontchartrain and become the first person to ever do so.

Six months.

That's how long it took Mosely to train for the 26-mile swim which began at the West End lighthouse and ended up in Mandeville.

"I'm just so happy, and I could not do it without my team," said Mosely to WWL-TV with a big smile on his face after he climbed out of the water.

Mosely made the swim without using a flotation device while being followed by two boats.

"It was really nice and smooth and then it got really choppy, sometime in the morning. But we persevered."

So why did Mosely do it? According to Louisiana Radio Network, he did it to highlight the restoration efforst made by the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation.