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In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Sheryl McLay.
Sheryl used to be a competitive marathon swimmer and has swum many of the great marathon swim, Cook Strait, English channel & Taupo. 
After stopping to swim competitively Sheryl carried on coaching swimmers and organising swim events.
We talk about how Covid made it too hard to continue organising events and how local/smaller events are harder to run now.
Sheryl is a life member of Surf Lifesaving New Zealand and is passionate about making people safer in the water.

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In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Ben Clavel.
We met Ben when he came over to New Zealand from Australia to swim at our Ice Swimming pool championships.
Ben hasn't been swimming for long, but already has achived more than many others.
He got started as a means to support his kids who were into swimming, and then got going in his own way.
He swam the English Channel in a relaym with almost no ocean swimming experience, and if that was not enough decided to come to NZ with one of his relay friends to try his hand at Ice swimming.
He is a really good bloke and has some great stories.

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In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Brent Bythell.
Brent is a disbled swimmer from the top of the south island of New Zealand. We first met Brent at the St Bathans openwater ice swimming event in 2023, and later at Alexandra ice pool champs in 2024.
We talk to him about why he started cold water immersion and the road to ice swimming. (he hasn't had a hot shower in 8 years!).
But that's not all. Brent also is a world record holder and has a place in the Guinness book of world records for doing freedive swims of 62m, with no fins and no kicking. Very impressive.

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In this episore Duncan & Jim talk to Peter Plavec.

Peter has done numerous ice swims with a number of ice kilometers and an ice mile. He gives us lots of nuggets about how he approaches cold water swimming and we talk about what it is like in Europe.

He is very active on Instragram so if you would like to see what he is up to, here's a link.
Peter Plavec on Instagram

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In this episode Duncan & Jim speak to Ruth.
Ruth grew up in Spain, then spent some time in Chile before settling in New Zealand.
Ruthy (as most peope refer to her as) loves the pool, but took up openwater swimming in NZ with the Kohi Kippers.
Ruthy has swum Lake Taupo and the Apolima Strait, both big swims with their own challenges.
A passionate swimmer she even talked Duncan to a standstill!

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In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Ram Barkai.
Many people will know of Ram as the founder of the International Ice Swimming Association (IISA), but there's more to Ram than that.
Before founding IISA he had done numeraous adventure swims, including a massive swim along the Orange river in South Africa over 4 years.
He organised 'freedom' swims from Robben Island at Cape Town, and even did the swim at night.
He took Duncan on his first Ice swim in South Africa, not sure he has fully recovered!
We also talk about why it is an Ice Mile, and why 5 degrees celcius was chosen.
International Ice Swimming Association

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The New Zealand Ice swimming pool championships occured from 9 - 13 July 2024. Duncan & Jim were there (and did some swimming) and got to speak to a number of swimmers there.

We talked about our swoms, why we do cold swimming and asked others why they swim in cold water.

An interesting group of people and interesting answers.

If you want to know why people do it, or if you are curious and want to learn more then this episode is for you.

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In this episode we talk to Bree while we were at the NZ Ice Swimming Championships.

Bree is a lovely, bubbly young womanwho was quite happy to challenge some older male clever dicks!

We got to speak about her swimming story and some of her other life experiences, including living in the arctic for a year.

Bree has done ice swimming and has also complete 2 of the NZ triple crown swims. She is currently training for the 3rd, te Ara a Kiwa/Foveaux Strait and is looking to raise money for shark conservation by doing it. There's a link below if you would like to support her.

We had to pay a price to do this episode, Bree insisted on putting make-up on the clever dicks, just as we were off to the prize giving for the Ice swimming champs. Pic's on Instagram.

References
RBM3 protein - involved in cold chock & hypothermia

Dream Girl by Joy Holley

Mountains to Sea, Wellington

Give a Little page for Swimming Te Ara a Kiwa for Sharks

Bree on Instagram

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In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Francois Lambrechts.
We talk about Francois about his start to swimming in Queenstown in a borrowed wetsuit, but ended up swimming in skins in Dunedin. Impressive as the water can get below 10C in Dunedin.
Francois has a rare disease call Charcot Marie Tooth syndrom which affects his electrical system, and in spite of this has become quite a swimmer.
He is also an active volunteer for the NZ Coastguard and is participating in this years fund raising, the Big Swim. He tells us about the swim and also lots about what the coast guard does in New Zealand.

The Big Swim
Francois page on the big swim
The Clever Dicks Big Swim page

Info on Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease
https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/1245/charcot-marie-tooth-disease-type-1a

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In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Woodie Campbell, or as we found out to Wirimu Campbell. Wiri/Woodie only started a few years ago when people at his gym convinced him to join in the swim squad.
Before that he was doing his version of a triathalon, 10 min each in the Sauna, the steam room & the spa pool!
Not long after starting to swim his sister convinced him (told him) to join them in doing the Iron Maori, a triathalon event, so he had to move to real tri's.
He is now a committed ocean swimmer and has participated in most of the NZ open water swim events.
A very engaging story, it is easy to see why he is popular with many swimmers.