Students break Walk on Water record

By: Adriana Oliva / Staff Writer
Combating extreme heat and humidity, architect students defied the laws of physics as they struggled to walk across a 300 foot wide murky lake behind the Green Library on Wednesday afternoon. This year marks the 15th anniversary of the school of architecture’s Walk on Water competiton.

Pina Del Conte and Cristina Rivera, two of 57 student in the Methods of Construction class broke the previous year’s record, crossing in just 1:16.

The assignment, to design a pair of shoes to walk on water, was given at the beginning of the semester and is worth 20 percent of the students’ grade. This amount is equivalent to one test grade.

“Most of the time the students think I’m kidding, and I get parents coming in and telling me I’m crazy,” Jaime Canavés, director of research for the FIU School of Architecture, said.

To fulfill the requirements for the assignment, students had to design and construct a pair of shoes to walk across water. Pedaling is not allowed. Objects that were not attached to shoes, such as fins or paddles could not be used.

“We spent over 40 hours planning, designing and working on the shoes and around $150 on materials,”a triumphant Del Conte said.

Most of the students’ shoes were made of foam, wood, Plexiglas, PVC pipes, and duck tape to stop the foam from breaking apart in the lake.

Grades were determined according to the distance crossed. If students made it all the way to the end, they received an “A” and got to drop a test grade. Markers in the water designated grades. As students passed them, they earned the marked grade.

“Hopefully everyone was at least able to make it to the “D” mark; it wasn’t that far away,” Canavés said.

Del Conte and Rivera received a first place award of $500, sponsored by the Miami chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Second place went to Eduardo Calil and Manuel Rodriguez with a time of 2:14. Third place went to Dane Yankowich and Alexis Hamilton with a time 2:48.

This year not all winners received cash prizes. Second and third place winners received two architecture books supplied by Coti Imports magazine.

All but four of the teams left the finish line.

“I think it was great how there were so many people out by the lake supporting the students and motivating them to finish,” Frances Varona, sophomore, biology, said.

One of students’ main concerns is lake sanitation.

“Although I thought it was extremely funny that people were falling in, I felt really bad because that’s not the cleanest water in the world,”

Canavés assured his students that the lake is tested for bacteria and that nothing detrimental has been found.

“I just tell my students that it’s not a test to see how much water they can drink, to just keep their mouths closed,” Canavés said.

“My initial reaction was that the lake was disgusting, but I was really excited from the beginning,” architecture major Diana Mackay said.

Although students were allowed to work in teams of two, only one team member had to do the walking.

FIU students started walking on water 15 years ago.

“Traditionally, in basic architect design classes at architecture schools the assignment is to make a canoe out of cardboard and make it float in a race,” Canavés said. “I, however, thought that the students here at FIU were more special and could do something different, so I came up with them having to create shoes to walk on water.”
In the years to come, Canavés hopes to have some competition.

“We’ve challenged the University of Miami and our own school of engineering but no one has yet taken us up on our offer,” he said.

Be the first to comment on "Students break Walk on Water record"

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.


*