SWIMMING WITH THE POD

Marc West

There’s more to ocean swimming than swimming in the ocean.

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58 episodes
Updated Mar 24, 2025

Episodes58

Newest first

Jun 4, 2021 · 42 min
Ocean swimming... in the nude
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: Nude Beach - Le Blanche Naked - Pasi Sillanpaa Wobble - Josh Tiong Sapphire - Tobu 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.
Apr 18, 2021 · 17 min
Ocean swimming... in La Nina
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: La Niña Y El Lobo - Jesus Adrián Romero La nina que yo ame - Tumi Music Ltd. La Nina De Tus OjoS - Daniel Calveti (DJ PRE Remix) Sapphire - Tobu Image from hippo px Some links from the show: Andrea on twitter, Marc on twitter, Marc on strava
Mar 5, 2021 · 30 min
Ocean swimming... and Australian beach history
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: Beach - Lichu Beach - Hyphelion Beach - piglet Sapphire - Tobu Image from exploroz
Feb 2, 2021 · 39 min
Ocean swimming... with John Sheely
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: Beer - The fishermen and the priestess Pepper Steak - User 21293509 Turkish Delight - Mark Armstrong 303 Wellerman - Argules Sapphire - Tobu
Nov 24, 2020 · 1 hr 12 min
Ocean swimming... with Chloe McCardel
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: Chloe - Fear the priest Chloe - The drop kid English - tphalp Channel - brad2 Hypothermia - Creo Sapphire - Tobu
Oct 21, 2020 · 57 min
Ocean swimming... the Coals to Newcastle
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: Walking on hot coals - Joe Bongiovanni / Jamie Rhind Newcastle city lights - 2G-Ghost Green Bay - Vlad Gluschenko Sweet Maya - Coal fired bicycle Swell - Journal Sapphire - Tobu
Sep 21, 2020 · 44 min
Ocean swimming... in extreme environments
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: Ice Cold - Spurb Music Ice Cold - Brasskazoo Ice Cold - Creamwolf Ice Cold - Moonk Ice Cold - Drew McGoo72 Sapphire - Tobu
Aug 12, 2020 · 46 min
Ocean swimming... with Bold and Beautiful
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: Bold - Human Condition Beautiful - zayy Beautiful - Tarrah Beautiful - Terrence Duggan The bold and the beautiful - Matt Parker Sapphire - Tobu
Jul 15, 2020 · 41 min
Ocean swimming... and underwater forests
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: Seaweed Smoothie - oever Underwater - 10GRI Underwater - michachaney Underwater - Unusual Narwhal Sapphire - Tobu
Jun 5, 2020 · 1 hr 9 min
Ocean swimming... with Shane Gould
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: Swim Good - Weathrman Survivor - Sammy Nova Survivor - The Toto1000 Survivor - Jamophone Ocean - MBB Devil - KiddTyed Cape Cub Swim - reefVibes Sapphire - Tobu Image from Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
Apr 29, 2020 · 40 min
Ocean swimming... and Places We Swim
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: Misty Gorge - sillythewilly Moon Lake - Epic Blast Radius Lagoon - Dhanesh River - MusicbyAden River - JSMusic Sapphire - Tobu
Mar 26, 2020 · 37 min
Ocean swimming... and COVID-19
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? In public pools: NO In ocean pools: NO In the ocean: If you take social distancing very seriously. But don't be a dick, if the beach is closed or you're in lockdown, don't swim. 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: Virus - Danik3 Virus - Victor Vicodin Virus - DJ RockinHoof Corona - Alexander Nakarada Sapphire - Tobu
Mar 10, 2020 · 31 min
Ocean swimming... and event organisation
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: Harris Cole - Rain (Extended) - Slayer_Op Classic - Numa Sapphire - Tobu
Jan 10, 2020 · 58 min
Ocean swimming... and The Memory Pool
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: Memories - Sevnth Memory - Aaron Weisflog :memory - Elttob Memory - Majin Bu Sapphire - Tobu
Dec 8, 2019 · 1 hr 7 min
Ocean swimming... the oceans seven
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: Oceans - Petit Biscuit Seven - Ryan Deano - Roland MacIntosh Chasin' Summers - DJ Fro-Bot Sapphire - Tobu Image from SWIMDEAN
Nov 19, 2019 · 1 hr 2 min
Ocean swimming... and extreme endurance
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: Run - 87 miles from Marble Arch in London to Dover, Swim - The English Channel, Bike - 181 miles from Calais to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. 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: Swim - 35 km from Palm Beach to North Bondi, Bike - 620 km to Mount Kosciuszko, Run - 162 km in the Australian Alps. 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: The Endurance - Scott Buckley Endless Endurance - pathbot Endurance - Chin Hero Tim Tim - Ready For The Island (DJ Lamonnz WS AS Remix) - DJ Lamonnz Tim Maia - Caminho do Bem (Bhaskar & Rivas Remix) - Rivas Sapphire - Tobu Image from TimmyGarrett888 on Instagram
Sep 22, 2019 · 1 hr 3 min
Ocean swimming... with the wild swimming brothers
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: Wild - Bank$ the producer Swimming - elesimo Brothers - Marcel Hutter Swimming - David Lassam Swimming in ink - Wontolla Sapphire - Tobu Image from The Wild Swimming Brothers on Instagram
Sep 7, 2019 · 21 min
Ocean swimming... and wave power
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: Ocean Wave, Power of Ocean - Shyinka Tides - Chuckee Tides - Chris Kogos Tides - Switch Power! - Andrew Dude Power - Andrew Shift Sapphire - Tobu Image from David Dixon
Aug 27, 2019 · 34 min
Ocean swimming... and tsunamis
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: Tsunami - Cyclotone Symphonic Tsunami - Le MaNiTeK The Great Tsunami - These Loose Ends Tsunami Biter - cj2thed Sapphire - Tobu Image from Canterbury Maps
Aug 2, 2019 · 49 min
Ocean swimming... in poo
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: Plume - Kubbi Pipeline - CyberSDF Water - The Kyoto Connection Water - Stimwise Flush - If I had a Hi Fi The early poo gets the flush - Masterpoo Sapphire - Tobu Image from eutrophication&hypoxia There's also a quick Kath and Kim clip in there at the end #lookatmeme