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In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Dan Abel.
Dan is a Christchurch based swimmer who runs a swim consultancy. And we cover what that means, teaching & coaching swimming, organising events/safaris and advocating for swimming where ever he can.
The talk was wide ranging covering his swimming career, his views on what is happening with swimming in New Zealand and so much more.

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In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Colin McLeod.
Colin lives in the outer Hebrides which is part of Scotland.
He has done some amazing swims, even though the water there must be quite cold (he happily uses a wetsuit). Many of his swims are for charity, he has supported quite a few in his time. Currently he is attempting to swim the same distance as from Land's End to John O'Groats, 841 miles in under a year. I'm sure he will have completed that by the time this is released.
He also goes swim camping, basically tows a waterproof rucksack behind him and then camps with friends. Sounds fun, we must try it.

Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/@hebseaswimmer/featured

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3259755210733798

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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