In the first-ever guest episode of Be Undaunted, Tara Collingwood and George Dom sit down with extreme open-water swimmer Ryan Stramrood to unpack how an “average guy” went from couch potato in his late 20s to tackling some of the coldest, most dangerous waters on Earth, always in nothing but a Speedo. Ryan shares the mindset tools he’s developed through brutal endurance challenges like Robben Island, the English Channel, and even a mile swim in Antarctica (for a Guinness World Record). The conversation dives into discomfort, fear, pain, failure, and the power of training your mind to keep going when everything inside you says “quit.”

Key Topics & Takeaways

1) From “fat and lazy” to the first brave step

Ryan didn’t wake up wanting to be an ice swimmer. He started by joining a client’s swim squad, tried to keep up in a fast lane, and ended up so wrecked he had to stop and vomit. But the real turning point? He showed up again the next day.
Takeaway: The comeback after embarrassment is often the true beginning.

2) The moment a “pedestal” goal becomes possible

Ryan met someone who had swum from Robben Island to Blouberg Beach (South Africa) about 4.5 miles, averaging ~2.5 hours for many swimmers and you have to do it without a wetsuit (to make it “count”). Being in the same lane as “someone who did that” made the impossible feel… reachable.
Takeaway: Proximity to people doing hard things expands your belief in what’s possible.

3) Cold water as a classroom

Ryan didn’t choose cold water.  Cape Town’s waters are cold. Over time he learned the cold isn’t just physical; it triggers a powerful mental alarm system.
Core idea: Humans evolved to avoid cold, not endure it. Your brain will scream “danger—get out” long before you’re truly at your limit.

4) What he thinks about for hours in training

Ryan describes long pool sessions (7–10 km workouts/hundreds of laps) and how his mind stays anchored to purpose: the “why,” the goal ahead, and small motivators (yes, even Strava accountability).
Takeaway: Long endurance is built in boring places, day after day.

5) Fueling an ultra swim (and why marshmallows matter)

Feeding while swimming is a logistical puzzle: you’re treading water, trying not to sink, keeping feeds short, and fighting cold. Ryan explains why marshmallows are a favorite:

• easy to eat fast
• don’t turn into rock-hard toffee like chocolate can in cold conditions
• a “treat” that helps mentally bridge to the next feed
  Takeaway: Perfect nutrition matters, but something you like can be the difference between finishing and quitting.

6) Panic, breathing, and the mind under stress

Tara relates to open-water anxiety where breathing control changes when your face is in the water. Ryan explains how early cold and fatigue can trigger mental spirals and why it helps to expect those thoughts and not treat them as truth.

7) The “pain cave” and staying when it’s awful

George brings up endurance runner Courtney Dauwalter’s “pain cave.” Ryan agrees: the goal isn’t to love pain but rather it’s to recognize it, train around it, and learn its patterns.
Takeaway: Experience teaches you the difference between “this is hard” and “this is dangerous.”

8) The mind’s “end point” vs the real end point

One of the biggest episode mic drops:

• Your brain has an “end point” where it insists you must stop.
• But that point is often far earlier than the body’s true limit.
  Takeaway: Growth lives in the gap between what your mind claims is the limit and what’s actually possible.

9) Failure isn’t automatically valuable

Ryan shares a life-changing failure: during a North Channel attempt, he experienced SIPE (swimming-induced pulmonary edema) and nearly died. But the bigger lesson came later in how he initially mismanaged that failure by blaming everything and not processing it.
He introduces two types of failure:

• Good failure: you get introspective, learn, adjust
• Bad failure: you bury it, blame, quit, or repeat patterns
  Takeaway: Failure only becomes fuel when you extract the lesson.

10) His final challenge to listeners

Ryan’s closing advice:

• Don’t only set goals you know how to achieve.
• Pick the goal one notch beyond certainty—where there’s no roadmap.
• Find your own “classroom” (doesn’t have to be cold water).
• Understand your mind is overprotective, and we can learn to manage it.

Take Home Messages:

• “It’s very commonly known it’s 30% body and 70% mind.”
• “Your mind is designed to keep you safe… and it’s a little overzealous.”
• “Not all failure is good… growth comes from introspection.”

Ryan Stramrood reminds us that being undaunted isn’t about being fearless.  Rather it’s about understanding your brain’s protective instincts, choosing a hard goal anyway, and learning to keep moving when discomfort shows up.

Be Undaunted.

Ryan Stramrood is an ultra open-water and ice swimmer, internationally sought-after speaker, and author of Push Past Impossible. He’s completed extreme swims in places including Siberia, Antarctica, and South Africa’s shark-inhabited waters—and has completed the Robben Island crossing 145 times.

Book:Push Past Impossible — Ryan Stramrood

Ryan Stramrood:  https://ryanstramrood.com/

High Trust Leadership by George Dom

https://www.georgedom.com/book

More about George Dom:

https://www.georgedom.com/

More about Tara Collingwood:

https://www.dietdiva.net/

Follow the show: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • YouTube

Be Undaunted is produced by JAG Podcast Productions: www.jagpodcastproductions.com

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.