SWIMMING WITH THE POD (Marc West)
Explore every episode of SWIMMING WITH THE POD
| Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Jun 2023 | Ocean swimming... Alcatraz (part 2) | 00:41:48 | |
Rolf Hut is a hydrological scientist from Delft University of Technology. Or perhaps he's better described as MacGyver scientist, attacking problems from different and interesting angles. One such problem was the infamous 1962 escape from Alcatraz, in which inmates Clarence Anglin, John Anglin, and Frank Morris escaped from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, by tucking papier-mâché versions of their heads into their beds, escaping their cells through the ventilation ducts, climbing through an unused utility corridor, across roofs and over fences, before leaving the island on an improvised inflatable raft made of rain jackets. Rolf helped build perhaps the most sophisticated model of the currents in the bay area on the night of escape to look at the question of whether the inmates could possibly have survived the journey, and then tested the research in his own Mythbusters-esque escape from Alcatraz. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from Rolf's page at Delft | |||
| 27 Feb 2024 | Ocean swimming... and biomechanics | 00:54:20 | |
Anthony Blazevich is a Professor of Biomechanics in the School of Medical and Health Sciences at Edith Cowan University. He is also the head of the Centre for Exercise and Sports Science Research, so is a fabulous person to talk to about biomechanics, body types and how our physiology affects our ability to move through water. Listen in to hear how you could tweak your stroke for quicker times, and why we still may see many more world records in the pool (and ocean). He has also conducted extremely interesting research on the benefits (or not) of stretching. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Photo created by me using Bing AI Image Creator | |||
| 10 Mar 2020 | Ocean swimming... and event organisation | 00:31:51 | |
The Cole Classic is one of Sydney's oldest and largest ocean swims. It has a storied history and in 2020, ownership of the swim moved from Fairfax to Manly Surf Life Saving Club, meaning essentially a whole new swim had to be organised. Simone Hill is a member of Manly SLSC and runs her own company My Crew Travel. Simone coordinated the volunteers and logistics for the day, and helped create a new community vibe around the event. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License: | |||
| 24 Nov 2020 | Ocean swimming... with Chloe McCardel | 01:12:10 | |
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:
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| 14 Feb 2023 | Ocean swimming... with Peta Bradley, World Ice Swimming Champion | 00:24:37 | |
Peta Bradley is a member of the Australian ice swimming team that recently competed at the World Ice Swimming Championships in France. She competed in the 1000m, 500m, and 50m butterfly, bringing home a bronze medal in the 500m. Peta hails from Gilgandra, quite some distance from any coastline, and does a lot of her training in dams. She has also completed the coveted ice mile at Thedbo. Peta is the manager of sheep genetics, within the livestock genetics team at Meat and Livestock Australia. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License: Photo from Peta Bradley - it is the Australian team at the World Champs - Peta, Nick Hungerford and Ellery McGowan | |||
| 12 Aug 2020 | Ocean swimming... with Bold and Beautiful | 00:46:37 | |
Bold and Beautiful are an informal Sydney swim group for all ages and abilities who meet out the front of Manly Life Saving Club every day and swim at 7am, 7 days a week from Manly to Shelly Beach and back. Dorset Sutton is a philanthropist and along with Bold and Beautiful has been a key part of Operation Crayweed, an effort to bring crayweed back to Sydney beaches - you may remember this from the last episode. Dorset, along with wife Jenny, runs the Lim-Sutton Initiative which is focused on marine philanthropy. Image from Bold and Beautiful Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
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| 26 Oct 2023 | Ocean swimming... and culture, inclusion and society | 01:05:53 | |
Michelle O’Shea is a Senior Lecturer at Western Sydney University whose research interests dive into the areas of sport, culture and society, particularly with regard to swimming. She has looked into issues such as why swimming lessons for kids are important, as well as the role of the swimming pool in society. Her research particularly examines issues relevant to gender and diversity, and how the pool and the beach, despite the great Australian egalitarian myth, can be quite exclusionary places. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from wikicommons | |||
| 10 Oct 2021 | Ocean swimming... around Lord Howe Island | 00:20:57 | |
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:
Image from Lauren on instagram | |||
| 05 Aug 2023 | Ocean swimming... and a healthy brain | 00:21:35 | |
Seena Mathew is Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. As a neurobiologist, she studies the effects of swimming on the brain, which are many! You can read her article in The Conversation (Swimming gives your brain a boost – but scientists don’t know yet why it’s better than other aerobic activities) or tune in here! Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Photo from StockSnap | |||
| 18 Jun 2022 | Ocean swimming... with Lynne Cox | 00:56:24 | |
Lynne Cox is arguably the most accomplished ocean swimmer of all time. She set the record for the English Channel in 1972, was the first woman to swim the Cook Strait in New Zealand in 1975, famously swam between the US and the USSR in 1987 across the Bering Strait in bone-chilling 3 degree waters, and then even colder in Antarctica and Greenland. She has a list of achievements too long to list here. Lynne is also an author, and has a new book called Tales of Al - The Water Rescue Dog, detailing her experiences with Italy's elite, highly specialized corps of water rescue dogs who jump from helicopters and save lives. Thanks very much to Knopf for sending me a preprint. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Photo from Lynne Cox | |||
| 05 Mar 2021 | Ocean swimming... and Australian beach history | 00:30:11 | |
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: Image from exploroz | |||
| 30 May 2023 | Ocean swimming... with Andy Donaldson | 00:59:51 | |
Andy Donaldson is a world-recorder holding open-water swimmer. In 2023, he is attempting to swim the Oceans Seven in one year, and is making a pretty good fist of it, having already swum the English Channel (in a British record time), the North Channel (only 4 minutes off the record), the Cook Strait (in world record time) and the Molokai Channel in Hawaii. At the time of recording, he was setting off to swim the Strait of Gibraltar - and by time I published, he had broken the British record. He is raising money for Black Dog Institute Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Photo from Andy on instagram | |||
| 30 Nov 2023 | Ocean swimming... and connecting with blue spaces | 00:37:51 | |
Rebecca Olive is an ocean swimmer whose academic research explores the role of sport and leisure in human and environmental health. In particular, her work explores the practices and cultures of ocean swimming and surfing to understand how human and environmental well-being interact, as well as our relationships to all things blue-space, such as sharks, animals, plastics, pollution and health. Her Moving Oceans website examines how participation in ocean sports shapes our behaviours towards taking care of the oceans. She has also published some fantastic reads in The Conversation - we talk about these two in the podcast:
Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from Moving Oceans
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| 21 Oct 2020 | Ocean swimming... the Coals to Newcastle | 00:57:24 | |
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:
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| 26 Mar 2020 | Ocean swimming... and COVID-19 | 00:37:18 | |
Hannah Sassi is a virologist from the University of Sydney who studies the persistence of viruses in the environment. She is also an ocean swimmer who trains with BondiFit, whose local beach is Maroubra. Right now during the Coronavirus pandemic, many swimmers are wondering whether it is OK to go for a swim. At the time of recording, a lot of world is in lockdown or headed towards it, so some of this is a moot point. If the local laws say don't swim, then obviously, don't swim! In summary, should you swim right now?
While a properly cleaned pool will kill the virus, the virus can live for a long time in the surrounding environment and everywhere you go on your way to the pool. And in such places where people exercise, people tend to be breathing heavily. Viruses can persist for a longer period of time in fresh/salt water, and so there are further risks with ocean pools, especially those that don't get flushed or cleaned regularly. If you want to swim, swimming at some distance from others in the ocean is the way to go. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
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| 05 Jun 2020 | Ocean swimming... with Shane Gould | 01:09:59 | |
Dr. Shane Gould is the only swimmer to hold every world freestyle record from 100 to 1500 metres and the 200-metre individual medley simultaneously. She is the first female swimmer to win three Olympic gold medals in world record time, and the first swimmer to win Olympic medals in five individual events in a single Olympics. She is also the only Australian to win three individual gold medals at one Games. And now she's a card-carrying member of the Ocean Swimmers' Union! But not only that, Shane has completed two Masters theses and a Doctorate on the role of swimming in Australian culture, runs swim courses, is involved with surf life-saving and swims as often as she can in the ocean in Bicheno, Tasmania. So she knows a bit about swimming. And she also won Survivor! Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from Numismatic Bibliomania Society. | |||
| 04 Jul 2021 | Ocean swimming... with Jaimee Rogers | 00:31:01 | |
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:
Image from Jaimee on instagram | |||
| 30 Nov 2024 | Ocean swimming... in Sydney's ocean pools | 00:23:26 | |
Justine Nolan, Director of the Australian Human Rights Institute at UNSW, has swum all 45 of Sydney's glorious ocean pools. Inspired by Places We Swim (have a listen back to our podcast ep with Caroline and Dillon), Justine journeyed across Sydney at the end of covid, enjoying our newfound freedoms, to explore one of Sydney's most unappreciated yet sublime features. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Photo by me! (Bilgola) | |||
| 09 Aug 2024 | Ocean swimming... and free diving | 00:49:40 | |
Michaela Werner is free diver, who in 2023, set a new world record, becoming the first woman to swim 101 underwater laps of a 25-metre pool in an hour. Born in Slovakia, she moved to Australia at age 19 where she fell in love with freediving. Michaela can swim 200m underwater, can hold her breath for six minutes and is a qualified free-diving instructor and coach. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Photo from Michaela on instagram | |||
| 18 Apr 2021 | Ocean swimming... in La Nina | 00:17:14 | |
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:
Image from hippo px Some links from the show: Andrea on twitter, Marc on twitter, Marc on strava | |||
| 25 Jul 2023 | Ocean swimming... and swimmer’s ear | 00:24:59 | |
Episode 50! Swimmer's ear (acute otitis externa) is an outer ear infection that many swimmers will have had at some point in their lives. However, it turns out that you don't have to go swimming to get swimmer's ear. Thomas Schrepfer is assistant professor of head and neck surgery in the University of Florida Department of Otolayrngology, and a keen diver and swimmer. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Photo by Franco Antonio Giovanella on Unsplash. | |||
| 05 Sep 2023 | Ocean swimming... and germs | 00:29:11 | |
Primrose Freestone, Associate Professor in Clinical Microbiology at the University of Leicester and science communicator, is an infectious diseases expert, and has dived into the debate of whether swimming in a pool or in the natural environment is the safer option. She also takes us through the cleanliness of hot-tubs (hint, they're gross.) Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Photo from wikimedia | |||
| 02 Feb 2021 | Ocean swimming... with John Sheely | 00:39:20 | |
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:
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| 12 Aug 2021 | Ocean swimming... with Peter Hancock | 00:57:50 | |
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:
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| 24 Mar 2025 | Ocean swimming... and ocean health | 00:54:58 | |
Matthew England is Australia’s leading ocean modeller and the world’s foremost authority on the modelling of the Southern Ocean. And an ocean swimmer / surfer from way back! Matthew researches the future health of our oceans under pressures such as climate change and pollution. We also talked about the mysterious tar balls that washed up on Sydney beaches in 2024 and messages in a bottle thrown overboard finding the right people! Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License: Photo from UNSW | |||
| 15 Jul 2020 | Ocean swimming... and underwater forests | 00:41:10 | |
Crayweed, a type of seaweed, forms dense forests on shallow reefs all the way from Port Macquarie to Tasmania. However, there is a 70 km gap in crayweed off the coast of Sydney. Sometime during the 1980s, crayweed disappeared completely between Palm Beach and Cronulla, likely due to the poorly treated sewage that used to be pumped directly onto Sydney’s beaches. However, despite Sydney's water quality improving dramatically since the establishment of the deep ocean sewage outfalls, the crayweed forests have not returned. Ziggy Marzinelli leads the crayweed restoration research at the University of Sydney and the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, and is part of Operation Crayweed, a concerted effort to restore Sydney's underwater crayweed forests. One of the places they are working is Cabbage Tree Bay near Manly, and have enlisted the help of ocean swimming group with Bold and the Beautiful (stay tuned for a podcast with them very soon). Image from Patagonia AUS & NZ, who are also working with Operation Crayweed. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
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| 24 Feb 2022 | Ocean swimming... butterfly | 00:54:58 | |
Eli Ball is training to swim the English Channel... butterfly. Yes, you read that correctly. Butterfly. He is an exceptionally accomplished butterflying ocean swimmer, having completed a plethora of marathon ocean swims, including the 20km Rottnest Island swim, along the way setting the butterfly record. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from Eli fan page on Facebook I would like to acknowledge the horribly sad tragedy here in Sydney last week, with a swimmer killed in a shark attack at Malabar, a place at which I have swum many times. Sharks are an ever present thought for ocean swimmers, and they are one of the topics in today's episode, which was recorded a few weeks before the incident. My sincerest condolences are with Simon's family and friends.
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| 21 Sep 2020 | Ocean swimming... in extreme environments | 00:44:14 | |
Heather Massey is a senior lecturer in the Extreme Environments Research Group at the University of Portsmouth. Heather has done extensive work into the human response to cold water, both the physical and mental effects, and her areas of research interest include thermal, altitude and survival physiology. She's also an amazing ocean swimmer, having swum the English Channel and around Jersey, among other things. And has a podcast called Humans in Extremes, interviewing extraordinary guests who have done extraordinary activities in extreme environmental conditions. Image from Heather on Twitter. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
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| 04 Jun 2021 | Ocean swimming... in the nude | 00:42:31 | |
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:
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. | |||
| 20 Sep 2021 | Ocean swimming... with Brendan Cullen | 00:54:31 | |
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:
Image from Jacinta Cullen / smh. | |||
| 07 May 2023 | Ocean swimming... Alcatraz (part 1) | 01:06:49 | |
Pedro Ordenes is an Alcatraz legend, having swum the famous route over 1000 times!! Pedro runs Water World Swim that organizes many swims in San Francisco Bay, California and across the world. I was lucky enough to swim Alcatraz with Water World Swim recently in April 2023. Pedro is an exceptionally accomplished open water swimmer, perhaps the highlight being swimming the Strait of Magellan in South America, in 3.5°C with 60 km/hr winds and 3-5 feet swells against 12-14 knot currents! He has also swum a double crossing of the Beagle Channel between Chile and Argentina. Pedro is now also a very well respected open-water coach. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from Water World Swim | |||
| 10 Jan 2020 | Ocean swimming... and The Memory Pool | 00:58:54 | |
Therese Spruhan must be one of Australia's experts on the cultural impact of the swimming pool. Her recent book, The Memory Pool, is a fabulous nostalgic anthology bringing together reflections on the childhood swimming pools of 28 Australians including Trent Dalton, Leah Purcell, Shane Gould, Bryan Brown and Merrick Watts. You can taste the hot chips, smell the chlorine and feel the burning concrete. For many kids, the local pool is a place of imagination, freedom, friendship and romance. Therese is also the author of Swimming pool stories, a blog to which every Australian swimmer should subscribe! We had a lovely chat at Therese's new local pool, the Fanny Durack Aquatic Centre in Petersham, about all things swimming pools. You can hear kids splashing in the background, but also the occasional flight overhead and a little bit of wind - it's very real! I've left it long, so put the kettle on, go for a drive or a long run, and dive into the memory pool! Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
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| 21 May 2022 | Ocean swimming... and seaweed textiles | 00:27:36 | |
Professor Peter Ralph is Executive Director of the Climate Change Cluster in the Faculty of Science at UTS, and is partnering with Australian surf brand Piping Hot to develop textiles made from seaweed for surfwear. Nature-derived alternatives for the fashion industry have the potential to revolutionise products and vastly reduce their impact on the oceans. Apologies for a little bit of building noise in the background! Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from UTS | |||
| 29 Apr 2020 | Ocean swimming... and Places We Swim | 00:40:36 | |
Caroline Clements and Dillon Seitchik-Reardon run the beautiful website Places we swim and have just released a book, also called Places we swim, a travel guide for water-loving people, exploring Australia through swimming. The book takes us to beaches, pools, waterfalls, lakes, hot springs and gorges all over the country. Caroline and Dillon visited hundreds, if not thousands, of swimming holes to explore Australia's wild beauty and to curate the absolute best of every place they visited. Make this your list of places to swim when we come out of isolation! Image from @placesweswim Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
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| 17 Mar 2019 | Ocean swimming... and ocean pools | 00:42:25 | |
Ocean pools are a delight. I love swimming in them, and they are also quite often simply beautiful places to be. Dr. Marie-Louise McDermott has written a PhD on ocean pools (Wet, wild and convivial: past, present and future contributions of Australia’s ocean pools to surf, beach, pool and body cultures and recreational coasts) and runs a fantastic website dedicated to ocean pools, All into ocean pools inc. I had a wonderful chat with Marie-Louise about her love of ocean pools, why Australia (and Sydney in particular) has such a rich tradition of them, and their influence on Australian life. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image: Mona Vale Beach By Gab Scanu | |||
| 17 May 2019 | Ocean swimming... and oceanswims.com | 01:23:32 | |
Whether you are an experienced or aspiring ocean swimmer, if you are in Australia or New Zealand, you will visit oceanswims.com. Oceanswims.com handles the entries for the majority of organised swims in this part of the world, as well as being home to commentary, photos, witty banter, results and competitions. Paul Ellercamp and Suanne Hunt are the ocean swimming doyens who run oceanswims.com and Ocean Swim Safaris, and we talked rather pleasantly over tea and macaroons about all things ocean swimming, including how the sport has grown over the last 20 years, technology changes, drafting, some of the characters of the sport, swimming around the world, and Paul's starring roll, with a former Prime Minister (another great Bob Hawke story), in the classic Australian TV soap A Country Practice. See if you can hear the puppy sleeping in the background on Suanne's lap! Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from Paul on twitter | |||
| 16 Apr 2019 | Ocean swimming... and sand | 00:39:48 | |
Dr Gary Greenberg is a scientist, author, teacher and photographer who combines his passion for art and science by exploring the hidden small-scale dimensions of nature. Gary has invented multiple high-definition, three-dimensional light microscopes (for which he has multiple US patents) and nowadays focuses his microscopes on common objects, such as grains of sand, flowers, and food. He's looked at sand from all round the Earth, but the funkiest sand he has examined is from the Moon. He's hoping he can get some Mars sand! You can identify a beach (or heavenly body) from its sand, which depends on the temperature, surf and erosion conditions and marine environment. You can see Gary's sand photography for yourself at sandgrains.com. And you might like to do some searching for the in vitro human pancreatic cancer cells he turned into the planet Kyrpton in the first Superman movie - the nuclei of the cells look like impact craters! Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
The image is from sandgrains.com and is of sand from Maui. | |||
| 14 Feb 2019 | Ocean swimming... and swimming caps | 00:32:57 | |
Swimming caps are a large source of ocean swimming waste. Often only once used, destined for land-fill or the ocean itself, events have not got a handle on to how to appropriately use them. And despite popular belief, they do not break down in the environment in any useful timeframe. They are important facets of ocean swimming safety so that swimmers can be seen in the water and in their racing waves, but at the end of each season, even mediocre swimmers like myself end up with a bag full of caps, never to be used again. So, what can you do? I've been collecting caps for Recap over the last few summers to give them on to good causes. One of those places they go is Reverse Garbage, an organisation that saves materials from landfill and renews their value by making them available for reuse by families, students, artists and community groups. Each year, they take about 35 thousand cubic meters of waste for reuse, saving tonnes of raw material, energy and emissions. I spoke with Kirsten Junor, Creative Director at Reverse Garbage, about what she does with the caps, what Reverse Garbage does in general, interspersed with all sorts of reuse/recycle discussion. We recorded in the pub - surely the best way to spend an afternoon recording a podcast - so occasionally the sound quality dips. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
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| 05 Jun 2019 | Ocean swimming... and the box jellyfish antidote | 00:19:49 | |
Last time we talked about stingers, we learnt some valuable insights - don't wee on them! Turns out, there may be some better solutions on the horizon. Associate Professor Greg Neely, from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney, has discovered an antidote to the sting of the most venomous creature on Earth - the Australian box jellyfish. Greg's antidote, discovered using CRISPR genome editing technology, blocks the symptoms within 15 minutes, and overlaps interestingly with research conducted into cholesterol. This means that the drug development may already be out there and we could see something in the hands of life-savers sooner rather than later. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from Will Fisher | |||
| 27 Aug 2019 | Ocean swimming... and tsunamis | 00:34:08 | |
What is the likelihood of a tsunami hitting your favourite beach? Dr. Hannah Power, from University of Newcastle's School of Environmental and Life Sciences, conducts research on ocean waves, and recently published on the likelihood and consequences of a tsunami hitting Sydney Harbour. She has also developed the risk forecast for the Figure Eight Pool in Sydney's Royal National Park. This forecast examines the likelihood of being struck by large waves on your journey across the rock shelf. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from Canterbury Maps | |||
| 07 Sep 2019 | Ocean swimming... and wave power | 00:21:42 | |
Dr. Mark Hemer is a Principal Research Scientist leading the Sea-Level, Waves and Coastal Extremes team within CSIRO's Ocean and Atmosphere Climate Science Centre. Mark has researched offshore renewable energy for the past 10 years, exploring the potential of Australia's renewable offshore resources. We chatted about offshore energy, and among many things, whether you can swim around wave farms. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from David Dixon | |||
| 26 May 2018 | Ocean swimming... in ice | 01:16:53 | |
Ram Barkai is the founder of the International Ice Swimming Association - they are all about swimming in water less than 5 degrees Celcius. Ram has swum many of the world's toughest swims, including in Antarctica, and holds multiple world records. The IISA introduced the Ice Mile as its signature achievement; the Ice Mile is one mile in water of 5C or less. The swim must be unassisted and only a pair of goggles, a cap and a standard swimming costume can be worn. In 2014, the IISA introduced the 1 km ice event, and Ram's ambition is to have the 1 km event introduced to the 2022 Winter Olympics. I've left this episode long as I found it absolutely fascinating, and Ram very entertaining! Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License
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| 12 Dec 2017 | Ocean swimming... in plastic pollution | 00:44:58 | |
It is estimated that ocean plastics will outweigh ocean fish by 2050, according to a study by the World Economic Forum. There are at least 5.25 trillion plastic pieces floating in the oceans right now. Dr. Jennifer Lavers is a Research Scientist at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania. She is a marine eco-toxicologist with expertise in tropical and temperate seabird ecology, plastic pollution (marine debris), invasive species management, and fisheries by-catch. Her research examines how marine apex predators, such as seabirds, act as sentinels of ocean health, and focuses on pollutants of aquatic ecosystems such as plastic, heavy metals, Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and radionuclides. She is also very interested in science and conservation outreach. Jennifer also has an Erdos-Bacon number, as a star of the stage and screen, as well as of academia! I chatted to Jennifer about her work, starting with her article This South Pacific island of rubbish shows why we need to quit our plastic habit. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License | |||
| 13 Mar 2018 | Ocean swimming... in polluted rivers | 00:33:24 | |
The Cooks River in Sydney has been variously described as an open sewer, the River of Death, and one of Australia's most polluted rivers. Yet there are plans - possibly rather hopeful plans - to bring swimming back to the river. There are numerous such rivers in cities around the world, so how realistic is the idea that you could bring swimming back to polluted city rivers? Could ex-industrial rivers join the oceans (and dams) of Australia as recreational swimming spots? Professor Stuart Khan from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UNSW studies sustainable urban water management, and has studied chemical composition of the Cooks River, and how the pollutants got there. He thinks that, whilst it may be a long way off, there are precedents around the world for bringing back swimming to polluted rivers. You can read more on efforts to remediate the Cooks River at the Cooks River Valley Association. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License | |||
| 02 Aug 2019 | Ocean swimming... in poo | 00:49:23 | |
Have you ever had the visibility in a swim drop to a few centimeters? Has it ever gone a bit brown? Perhaps you've ended up swimming through sewage! This happened to Dr. Ian Wright in the 90s, and is likely to have happened to any ocean swimmer who was swimming off the coast of Sydney in that period. Ian is a keen ocean swimmer and a senior lecturer in the School of Science and Health at Western Sydney University, whose research interests include freshwater ecology, water chemistry and water pollution. We chatted about the poo problem at Sydney's beaches. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from eutrophication&hypoxia There's also a quick Kath and Kim clip in there at the end #lookatmeme | |||
| 30 Nov 2018 | Ocean swimming... in rips | 00:19:15 | |
Rips claim an order of magnitude more lives than shark attacks in Australia, and are arguably the most dangerous facet of going to the beach. Associate Professor Rob Brander, also known as Dr Rip, is a coastal geomorphologist who studies morphodynamics (hydrodynamics, sediment transport, morphology) of coastal systems, with a particular interest in rips and the safety of beachgoers. He runs a beach education program called Science of the Surf, and one of the cool things he does is publish a Rip of the month. You might like to read his book, Dr. Rip's Essential Beach Book, or check out the National Geographic documentary, Rip Current Heroes. Coming into the summer, listen in as Rob lets you know how to spot a rip and what to do if you're caught in one. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
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| 27 Nov 2017 | Ocean swimming... on other planets | 00:35:02 | |
Can you ocean swim on other planets? Perhaps! Water is far more common in the Universe than you might think, and there are many other oceans out there, even on our neighbours in our own solar system. Associate Professor Jonti Horner is an astronomer and astrobiologist who works in the Computational Engineering and Science Research Centre at the University of Southern Queensland. We caught up at the Australian Space Research Conference. It is currently thought that there are oceans deep beneath the surface of some of Jupiter's and Saturn's moons, as well as astonishingly, on asteroids and Pluto. The Saturnian moon Titan, as well as likely having a subsurface water ocean, may have standing hydrocarbon oceans on its surface. Mars and Venus may have had oceans in the past. And it's almost certain that outside the solar system, there are planets just like Earth with vast water oceans. Could these locations be the home of future extreme sports? We also chatted about publically funded science, future space missions and the future of Earth. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
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| 28 Apr 2018 | Ocean swimming... the English Channel | 00:35:56 | |
Sally Catt is an ocean swimmer who this year is tackling the English Channel. She is raising money for Save The Box, a campaign to raise awareness and fundraising for gynaecological cancer research, as part of the Australia New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group (ANZGOG). I chatted to Sally about her journey to this point and what it takes to swim that far (>30 km) including long distance training, cold water acclimatization, going to the toilet while you're swimming, diet, travel companies, qualifying swims and English Channel swim operators. Listen in for tips if this is something you want to do! It is not out of reach. You can sponsor Sally's journey for charity here. Songs in this episode are all licensed under a Creative Commons License and are by Bensound, who provides royalty free music. The songs are Funky Element, Jazzy French, Moose and Ukulele. | |||
| 08 Dec 2019 | Ocean swimming... the oceans seven | 01:07:04 | |
Dean Summers has conquered the triple Crown of open water swimming and as I type this, is waiting for his chance to swim the Cook Strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand, part of his attack on the Oceans seven. Only 18 people have completed this astonishing series of seven incredible channel and strait swims around the world, and Dean is five in. He has swum The English Channel, Catalina Strait, The North Channel, Moloka’i Channel The Strait of Gibraltar. He plans to conquer the remaining two, Cook Strait and the Tsugaru Strait in Japan, by 2020. You can sponsor Hunterlink here. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from SWIMDEAN | |||
| 03 Apr 2018 | Ocean swimming... training | 00:44:40 | |
Andre Slade runs OceanFit, which is an open water swim school run at Bondi Beach. Andre has been involved in ocean swimming for a long time, and knows a thing or two about ocean swimming training, tactics and skills. He's also started a surf life saving magazine and written surf life saving policy. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License | |||
| 16 Jan 2018 | Ocean swimming... with Beachwatch | 00:19:46 | |
Beachwatch test the water quality of Sydney beaches to see if they are suitable for swimming. The program also partners with councils and wastewater managers for swimming sites along the NSW coast. Water samples are collected and tested for bacteria, which may suggest faecal pollution, and influence whether the beach is safe for swimming. The program started in 1989 due to sewage pollution washing up on Sydney beaches - there was literally poo on the beach... These days, water quality has greatly improved, largely due to new deep ocean outfalls for coastal sewage treatment plants, as well as improvements in wastewater and stormwater management. The major reason why a beach may be unsafe to swim these days is because of recent rainfall, which can bring stormwater and wastewater overflow. Beachwatch also provides weekly star ratings for beaches, and the annual State of the Beaches report. Dr. Meredith Campey is the Beachwatch Program Manager, and I spoke to her about what Beachwatch does, its history, how they test and what they test for, and the various reasons a beach may be unsuitable for swimming. You can receive Beachwatch updates on Facebook and Twitter, subscribe to their RSS feeds, or subscribe to daily pollution forecasts. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License
Episode image - licensed under a Creative Commons License: Yellow Bioman | |||
| 17 Nov 2017 | Ocean swimming... with flesh-eating sea lice | 00:40:17 | |
A Melbourne man recently emerged from the ocean with his legs covered in blood seeping from thousands of tiny wounds. Dr. Murray Thomson from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at The University of Sydney, thinks that Cirolana harfordi, a small crustacean that lives on the coast and in rivers, may have been to blame. These creatures have been known to take down sharks, have bitten divers on the face and have even skeletonised the top half of a human, using their slicing, guillotine-like mouth parts. If they're around where you're swimming, you've probably got about 10 minutes to get out of the water! I chatted to Murray about his research into these fascinating (terrifying...) creatures, their various types and behaviours, as well as their evolution and precautions you should take if you think there may be Cirolanids around. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
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| 20 Jan 2019 | Ocean swimming... with jellyfish | 00:37:33 | |
Things that can sting you are part of every ocean swimming experience, not matter where you are in the world. Associate Professor Jamie Seymour, Director of the Tropical Australian Stinger Research Unit at James Cook University, studies venomous animals and has a particular interest in decreasing the envenomings of humans by jellyfish. He has some personal experience in this area too - he has been stung by Irukandji 11 times! He is a world leader in the studies of the ecology and biology of Box jellyfish (his favourite jellyfish), and his work has led to pharmaceuticals being made from animal venom. We chatted about how to treat ocean stings (not with vinegar nor, funnily enough, urine!), habitats and the influence of climate change on the spread of stingers, stinger evolution, the difference between poison and venom, and between a toxicologist and a toxinologist, and a host of other jellyfish tangents (tentacles?). Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License: | |||
| 30 Jun 2018 | Ocean swimming... with shark nets | 00:29:42 | |
Shark nets are fairly common across popular Australian tourist beaches, but beyond giving swimmers a perception that they are being protected from sharks, do they actually work? Jordan Sosnowski is the Advocacy Director for Action for Dolphins, a group that aims to stop cruelty to, and gain legal protection for, small cetaceans (dolphins and other small whales). We chatted about how shark nets probably don't work to keep sharks and swimmers apart, that shark nets have an incredible toll on marine life, that sharks don't hunt you down, that opinions on the use of shark nets are changing, and the non-lethal options that are out there. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from Sea Gazing | |||
| 22 Sep 2019 | Ocean swimming... with the wild swimming brothers | 01:03:29 | |
Wild swimming is something of a cousin to ocean swimming. Or is ocean swimming a subset of wild swimming? Either way, wild swimming is huge across the world, and particularly in the UK and Europe. It's also often stunningly beautiful - search #wildswimming on instagram and you'll see what I mean. Calum Hudson is the middle brother of The Wild Swimming Brothers, triathlete,Ice swimmer, author, nature love, swimming advocate and wild swimmer. He has swum the world's most powerful maelstroms, escaped Alcatraz and swum between continents. The Wild Swimming Brothers started with a 140 km swim down the River Eden, as you do! We had a wonderful chat about the whole gamut of things that make up the world of wild swimming. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from The Wild Swimming Brothers on Instagram | |||
| 19 Nov 2019 | Ocean swimming... and extreme endurance | 01:02:52 | |
Tim Garrett is an extraordinary athlete. Not content with swimming some of the world's most famous and gruelling waterways, Tim tags on runs and rides of hundreds of kilometers to his swims. For instance, Tim has completed the Arc2Arch:
He is one of only two people to have completed the Arc2Arch and Uberman, an event in which you swim from 21 miles from Catalina Island to Los Angeles (a major event in itself!), cycle 400 miles to Badwater basin, the lowest point in North America, and then run 135 miles through Death Valley before ascending 13,000 feet to Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the Continental United States. He plans his own ultra-endurance events through his company Another Level Performance. Apart from Australia's longest open water swim, he has also organised Hard Bastard, where you:
He fundraises for The Heart Research Institute and unsurprisingly doesn't sleep much! His major aim is to tackle the North Pole. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from TimmyGarrett888 on Instagram | |||
| 05 Jul 2019 | Ocean swimming... with whales (part 2) | 00:29:46 | |
Scott Portelli is an acclaimed wildlife and underwater photographer, and has swum with whales and other magnificent creatures of the deep in some of the world's most exotic locations, like Antarctica, Tonga, the Falkland Islands and Norway. Among many other awards, Scott was awarded Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 2016, and he runs tours that you can join up with around the world to swim with whales. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from Scott Portelli on Instagram | |||
| 21 Jun 2019 | Ocean swimming... with whales (part 1) | 00:24:03 | |
During winter, you're probably familiar with human snot, but are you familiar with whale snot? Dr. Vanessa Pirotta is! Vanessa is a marine biologist, naturalist and science communicator, and has been collecting snot from whale spouts using bespoke drones in order to understand whale health. She's collected viruses, bacteria and DNA from the snot, in a much less invasive way than other methods. She's also run whale watching tours, swum with whales in Tonga and observed them in Antarctica. Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Image from Scott Portelli on Instagram | |||
