From bicycle marathons benefiting AIDS to fire breathing at the Sydney Olympics; from plunging into the cold polar waters to then writing about it! Starting today, you’ll hear interesting stories and anecdotes from the LinkedIn team, in a column called "LinkedInside". Here’s Ryan Gustafson’s account of swimming with the penguins in Antarctica (don’t miss the Antarctic Polar Plunge video!):

Antarctica: The end of the world. One of the most remote locations on the planet and virtually untouched by human hands. If you had told me in November of 2006 that I would be swimming in Antarctica less then a month and a half later, I would have laughed at you and called you crazy. Then I got THE EMAIL. It read simply "You know, I’ve always wanted to go to Antarctica…" and thus it began. A few weeks of frenzied packing, a couple of outrageously expensive REI purchases, a call to Capitol One begging for a credit limit increase and I was ready to depart..

(Ryan Gustafson swimming with the penguins | Source: Ryan’s photo tour)

This
past January I spent two weeks on an “eco-adventure” tour in Antarctica. The travel part involved flying from San Francisco to Ushuaia, Argentina, then traveling by
ship the rest of the way to Antarctica. After
30 hours and 5 layovers I arrived in Ushuaia, Tierra Del
Fuego Argentina;
the southern most tip of South America. From
there I boarded a ship bound for Antarctica and spent 2 days crossing the
Drake Passage where 30 to 40 foot waves are
common and 60 foot waves are not unheard of. Fortunately we only experienced the
30 to 40 foot swells but even still, the ship doctor told me about 90% of the
passengers got sea sick. For breakfast the first morning at sea they served us
Monte Cristo sandwiches (ham, turkey and Swiss cheese between two slices of
bread, soaked in egg-based batter and deep-fried). Man, did the crew have a
wicked sense of humor!

Once
we reached the coast of Antarctica the seas
were mostly calm to everyone’s relief. We spent the next few weeks traveling
along the western coast of the Antarctic peninsula, taking Zodiac (those rubber
navy seal boats) trips to various landing spots during the day visiting penguin
colonies, glaciers, a few research stations (the researchers were quite
surprised to see us) and an abandoned whaling site. In the evening the tour
staff (mostly Antarctic researchers / grad students) gave talks about Antarctic
ecology, geology, geography, history etc. so we were able to learn a great deal
about our surrounding environment. During these two weeks we saw an amazing
abundance of wildlife including Penguins (Adele, Gentoo, King, Chinstrap and
Magellanic), seals, whales (sperm, humpback, Minke) and different species of
birds, too numerous to count.

On the last day before heading back
into the Drake Passage we dropped anchor along a small island to allow a few
hearty fools, I mean, souls to take a swim and become members of the Antarctic
Polar Plunge Club. I had already become a member of the Polar Bear Club in
Prudhoe Bay Alaska a few years back and wasn’t about to let this opportunity
slip by. They simply dropped the gang plank, tied a rope around my waist and
pointed towards the water, so I jumped in… and very quickly scrambled back to
the ship to get yanked out. It was just a little cold (34, 35 degrees Fahrenheit
maybe). As I walked up the plank, the ship doctor handed me literally a glass
full of vodka. The ship doctor! Well, cheers!

The trip back to Argentina across the passage was
fairly calm and uneventful aside from an unanticipated stop at a Chilean
“weather station island” which we officially didn’t make (the Chilean Government
would not have been amused). The 30 hour flight/ layover trip back to San Francisco was
also uneventful although I must say, once I was back flying with regular
business travelers I felt just a little out of place having been in such a
different environment if only for a few weeks.
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Related stories from LinkedInside

* Here’s an account of the AIDS Lifecyle Marathon that Aileen Brown and Brittany Schmitt participated in and further details of the event itself