Podcast · Sport

SWIMMING WITH THE POD

by Marc West · English · Sport

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

New episodes: Monthly
Typical length: 44 min
Latest: 24 Mar 2025
Language: English

Latest episode

24 Mar 2025 · 55 min

Ocean swimming... and ocean health

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: Ocean Angels - MBryan England - 양홍원 Stealing England - Dr Dugger Sapphire - Tobu Photo from…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

E57 · 30 Nov 2024 · 23 min
Ocean swimming... in Sydney's ocean pools
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: Upper Harbour Highway - Sci-Clone Blue Harbour - EuLiLa Pools - Grizzly Beatz Sapphire - Tobu Photo by me! (Bilgola)
E56 · 9 Aug 2024 · 50 min
Ocean swimming... and free diving
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: Let Me Breathe (Wardub) - Rhekluse Breathe - INOSSI Breathe - LiQWYD hold your breath - ikkunn Free Dive - Cymatish Sapphire - Tobu Photo from Michaela on…
E55 · 27 Feb 2024 · 54 min
Ocean swimming... and biomechanics
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…
E54 · 30 Nov 2023 · 38 min
Ocean swimming... and connecting with blue spaces
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…
E53 · 26 Oct 2023 · 1 hr 6 min
Ocean swimming... and culture, inclusion and society
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: The Magic of Diversity -…
E52 · 5 Sep 2023 · 29 min
Ocean swimming... and germs
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: Bugs - GNAAR Bugs - Phillip Barker Bug's Land - Vadim Krakhmal Little bugs - i m p a u s e a b l e Sapphire - Tobu Photo from wikimedia
E51 · 5 Aug 2023 · 22 min
Ocean swimming... and a healthy brain
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: The brain cells strike back - Lofi Factory Stuck in my brain - Atch Planetary alignment - Dr Brain Sapphire - Tobu Photo from StockSnap
E50 · 25 Jul 2023 · 25 min
Ocean swimming... and swimmer’s ear
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: A short earache - Mooge Ear infection - Mad Wax In my ear - Bbbyugy Right ear - Aphickey Sapphire - Tobu Photo by Franco Antonio Giovanella on Unsplash.
E49 · 30 Jun 2023 · 42 min
Ocean swimming... Alcatraz (part 2)
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…
E48 · 30 May 2023 · 1 hr
Ocean swimming... with Andy Donaldson
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…
E47 · 7 May 2023 · 1 hr 7 min
Ocean swimming... Alcatraz (part 1)
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…
E46 · 14 Feb 2023 · 25 min
Ocean swimming... with Peta Bradley, World Ice Swimming Champion
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: Ice - Workers Ice - whatfunk…
E45 · 18 Jun 2022 · 56 min
Ocean swimming... with Lynne Cox
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…
E44 · 21 May 2022 · 28 min
Ocean swimming... and seaweed textiles
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: Seaweed - Offkey Lifestyle Sea-weed - Martin Williamson Sapphire - Tobu Image from UTS
E43 · 24 Feb 2022 · 55 min
Ocean swimming... butterfly
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: Butterfly - takashi_d Butterfly - Adam Andrys Butterfly - Joachim Heinrich Butterfly - ReMiXis Butterfly - Britney Starr Butterfly - Phòng Thu Âm Nguyễn Báu Butterfly - 李雨寰 Lee Johan Sapphire - Tobu Image from Eli fan…
E42 · 10 Oct 2021 · 21 min
Ocean swimming... around Lord Howe Island
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: Lord - Leaux Mane Howe - Andervall Island - extenz Sapphire - Tobu…
E41 · 20 Sep 2021 · 55 min
Ocean swimming... with Brendan Cullen
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…
E40 · 12 Aug 2021 · 58 min
Ocean swimming... with Peter Hancock
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…
E39 · 4 Jul 2021 · 31 min
Ocean swimming... with Jaimee Rogers
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: Balmoral - Peyrius Winter - Datasuck Calais to Dover - Binder and Howorth Cliffs of Dover - Fabio Mazzo Sapphire - Tobu Image from Jaimee on instagram
E38 · 4 Jun 2021 · 43 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.
E37 · 18 Apr 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 -…
E36 · 5 Mar 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
E35 · 2 Feb 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…
E34 · 24 Nov 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…
E33 · 21 Oct 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…
E32 · 21 Sep 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…
E31 · 12 Aug 2020 · 47 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…
E30 · 15 Jul 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…
E29 · 5 Jun 2020 · 1 hr 10 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,…

About SWIMMING WITH THE POD

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

SWIMMING WITH THE POD is a English sport podcast from Marc West. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Marc West
Language: English
Category: Sport
New episodes: Monthly
Typical length: 44 min
Latest episode: 24 Mar 2025
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1315159668

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