What got you into these crazy maraths

What got you into this, these crazy marathon swims in Arctic waters?

A journey got me there.

You know, you definitely don't wake up one morning and say, I want to do the kind of thing that I'm doing.

You know, and obviously I've specialised in the ultra-extreme ice water stuff.

So, and eventually pushing boundaries, firstly my own, and then eventually the boundaries of what was meant to be humanly possible.

So I've taken it to the endth degree.

And again, that's not something you decide to do.

It's something that

slowly evolves. I was, you know, just to backtrack a little bit. I think a wonderful part of

my story is that at the age of 30 years old, 30, I always say 30 and everyone thinks in America,

I'm saying 50, but 30, 30, 3, 0, I'm done nothing. I'm 48 years old now, and I was

a couch potato doing very little and running an advertising business back in South Africa,

doing really well and enjoying life and relatively, was active, but then that kind of slid into

the couch. And one day I just decided to

make a change. And, you know, I took a client away and he said, well, join my little swimming squad.

And I hadn't done any swimming for many, many years up until that point. I thought, well, I've always

enjoyed the water, so let me get in the pool. And I managed to do a few

lengths before I almost vomited because I put myself in the fast lane and then ego kicks in.

You try and keep up with the guys who have been there for years and you've just on number one,

session one. And I stuck to it. And that just started an unbelievable process.

So where were you the first time you did one of these ultramarathons?

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