The Pod: Ocean Swimming

Lauren Tischendorf is the first woman to swim solo around Lord Howe Island - 32.2 km of sharks, currents, 25 knot winds and 2.5 metre swell, finishing in 13 hours 50 minutes and 26 seconds. She has also filmed a documentary of the swim, I just went for a swim, highlighting the spectacular ocean as well as the importance of the empowerment of girls and women. You can watch this film throughout Australia very soon in the Women's Adventure Film Festival.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Lord - Leaux Mane
• Howe - Andervall
• Island - extenz
• Sapphire - Tobu

Image from Lauren on instagram

Brendan Cullen is training to swim the English channel, but what makes his journey exceptional is that he is a sheep farmer from Kars Station, east of Broken Hill in NSW, and is about 350 km from the nearest coastline. Four mornings a week, Brendan swims in the murky waters of Lake Pamamaroo and Lake Copi Hollow in the Menindee Lakes, where he can't typically see more than 20 centimetres in front of his face (video). And there's not a lot of open water in the desert! 

Brendan already has some major swimming achievements under his belt, such as swimming for 8 hours non-stop, and he an ambassador for lifeline, raising awareness and money for mental health.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Broken - dikomm
• Hill - Valance
• Broken - Mind Over Mayhem
• Hill - Damien Bronieki
• Broken - trifonic
• Sapphire - Tobu

Image from Jacinta Cullen / smh. 

Peter Hancock has now swum well over 1000 consecutive days, most days in Dumaresq Dam in Armidale, central NSW. Often the temperature is down near freezing. But this is not the first time Pete has conquered an incredible swimming challenge. In 2014, he swam in 333 different locations in the one year, including in the 1.6 degree Fox Glacier River in New Zealand.

As a freshwater ecologist, it's not just the swimming that Pete likes - there are plenty of things to look at! He has discovered new species of fresh water crustaceans and beetles,  and documents much of it on Instagram.

Pete also recently completed an indoor Iron Man, raising money for Headspace. So he knows how to run and cycle as well! You can see his adventures on strava.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Set - Michael Douglas Dumaresq
• Armidale - Malfatti
• Like I do - Dam
• Feel good - Invertebrate
• Sapphire - Tobu

Image from Pete on Instagram. Also see Pete on Twitter. 

Jaimee Rogers hosts the Big Sports Breakfast program on Sky Sports Radio, is a national level swimmer in the 200m breaststroke, and is now tackling the English Channel. She is raising money with Gotcha4life to support mental health programs. You can sponsor her here.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Balmoral - Peyrius
• Winter - Datasuck
• Calais to Dover - Binder and Howorth
• Cliffs of Dover - Fabio Mazzo
• Sapphire - Tobu

Image from Jaimee on instagram

Jon Stagg has completed the Dark Mofo Nude Solstice Swim every year since its inception. What makes someone swim nude in the middle of the Tasmanian winter? Jon has some fabulous stories - he even did it himself when the event was cancelled during covid!

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Nude Beach - Le Blanche
• Naked - Pasi Sillanpaa
• Wobble - Josh Tiong
• Sapphire - Tobu

Image from ABC

I'm hoping to do the Canberra version - let's see where we're at come the solstice! You'll see it on strava or twitter if I do.

If you live on the east coast of Australia, your ocean swimming season has been rudely interrupted by the weather, with swims cancelled up and down the coast because of high swells and flooding. Australia has just experienced its wettest summer for five years because of a climate cycle known as La Nina.  Associate Professor Andréa Taschetto is an oceanographer and ARC Future Fellow at the Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• La Niña Y El Lobo - Jesus Adrián Romero
• La nina que yo ame - Tumi Music Ltd.
• La Nina De Tus OjoS - Daniel Calveti (DJ PRE Remix)
• Sapphire - Tobu

Image from hippo px

Some links from the show: Andrea on twitter, Marc on twitter, Marc on strava

Associate Professor Anna Clark is an ocean lover, fisher and historian at the University of Technology, Sydney. She has extensively researched the history of beach culture in Australia, an important place for thousands of generations of Indigenous culture,  a place of last resort during the Great Depression, and a place of upheaval during the more recent Cronulla riots. And throughout all that time, it has been vital for food and industry.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Beach - Lichu
• Beach - Hyphelion
• Beach - piglet
• Sapphire - Tobu

Image from exploroz

John Sheely is head gardener at the Warrnambool Botanical Gardens, an acclaimed ocean swimmer who, with pools closed due to covid, has now swum 300 consecutive ocean swims, and is aiming at 365 - a fair achievement when you consider he's swimming without a wetsuit off the coast of Victoria! It will end up being over 1000 km swum. He's also got quite the take on beer and steak as sports nutrition!

You can find John on Strava and Twitter. Image from The Standard.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Beer - The fishermen and the priestess
• Pepper Steak - User 21293509
• Turkish Delight - Mark Armstrong 303
• Wellerman - Argules
• Sapphire - Tobu

Chloe McCardel is probably the world's best ocean swimmer. She holds the record for the world's longest unassisted ocean swim (124.4 km), has crossed the English Channel 37 times, was inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 2016 and was International Marathon Swimmer of the Year, 2014 & 2015. Her achievements are too long to fully describe! She is also an acclaimed coach, and in November is giving free online English Channel solo swim advice talks for which you can register here.

Image from Chloe's Facebook page.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Chloe - Fear the priest
• Chloe - The drop kid
• English - tphalp
• Channel - brad2
• Hypothermia - Creo
• Sapphire - Tobu

Craig Clarke is a champion Australian surf life-saver who has had a dream of swimming the English Channel since watching Des Renford in the 1970s. He had a slot booked in for this year, and then Covid-19 hit. Undeterred, not wanting to waste the training, and to raise money for Beyond Blue, Craig developed the 36 km “Coals to Newcastle” ocean swim on the Australian East Coast, a swim leg that has never been attempted before.  The course dates back over 100 years to when coal ships loaded at Catherine Hill Bay jetty (where the swim started) and transported coal into Newcastle Harbour past Nobbys Lighthouse (finishing point for the swim). It also has a great deal of personal significance to Craig as a coal-miner, with Newcastle being Craig’s home town and Swansea Belmont SLSC his club.

Craig also raised as astonishing $32000 for Beyond Blue. The swim took 12 hours and you can read more about the swim at the Coals to Newcastle Facebook page.

Image from Newcastle Herald.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Walking on hot coals - Joe Bongiovanni / Jamie Rhind
• Newcastle city lights - 2G-Ghost Green
• Bay - Vlad Gluschenko
• Sweet Maya - Coal fired bicycle
• Swell - Journal
• Sapphire - Tobu