Latest / AbersochPodcast / Island Swims, Adventure and Open Water Community | Dunkers Roundtable

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Island Swims, Adventure and Open Water Community | Dunkers Roundtable · AbersochPodcast

• 0:08
  Welcome to the Dunkers podcast special.
• 0:11
  This is the call the Island Swim.
• 0:13
  Now the new podcast. This podcast in fact was
• 0:16
  launched on the 23rd of May, which is only weeks away yet.
• 0:21
  Immediately, we've got quite a lot of really great comments and
• 0:25
  feedback. So I decided to do a dunker's
• 0:30
  podcast special because some of the dunkers went out on a limb
• 0:34
  and in fact just pushed, pushed the edge, pushed the edge.
• 0:38
  And we're going to kick off today with something that's
• 0:41
  bold, barely believable, and absolutely brilliant.
• 0:44
  It's called the Island Swim. Now, before we dive in fully,
• 0:48
  pun fully intended, a few things from me.
• 0:52
  You're ever grateful host. Thank you so much for listening
• 0:55
  and even bigger thanks if you've already passed this link onto a
• 0:58
  mate. I've only ever got one thing to
• 1:01
  ask. Please hit follow because every
• 1:03
  follow, every like every share gives our podcast wings.
• 1:07
  Well, at least flippers. And I'm working hard to make
• 1:10
  this podcast the best it can be. Entertaining, a bit silly,
• 1:14
  occasionally inspirational. And I welcome all feedback, even
• 1:18
  the stuff that stings a little. This show is for you, so help us
• 1:22
  make it. And finally, my thanks to Emma
• 1:25
  for all the help in developing Dunker's podcast and it's social
• 1:28
  media and Jason for the help on the technical stuff.
• 1:32
  So back to business. This special is a big one.
• 1:36
  We've called it from Bear Grylls backyard to beach Hut glory, the
• 1:40
  great Island swim. So picture this, a gang of
• 1:45
  Abbasop dunkers, otherwise sensible humans, decided to swim
• 1:49
  from West Island. Yes, that's Bear Grylls 1 all
• 1:54
  the way back to our beloved beach huts on the main beach.
• 1:58
  That's right, an open water challenge across tides,
• 2:01
  jellyfish and questionable decisions.
• 2:04
  Why? Well, thank or blame Andy
• 2:07
  Teague. He inspired it.
• 2:09
  Sorry, probably bullied and cajoled a crew of brave souls
• 2:13
  into doing it. And Dunker's podcast, Well,
• 2:16
  we're marking this awesome feat with bells, whistles, and a
• 2:20
  podcast full of soggy glory. Today I've rounded up some of
• 2:24
  the Ireland adventurers, Andy, Vanessa, Matt.
• 2:28
  Glad to say Emma's with us as well, to tell us test, how to
• 2:31
  tell us how it started, what they faced out there in the
• 2:35
  deep, and most importantly, why the hell did they do it in the
• 2:39
  first place? This one's about community,
• 2:41
  courage, cold water, and comedy, all personified by the
• 2:45
  indomitable, irresistible, and slightly waterlogged Abersoch
• 2:50
  Dunker Swimmers. Andy, where did all this madness
• 2:53
  begin? Wasn't my fault.
• 2:57
  Yes, it was. It was Nick's fault.
• 2:59
  Nick, he was the one who got excited about the weather and
• 3:03
  said can we swim for the islands?
• 3:05
  The weather's looking good and so we looked at the forecasts
• 3:09
  and Sunday what day to do it. So I can't take all the blame.
• 3:15
  It was Nick. Right, but who did most of the
• 3:17
  bullying, Andy? Well, Vanessa's normally the
• 3:20
  bully. Yes, quick, cover your corner.
• 3:25
  Cover your corner. Encouragement.
• 3:27
  Encouragement. Encouragement.
• 3:29
  Yeah, we talked about about it for a few years, hadn't we?
• 3:31
  We have talked about it for a few years and the stars all
• 3:34
  aligned and that Sunday looks perfect conditions.
• 3:38
  And of course, it also incorporates getting some of the
• 3:41
  paddle boarders out there as well because a lot of the
• 3:43
  dunkers like to paddle board. So on the rescue side of things
• 3:47
  or the safety support, it was great to have paddle boarders
• 3:51
  and a couple of ribs out on the water.
• 3:53
  Right. OK, We'll come to that a little
• 3:55
  bit later because I really want to know from you.
• 3:58
  Obviously, I can understand you're doing it because you
• 4:00
  accepted Nick's challenge. Ness, you'd thought, well, you
• 4:04
  might do this for a few years, did you?
• 4:06
  Yeah. We talked about it.
• 4:07
  Yeah, had you ever done a swim like this before?
• 4:10
  Not at distance in the sea, no. No, no, because you were a
• 4:14
  swimmer, you know, Just tell me a bit about your background
• 4:18
  swimming. Yeah.
• 4:20
  Yeah, I used to swim when I was younger.
• 4:21
  Competitively. Yeah.
• 4:23
  Just swim a bit more elaborate on the swim.
• 4:27
  I swam for a swimming club when I was younger with my brother
• 4:31
  and sister. Yeah, it was great.
• 4:34
  It was a great start to life. Just, you know, gave us so much
• 4:38
  confidence in the water that and now I have sort of refound that
• 4:44
  love for swimming brilliant since being back in gosh nuts
• 4:47
  back in with the dunkers and that big swim was pretty epic.
• 4:51
  Yeah, so. As soon as it was mentioned
• 4:53
  straight away I was like, yeah, absolutely right, I'll say yes
• 4:56
  and work out how afterwards. Yeah, so the fact Andy said
• 5:00
  presumably we'll all start at 6:30 meant nothing to you
• 5:04
  because of being a swimmer and a competitive swimmer.
• 5:06
  I believe you'd used to have to get up at 5:00 or something to
• 5:10
  get in the pool by. 6 together in that zone of having to like
• 5:14
  be that committed. But yeah, it was.
• 5:16
  Come on. She she.
• 5:17
  She probably was, wasn't she? Yeah, definitely.
• 5:20
  Yeah. But.
• 5:20
  The kids get me up early anyway so.
• 5:22
  The kids get Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 5:24
  Anything to get out of the house.
• 5:25
  Right. And Matt, so how did you get
• 5:27
  roped in for this? What volunteered?
• 5:30
  Were you? I was thinking I was
• 5:31
  volunteered. And I always think you had more
• 5:32
  fun saying yes and no. So quite initially, Chris, Yeah.
• 5:37
  That's a good, that's a good response, good response and you
• 5:40
  guys. Have more fun saying yes.
• 5:42
  And no. I'm taking that.
• 5:44
  Thanks, Matt. Have have you been a swimmer all
• 5:47
  your life? No, I actually started when I
• 5:50
  did The Rock in 2020. Oh, right.
• 5:53
  OK The rock that's spaced down down here.
• 5:55
  Yeah, OK. And then basically I've swam
• 5:58
  back from the islands three times, but never swamped the
• 6:00
  island. I'll say swamped the islands
• 6:02
  three times and. Never back, never back.
• 6:04
  OK, we'll talk about which was harder in a minute.
• 6:08
  So the actual sort of distance didn't daunt you?
• 6:11
  No, no. I.
• 6:11
  Just thought it'd be a sociable swim.
• 6:13
  Yeah. How wrong were they?
• 6:18
  Yeah, the, the tiki organising always pretty disciplined from
• 6:24
  what I gathered. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 6:26
  So So Ness, do you feel that you're going to continue doing
• 6:32
  the island swims? Oh.
• 6:33
  I'm ready to go. Are you?
• 6:34
  Oh, I cannot wait for the next one.
• 6:36
  Really. Because you you'd even mentioned
• 6:39
  this already, haven't you, Andy about doing another?
• 6:41
  Yeah, yeah. I think there's definitely an
• 6:45
  appetite for more people to do it.
• 6:48
  I know some people were disappointed that they couldn't.
• 6:51
  Yeah, swim that day and but you can only go when the conditions
• 6:56
  are right. So when it's right, we've got to
• 6:58
  go. And if you're here, you're here.
• 7:00
  But we'll do it again. Do.
• 7:01
  You think it's a bit risky? I mean, The thing is if you sort
• 7:05
  of said go and swim 3K because it's about 3K, wasn't it?
• 7:10
  Yeah, yeah, we did 3K. It did.
• 7:13
  That's why we have the rescue boats and the paddle boarders.
• 7:15
  And the idea was that you know if you get tired, well you just
• 7:19
  way for help, right? And we all had floats on SO.
• 7:23
  Didn't safety had everything covered?
• 7:25
  There was radios, phones, whistles, foghorns, tow ropes,
• 7:31
  everything. So Andy had that all checked out
• 7:34
  ready to go. Yeah, what about fresh?
• 7:36
  Yeah. The fact that no one paid any
• 7:38
  attention to the briefing and we all charged off like lunatics.
• 7:41
  Yes she did. Yes we did.
• 7:46
  Absolutely. And in the briefing I also as I
• 7:49
  was pulling my hat. Out tell me the briefing so the
• 7:51
  picture create the picture for our listener.
• 7:54
  The briefing was we have the two ribs together and I sort of
• 7:57
  said, right, let's all stick together.
• 7:59
  Let's it's not a race. We'll swim towards footprints
• 8:03
  and we'll go towards footprints and that's where we'll land.
• 8:05
  I thought that was the shortest distance and I didn't know some
• 8:11
  of the swimmers how comfortable they would be because it was a
• 8:15
  long way and some of us hadn't swam that distance before.
• 8:18
  And but we it, we ended up going to the main beach where we the
• 8:24
  dunkers were where we normally swim.
• 8:26
  Matt went as instructed, 2 footprints as told as told.
• 8:31
  So he at least one of the 8. We did get into.
• 8:34
  Footprints. We then got carried away and
• 8:36
  went, Oh well, the dunkers are all over there.
• 8:38
  So then we just carried on, yeah.
• 8:40
  But but as I was doing the briefing, telling people, you
• 8:46
  know, to get into trouble, wave and we'll, you know, lie on your
• 8:49
  back with your hand in the air and wave and we'll come over or
• 8:51
  someone will come over and get you.
• 8:53
  And all stick together. And all stick together.
• 8:57
  But you know, it's like dealing with children, isn't it?
• 8:59
  They just don't listen to what you say.
• 9:02
  You've been one of them. And then I dropped my goggles in
• 9:08
  the water while I was doing the briefing and didn't realise
• 9:10
  until after the briefing that I dropped my goggles and they
• 9:12
  tank. So I had to swim the 1st 500
• 9:15
  meters without any goggles. But then Tracy luckily had a
• 9:17
  pair and she said why are you doing it without goggles?
• 9:20
  I said, well, I've dropped them. OK, OK.
• 9:22
  But she gave me her goggles because she was on a paddle.
• 9:25
  Board so you were out at the this this briefing takes place
• 9:29
  on the on the ribs out next to Bear Grylls island yes so you
• 9:34
  were in deep water at this we're.
• 9:35
  In deep water at that time. And just type, just as you say,
• 9:38
  tied together. You'd come out from the beach
• 9:41
  because you started about 7:30, half past 6, didn't you?
• 9:44
  So it was a beautiful morning, I do remember.
• 9:46
  Yeah, We left the island. We sort of got in the water just
• 9:49
  after 7:00, right? And we were thinking it was
• 9:53
  going to take about an hour and a half, right.
• 9:56
  But we did it in just over an hour, which was quite
• 9:58
  remarkable. It was I.
• 9:59
  Mean there was absolutely no chat, no messing around,
• 10:03
  everyone just got in the water. There was no bouncer, actually.
• 10:11
  Soon S safety mode guys. Literally on my paddle board
• 10:16
  going, oh, I'm excited for some banter and some whinging, but it
• 10:19
  was literally head down pros ice on the prize.
• 10:23
  It's it's quite impressive. It's quite steak.
• 10:28
  Was that really what you signed up for, Matt?
• 10:30
  I thought it was a chatty do. Everybody, every time we've
• 10:34
  actually swam from there is in. We generally get so far,
• 10:37
  regroup, have a chat, take, take in the atmosphere and carry on
• 10:42
  again. Yeah, I'll leave that and no
• 10:43
  chance. You were very impassive.
• 10:45
  Right. Very impressive.
• 10:47
  Positive. There's no, no competition.
• 10:50
  It was just get out there, swim, have a nice time and I was just
• 10:54
  like looking around, looking at the jellies and it was lovely.
• 10:59
  Right. Because we do have some
• 11:00
  livestock in this our waters, don't we?
• 11:02
  And especially at that sort of. Well, I on my paddle board, I'm
• 11:06
  so used to seeing jellyfish and I get so excited.
• 11:10
  Yeah, it's a jellyfish from the safety of my paddle boards.
• 11:14
  And I kept coming to stop myself from going.
• 11:16
  Yeah, it's a jellyfish. Why?
• 11:21
  Why all these people are in the water?
• 11:23
  But in reality, they were all so in the zone that like this might
• 11:29
  have. Oh, I quite enjoyed seeing the
• 11:31
  jellies. Like the little frilly ones.
• 11:33
  I don't know what kind they are aren't.
• 11:35
  Those the ones that sting this. But they're quite deep.
• 11:38
  And because it was so, the water was so deep and so dark.
• 11:44
  But when I saw a little Jelly, it was like, bright white.
• 11:47
  It was like, oh, hey, buddy. Oh, really?
• 11:49
  I just found it quite nice. Yeah, Yeah.
• 11:51
  Until reassuring. Until the big guy.
• 11:54
  What? The dolphin.
• 11:56
  I'm in the big Jelly. Actually, I didn't 'cause I
• 11:58
  didn't see the dolphin. We'll.
• 12:00
  We'll come to the dolphin that we just didn't see in the
• 12:02
  Everybody else in the world saw it this, but you, you didn't.
• 12:05
  See, it's just too busy in the world of my own having a lovely.
• 12:08
  Time so we're we're we're in these boats and we'll I'm just
• 12:12
  gonna heart back because this is it's pretty awesome if people
• 12:15
  take a swim normally certainly an ocean swim they'll go in from
• 12:18
  the shore and you go in and you go in steady and you just think
• 12:22
  OK that's where I'm going I'm I'm just presuming this has been
• 12:25
  a a relatively non swimmer. I'm just going to go over there.
• 12:29
  But you guys deep water seriously deep water cold water
• 12:34
  dark. I remember and Gregory, when she
• 12:37
  she told me about it, she said she slipped.
• 12:40
  She sat on the edge of the the dengue looked down and it was
• 12:44
  just black and it was just it looked called bless her.
• 12:47
  She was the only one without a wet suit, wasn't she?
• 12:51
  Just just tell our listener what you wear, Andy.
• 12:55
  Well we we all have wet suits on but Anne who is a good swimmer
• 13:00
  and she's done a lot of long distance swimming, when she
• 13:05
  heard that we were swimming in from the island she got very
• 13:06
  excited and she says can I come? I've got my float and that's
• 13:09
  about it, and my goggles. But she wasn't ready for the big
• 13:13
  swim. But now she I said, yeah, come
• 13:16
  and join us because you can always, you know, if you get too
• 13:18
  cold, you can get out. But now she she plowed on
• 13:21
  through. Just kept going, didn't she?
• 13:23
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Style.
• 13:25
  Like her rhythm through the water wasn't amazing.
• 13:28
  Incredible. Was it just just mechanical
• 13:31
  almost just like? Yeah.
• 13:33
  It's really sturdy, just gorgeous to watch.
• 13:36
  Brilliant. Not gorgeous to watch go.
• 13:38
  On, Go on. OK, so you're in the water and
• 13:44
  you've also taken off your own pace.
• 13:47
  Matt thinks that this is a Sunday swim.
• 13:49
  And yeah, yeah, yes, it was a Sunday swim, Yeah.
• 13:53
  And we'll just chat along the way.
• 13:55
  So what happened to that, Matt? I'd say I was a weakest swimmer
• 13:58
  out of all of them. So we had a good chat with Paul,
• 14:00
  me and Paul. And yeah, I think the worst
• 14:05
  comment was when, oh, first of all, basically head to head to
• 14:09
  face with a big jellyfish, which normally takes back away a bit,
• 14:12
  doesn't it? And the next thing is, oh,
• 14:15
  you've got two friends behind. I was thinking basically paddle
• 14:18
  boards. It goes about 50 meters behind.
• 14:20
  We've got 2 dolphins and that, Oh no, I don't want to see them
• 14:23
  down there. Really.
• 14:24
  Yeah, I don't mind. We can see them, but they
• 14:26
  appeared. But thankfully they never
• 14:28
  appeared. So yeah, which is good for me.
• 14:31
  Absolutely. Yeah.
• 14:32
  Yeah. But they still just tore off,
• 14:34
  didn't they? Yeah, they.
• 14:35
  Did and I'd say I'd say they missed a trip being honest,
• 14:37
  because they always think between the the sound there, you
• 14:40
  actually stop and float and look at snow.
• 14:41
  It's incredible. Has it from a it's a different
• 14:44
  point of view. Is it like when you're on a
• 14:45
  boat? You can see it when, but when
• 14:46
  you're floating in there it's lovely.
• 14:47
  Yeah, yeah. So it's next time they might
• 14:50
  actually be a bit more sexual. Right.
• 14:52
  Well, what can you say? Yeah.
• 14:53
  Many years ago, my my only sort of dolphin story on that many
• 14:57
  years ago, I went out there and went fishing and it was with my
• 15:01
  brother-in-law. He's got a rib and there was
• 15:03
  some dolphin. There's a small path of
• 15:05
  dolphins, probably about a dozen or so.
• 15:07
  And I don't know what possessed me, but I just said to Mark, I
• 15:11
  said you just take the fishing line.
• 15:12
  I'm going to get in here. I'm going to swim with these
• 15:14
  dolphin and I absolutely bricked it.
• 15:18
  I can tell you, 'cause I didn't know what I thought.
• 15:21
  You know, Richard Attenborough, David Attenborough does this all
• 15:24
  day long. So it's gotta be easy.
• 15:27
  And it was. And I got in and they they paid
• 15:30
  me a bit of attention, but not too much attention.
• 15:32
  But it was a really, it was a really awesome moment.
• 15:35
  I remember it quite distinctly. So I can understand why you say
• 15:39
  sometimes it's best to. It's great.
• 15:40
  When you're looking down you can't see anything and other
• 15:42
  suddenly see something like a jellyfish or something.
• 15:44
  Yeah, coming back up. Coming back up.
• 15:46
  Yeah. So you decided that you're going
• 15:49
  to change the trajectory a little, Andy and you.
• 15:52
  So let's not go what Matt did through to Mickey's.
• 15:56
  You'll come back back over to. We sort of regrouped just
• 15:59
  outside the moorings and we'd actually got to where we were
• 16:06
  quicker than we thought because we were expecting to sort of hit
• 16:09
  the beach about half 8. So we were there much earlier
• 16:14
  and all the dunkers were then coming into the water.
• 16:17
  So it was an idea at that point to sort of head towards that
• 16:21
  direction. Yeah, yeah, Perfect, Perfect.
• 16:24
  And we were. I was watching.
• 16:25
  Well, yeah, I was watching you from here.
• 16:27
  Fortunately, I can sort of see all the way that you came across
• 16:30
  the sound, picked up the yellow boys and then seemed to come
• 16:33
  down through past the yellow boys.
• 16:35
  But you, I must be honest, you all did seem as though you were
• 16:38
  sticking together. It was.
• 16:40
  It looks like such a long way from here.
• 16:43
  I. Think it is, isn't it?
• 16:45
  But it looks from here, it looks so much further.
• 16:48
  Yeah. I looked in the.
• 16:52
  Mainland to the island. I looked at the chart to see
• 16:54
  which route would be shorter. So that's why I went from Bears
• 16:59
  Island because I thought it would be about 2 1/2 K as
• 17:02
  opposed to 3K if we went from the other island.
• 17:05
  OK, it ended up being 3K so it was it was further than I
• 17:09
  thought. And had you have gone from the
• 17:11
  East Islands, you would have come just straight back into
• 17:14
  towards. Yes, yeah, yeah.
• 17:17
  And that because the East Island is actually a little bit further
• 17:20
  out. Oh, is it?
• 17:21
  Yeah. OK, yeah, but you think it
• 17:23
  isn't, but it is. Right.
• 17:25
  So it's quite deceptive. So that's why we went, we
• 17:29
  decided to go from the other island because I feel like some
• 17:31
  of the swimmers, I didn't know how confident they were going to
• 17:34
  be. No.
• 17:36
  And I know. Was it Johnny?
• 17:39
  Your friend Jimmy. Jimmy.
• 17:40
  Sorry. Yeah, he said.
• 17:42
  He struggled with his breathing at first.
• 17:43
  OK, I think you did as well. Matt I.
• 17:46
  Did that online swamp for two years.
• 17:48
  Really. So yeah, yeah, Very stupid thing
• 17:50
  to do. Anyone.
• 17:51
  Well, no. The fact is that you did it and
• 17:55
  is is breathing the the real sort of the hard thing.
• 17:58
  The hard makes it crack. Yeah, breathing always helps.
• 18:01
  Well, gladly, yeah. Yeah.
• 18:02
  Well, especially when you're doing that distance, but.
• 18:05
  Once you get your breathing right, swimming is all about
• 18:07
  breathing. Is it?
• 18:08
  Yeah, Yeah. I would say in my opinion, once
• 18:12
  you get your breathing right, you, just like you said about
• 18:14
  Anne Gregory, you just get into that routine and then you just
• 18:18
  plod on and you can swim for, you know, a long time.
• 18:21
  Because you've been doing some exercise, some exercise
• 18:25
  training, haven't you? Yeah.
• 18:26
  My beach lifeguard to do 400 meters but it's a pool swim.
• 18:32
  I'd much rather do in the sea, but it's a pool swim, a bit more
• 18:35
  boring than bumping into the off jellyfish and dolphins through a
• 18:40
  bear. So as a as a beach lifeguard,
• 18:42
  you can now sit on one of those tall seats and watch everybody.
• 18:47
  Well, it just. Qualifies us for for surfing,
• 18:50
  paddle boarding. Oh, right.
• 18:52
  OK. Doing all the community surf
• 18:54
  clubs. Yeah, yeah.
• 18:55
  And and I think that's, that's a real good segue because you, you
• 18:58
  wouldn't have done this without the safety that support that
• 19:01
  you'd got, would you, Andy? No, I think it's, it's sort of
• 19:05
  sort of fell upon me to provide some of the rescue boats and
• 19:11
  maybe get some paddle borders. And so you've got eight people
• 19:14
  and we did sort of spread out a little bit, a little bit more
• 19:17
  than that. I thought we were going to, but
• 19:20
  it's a long way. Shadowed.
• 19:22
  Yeah, everyone was shadowed. So it sort of took the pressure
• 19:26
  off me knowing that everyone was shadowed and we have boats and
• 19:30
  paddle borders there and everyone have a float on as
• 19:33
  well. OK.
• 19:35
  What was the most challenging part about it, Matt, for you?
• 19:40
  Breathing been asked breathing and perhaps not getting to bed
• 19:44
  till half twelve 1:00. OK, OK.
• 19:48
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 19:49
  No, it's yeah. That was good preparation,
• 19:51
  wasn't? Very good preparation.
• 19:52
  Yeah, you were obviously excited.
• 19:54
  That's why you couldn't get to bed.
• 19:55
  Definitely very excited. Liquid excitement.
• 20:01
  That's the one that's yeah, no say.
• 20:03
  It's just just, it's like that. Just found that rhythm and then
• 20:06
  when you see the odd jellyfish, it does throw the rhythm
• 20:08
  completely again. A bit of panic comes in and go.
• 20:10
  You have to start again. Yeah.
• 20:11
  How do you do the rhythm? Do you count?
• 20:13
  I can't even nest on the years ago.
• 20:14
  Do you sing to a song? What do you just count?
• 20:17
  The rhythm or I think? I just, I just count I'm a
• 20:20
  counter. Yeah. 123123 or whatever, Yeah,
• 20:24
  what do you count? I mean, obviously.
• 20:27
  Jellyfish. Yeah, jellyfish, dolphins, I
• 20:32
  think I generally do every four when I'm in the sea, I'll do 3
• 20:36
  in the pool, four in the sea. I'm.
• 20:38
  A3. Man that is 3 man.
• 20:40
  It depends on It depends on the conditions.
• 20:43
  Oh, right. OK.
• 20:44
  So if we're swimming across from, say, Yacht Club End to
• 20:48
  Footprints, I will always breathe on the side, on the
• 20:52
  shore side because then if it's choppy, waves don't go in my
• 20:56
  mouth. No, And also it's easier to not
• 20:59
  look at the sun. Not look at the sun, yeah.
• 21:02
  You need to breathe the other way.
• 21:03
  Yeah, so that hence the reason you have to do for that.
• 21:05
  So yeah, yeah, just my, everybody's different.
• 21:08
  It's just my preferred. Genius.
• 21:10
  Yeah, No, it is. It's there's there's got to be a
• 21:13
  logic behind it because you just keep on going, don't you?
• 21:16
  It's you know, you've been out this morning with the two of.
• 21:18
  You very good at counting to 4, yes.
• 21:22
  Excellent. So would you suggest that other
• 21:24
  people could do this confidently if they could, say, swim 20
• 21:29
  meters or would they? Would they have to be a long
• 21:32
  distance swimmer? I wouldn't have.
• 21:35
  To be a long distance swimmer because Bach came, didn't he?
• 21:39
  And he was quite nervous on the way out, he said.
• 21:43
  You know we. Oh, Mystic Mark.
• 21:45
  Mystic Mark. Yeah, we got on the boat and he
• 21:46
  says the boat was going and it was going a bit further and
• 21:49
  we're going again and it kept on going boat.
• 21:52
  Just didn't start. Yeah.
• 21:53
  And it's like, Oh my gosh, we've got to swim back in from this.
• 21:56
  And but Mark, he said it was one of the best things he's ever
• 22:00
  done. He absolutely loved it.
• 22:02
  Really. Yeah, I think he was really
• 22:07
  taken a bat for how we felt at the end of.
• 22:09
  It yeah, yeah, it was. It was an exhilaration that he's
• 22:13
  probably not had anywhere else. No, no.
• 22:15
  Well, if you've, if you're not used to swimming like that
• 22:18
  because the open water is, it's quite frightening.
• 22:21
  It can be frightening, I think, to a lot of people.
• 22:24
  I think it's just staying calm, really.
• 22:26
  I'm not. I'm not panicking.
• 22:27
  And in reality, you can go for quite a long time.
• 22:29
  Yeah. So I mean, don't you talk about
• 22:31
  speeds? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 22:33
  Chill out. That's a that's a great thing.
• 22:35
  When we swim along the beach, at least you can stop and stand up
• 22:39
  and have a break. So if you do get tired you can
• 22:41
  just walk back. But obviously you can't do that
• 22:43
  from the islands. You also get free lift don't
• 22:45
  you? Really tired of.
• 22:46
  It but yeah. Well, yeah, absolutely.
• 22:49
  Yeah. And the toe floats as well.
• 22:51
  You can just fly on those. And just like I just lay and
• 22:54
  just had a little look around every now and again.
• 22:56
  Did you really? Yeah.
• 22:57
  OK, so it wasn't, it wasn't just.
• 22:59
  Rest ahead on the flow, it's like having a pillow and just
• 23:03
  enjoy the view. The wet suits out though, don't
• 23:06
  they? Because you do keep buoyant.
• 23:08
  I know, yeah. Yeah.
• 23:09
  So one would imagine that Anne probably found it a wee bit
• 23:12
  tougher when that I mean with just having the cosy on, I
• 23:15
  would. Have thought so.
• 23:16
  Yeah, I would have thought so, yeah.
• 23:17
  Yeah, but good job. As you say, strong swimmer, so
• 23:21
  needs to keep going. So do you fancy having to go at
• 23:24
  it, Anne? I'm not.
• 23:27
  Quite happy in my paddle board. I'll be the backup crew.
• 23:31
  Is that? Yeah, love an adventure, but
• 23:34
  yeah, I'm not sure that one's for me.
• 23:38
  Next adventure Andy but. I think we want to do it again,
• 23:41
  and I think we'd like to swim the Warren Beach, which is about
• 23:45
  2 1/2 K OK. So for anybody that doesn't
• 23:49
  quite know this, this geography, you've got the Warren Beach,
• 23:52
  which is a big beach, then you've got a small headland and
• 23:56
  then it goes into Abasol Beach. Yes.
• 23:58
  So what would you do? Swim all the way from the start
• 24:01
  of the Warren Beach through to the far end of the second beach,
• 24:05
  the Abasol Beach. Well there's there's all sorts
• 24:08
  of different scenarios and it's all about the end rather than
• 24:14
  the actual swim because people are talking.
• 24:16
  Maybe we could have a BBQ at the end or we finish at the sandbar.
• 24:20
  Sounds like Nessa's been involved in this organization.
• 24:23
  So yeah, there's sort of, I think there's, we're going to
• 24:26
  try tie it in with an evening, do it in the evening when the
• 24:29
  tides in and maybe a drink and a bit of food at the end of it is
• 24:34
  the idea. Well, if the tides in, at least
• 24:37
  you will get more people that will have a go because as you
• 24:39
  said earlier on, you could just simply stand up and when you've
• 24:42
  had enough, you can stand up and get yourself out of the water.
• 24:45
  That's it. Yeah, Yeah.
• 24:46
  Good. And you?
• 24:47
  Don't have to worry about rescue so much then.
• 24:49
  And because you get tired, you just get out of water.
• 24:53
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ness, have you got anything that
• 24:56
  you've challenged that you're going to?
• 24:58
  Are you going to go along, obviously this double beach
• 25:00
  swim? Yeah, absolutely.
• 25:02
  Yeah, especially if there's a BBQ ready for me at the end.
• 25:05
  And you're going to go and do the island swim again.
• 25:08
  Yes. Would you ever swim round the
• 25:10
  island? Because that looks quite a.
• 25:13
  Long way that isn't it. Is it?
• 25:16
  Yeah, it looks it. I mean, we could probably if we
• 25:18
  went out to the island, could we do a lap of the island?
• 25:22
  How far? I wonder how far that would be
• 25:24
  to. The Battle Boy and back.
• 25:26
  Oh, Emma, that isn't. Gosh, that's serious, Serious
• 25:31
  deep water. Island to the Balboy and back.
• 25:34
  Really, I don't know I'll. Be on my paddle but.
• 25:39
  Yeah, each other. It's an organiser.
• 25:42
  Yeah, that's that's, that's sounds a long way.
• 25:45
  It sounds like when we swim from the beach in the morning and we
• 25:49
  we go, oh, we'll go to that yellow boy and you get to that
• 25:51
  yellow boy. You go, oh, let's go to the next
• 25:52
  one. So you get to the next one.
• 25:54
  It's like, oh, let's go to the island.
• 25:55
  Oh, right, we're at the island. Let's go.
• 25:57
  Where do we stop? Yeah.
• 25:59
  Like this morning. Yeah, we've got a bit carried
• 26:01
  away this morning. And you hope for this, are you,
• 26:04
  Matt? Always say yes.
• 26:06
  Say yes, always say yes and say yes and there.
• 26:09
  Yeah, absolutely. I think that I think the bellboy
• 26:11
  would be a real challenge because that's from memory.
• 26:15
  That is a long way out. Yeah, but there's a lot of seals
• 26:17
  out there. Oh yes, there's there's more
• 26:20
  livestock. Yeah.
• 26:23
  I've done across to Barmouth and like relays and things, so yeah.
• 26:27
  They did didn't. They so come on guys.
• 26:30
  A relay. Dan Brooks did it.
• 26:32
  And he did. He did, yeah.
• 26:34
  Was this recently? No, a couple of years ago, now
• 26:37
  20. 18 Was it 2017? And the distance of from here to
• 26:42
  Barmouth 2920 OK. That's that's from in the
• 26:46
  channel then yeah, but. In a relay.
• 26:50
  Yeah. OK, I have a friend who's doing
• 26:54
  Windermere swimming the length of Windermere.
• 26:56
  I said 11 miles. See, that doesn't do it for me
• 26:59
  at. All no.
• 27:00
  Why? Fresh water.
• 27:04
  Fresh water. Really, really deep.
• 27:06
  Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
• 27:08
  And yeah, some odd things that must live in there.
• 27:14
  Let's not go there. Let's not go there.
• 27:16
  But well, I mean, The thing is, it's, it's about encouraging
• 27:20
  other people to join, isn't it? Because, you know, the, the,
• 27:23
  the, what you've just said about Mark, it's a best, one of the
• 27:27
  best things he's almost ever done in his life.
• 27:29
  That's a, that's a great take away from.
• 27:32
  And I think that that's, that sort of underpins the whole sort
• 27:35
  of essence of Duncan, isn't it? You know, because we almost defy
• 27:39
  every morning, we defy logic, sense and reason and we get
• 27:43
  stripped off and we go in this Ruddy cold water and sometimes
• 27:47
  it's not good at all. And you've got real strong
• 27:50
  crosswinds and it's, it's not easy, but we keep doing it day
• 27:55
  in and day out. So are you going to keep dunking
• 27:58
  Matt? I'll keep dunking.
• 28:00
  Yeah, yeah. I'm not on a regular basis, but
• 28:02
  I'll keep dunking. Well, the fact that you keep,
• 28:04
  you keep coming, it's Yeah. And Ness, you're going to keep
• 28:08
  dunking. Oh absolutely.
• 28:09
  You can't be without it. It's part of your life.
• 28:11
  Yes, yeah. And Andy, we're, well, we're
• 28:13
  never. In fact, you're soaking on the
• 28:15
  water. You've got you've got this
• 28:17
  Hurley Burly. Is it a Hurley early swim that
• 28:19
  you're going to do? Yeah, in October, on Friday the
• 28:22
  11th. What's this?
• 28:23
  About 10 kilometres swim OK up the S St. in Barmouth.
• 28:29
  It's not a race, so Matt, you'd like that.
• 28:31
  It's just a swim and we all stick together.
• 28:42
  So that's in, but you go up on the on the tide, so it doesn't
• 28:47
  feel like 10 kilometres and it takes about an hour and 45
• 28:51
  minutes. OK.
• 28:52
  And 10K. Up on the high tide going in.
• 28:55
  Yeah, on the high tide going in. So that's yeah.
• 28:58
  But I went to watch it last year because Ryan did it, Yeah.
• 29:02
  And there were people doing it without wet seats.
• 29:07
  You'll have to do that wet suit. And yeah, and there's.
• 29:10
  Awful. Be quite warm then, won't it?
• 29:11
  Yeah, yeah. So Anessa says she's going to do
• 29:16
  it as well. I'm keen for it.
• 29:18
  She's keen for it good. And it's on a Friday, so I don't
• 29:20
  think you work on a Friday, do you?
• 29:21
  So there's no excuse. No, no, we should have a dunk
• 29:24
  this day out. We could organise a coach trip.
• 29:26
  Couldn't. We absolutely, yeah.
• 29:27
  Yeah, we could. We could dunk.
• 29:29
  And then you, you just get you guys prepare yourselves in your
• 29:33
  skins and we'll come out and you go in.
• 29:35
  I don't think Matt works on a Friday, do you Matt?
• 29:38
  Every Friday I work. Oh, what could I say?
• 29:43
  So I'm going to just ask you one other thing before we finish,
• 29:46
  and this is just a question from me, so I'll ask you
• 29:49
  individually. If I'm going to ask, I'll ask
• 29:53
  Ness first. If there was one person that you
• 29:56
  could dump with, dead or alive, who would it be?
• 30:00
  Oh my Lord. I know.
• 30:04
  I mean, talk about putting me on the spot.
• 30:07
  This is where I don't think properly and I'd say something
• 30:09
  stupid. Please.
• 30:11
  I have no idea. Right.
• 30:16
  Take a rain chair, Andy. Get back to you on that.
• 30:19
  Yeah. I think Wim Hof.
• 30:22
  Oh. Really.
• 30:23
  And do a proper cold dunk. OK, Yeah.
• 30:26
  With the ice. And the with the ice and
• 30:28
  everything, Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I think I'd like to do that
• 30:31
  and then do all the breathing afterwards.
• 30:33
  I think that's what I'd like to. Do you?
• 30:35
  Certainly. You certainly raise the profile
• 30:37
  of Duncan, isn't he? Yeah, Yeah, Matt.
• 30:41
  No idea. OK.
• 30:43
  Should we point out to the listeners that we're all looking
• 30:45
  at each other going yeah. You could.
• 30:49
  You could. I really wanted, I would have
• 30:51
  really liked my brother to come and do that island swim.
• 30:54
  I didn't mention it to him and I definitely should have done so.
• 30:56
  The next one, I'm going to make him do it.
• 30:58
  Brilliant. He's a big swimmer as well.
• 31:00
  Yeah, yeah, a white floor with us all, but.
• 31:02
  I don't think it's just for the big swimmers though either.
• 31:04
  No, as long as you can just calm yourself, it's easy.
• 31:08
  Yeah, it's doable. Yeah, very doable.
• 31:10
  No, it's like it's easy. I'm sure it's not easy.
• 31:13
  It's down to your breathing. If if you're comfortable with
• 31:16
  the breathing and you can swim and you can breathe right, you
• 31:20
  can swim a long way. Right, Right, Emma.
• 31:24
  Oh, I hope, I was hoping you're going to miss me.
• 31:25
  Though no, I'm not going to miss you.
• 31:27
  I'm not going to meet you. It's.
• 31:30
  A really tricky one. Can I just be really cheesy and
• 31:34
  say you? Yeah, yeah, you can, but.
• 31:39
  Every swim, you're always there. Yeah, let's.
• 31:41
  Smile on your face. Like a bad pen you keep turning
• 31:44
  off. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 31:47
  Well, it's, well, thank you all very much indeed for coming in.
• 31:50
  I think the whole point of these podcasts is to inspire people to
• 31:55
  have a go because a lot of people hear about Duncan and
• 31:59
  then they just think, oh, well, maybe, maybe not.
• 32:01
  And you've got urban dunkers who do it in in Dustbins, you've got
• 32:06
  ocean dunkers, you've got shower people.
• 32:09
  You know, it's, it's, it's just, it's just to inspire them.
• 32:14
  But I'd like to say once again, Matt, have you got something
• 32:17
  that you want to? Oh, oh, go on.
• 32:19
  No, go on, go on. They would just think we should
• 32:23
  encourage more people to do it and let's swim instead.
• 32:26
  Like do it in reverse as well. Wow.
• 32:29
  Yeah, swim sounds. Really.
• 32:31
  I'm back maybe. Maybe a little snack.
• 32:36
  I think you need a few hours break.
• 32:37
  Yeah. And then.
• 32:38
  And then you can come back. Yeah.
• 32:40
  Because you're only coming back on the tide.
• 32:42
  Yeah, You need the tide to turn. Yeah.
• 32:44
  Otherwise you're fighting and you'll be here.
• 32:45
  You'll be gone. Right.
• 32:48
  I'm not going to just close the podcast before I ask you because
• 32:50
  you, you said that you've swimmed there twice, have you?
• 32:53
  3 * 3. Times.
• 32:55
  And was that more difficult? No, it's all about the sides as
• 32:58
  well. Yeah, I'd say from a what's
• 33:00
  called a visual point of view, it's, I found it nice to swim in
• 33:04
  there and back. I mean, just because just
• 33:06
  because you've got the mountain range and yeah, you're not
• 33:09
  looking at what you call it. You're looking into nothing
• 33:12
  really, aren't you? Yeah, it must be nice to put
• 33:14
  feet on sand though at the end I think it's.
• 33:17
  Got a foot on a rock, can't you? True.
• 33:21
  Even but don't tell back. Yeah, we're not supposed to be
• 33:25
  the same way. You can climb up.
• 33:27
  Yeah, but he's trying to get there.
• 33:28
  It's hard work, you see. Very hard work.
• 33:30
  Yeah, because you're getting pushed that way, aren't you?
• 33:32
  You get pushed for the sand. Yes, of course.
• 33:35
  Yeah. Yeah, it's probably harder at
• 33:37
  that point. Well, hold that, hold that
• 33:41
  thought in your mind and we'll do it.
• 33:43
  We'll we'll catch back to you the Dunkers podcast.
• 33:46
  We'll get back to you when all these guys have decided we're
• 33:49
  going to do it in reverse and then maybe in the future there
• 33:52
  and back at. Least you can.
• 33:54
  Yeah, yeah. What about me?
• 33:56
  It's at that point I would say thank you once again.
• 34:00
  And may the Dunkers spirit go with you all.
• 34:02
  Thank you. Thank you.