SwimScape - the podcast

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Clever Dicks, where we dive into the stories of extraordinary athletes who have redefined their sports and inspired the world. Today, we spotlight Mary Fisher , one of New Zealand’s most decorated Paralympic swimmers. Born with a visual impairment, Mary didn’t just overcome obstacles—she shattered records. A Paralympic gold medalist, world champion, and multiple world r...

Send us Fan Mail Today, we're thrilled to introduce a guest who’s taking the open water swimming scene by storm: Alex Dunkley. Alex is a young swimmer from Auckland starting out on his open water journey and learning some of the tricks of the trade. Recently back from a swim camp in Australia, although dominant in New Zealand, Alex now knows he have massive room for further improvement. Known...

Send us Fan Mail Amy is the first person to swim the 29.7 miles or 48km's from San Francisco to the Farallon Island, dodging the sharks and the cold. She chats about balancing shift work as a pediatric nurse and her training, being a granny, and some of her other swims including swimming around Manhattan Island, Gibraltar Strait, North Channel and the Catalina Channel.  Tough lady! 

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Jim interviews Duncan! As some of our listeners may know Duncan swims with an intellectually handicapped young Fijian swimmer, Shazeel. Duncan and Shazeel recently swam 20 km around Rangitoto island in the Hauraki coast, right next to Auckland. We talk about what it means to be a support swimmer and how Shazeel's mum helps, gets him ready and ensures he under...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Duncan & Jim chat with Cameron Stanley, an ex-national swimmer and all-around great guy. Cameron's impressive swimming career saw him represent New Zealand and hold a national backstroke record, showcasing his talent in the pool. Never one to shy away from a challenge, he also set a world record for the ice 100m IM, proving his resilience in some of the c...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Laura Quilter Laura is a competitive swimmer who has represented New Zealand at the commonwealth games and at world championships. She also represented New Zealand at surf lifesaving and was surf lifesaving sportswoman of the year in 2013. We met Laura in Alexandra where she came down to try and set some world records in the shorter events...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Dan Abel. Dan is a Christchurch based swimmer who runs a swim consultancy. And we cover what that means, teaching & coaching swimming, organising events/safaris and advocating for swimming where ever he can. The talk was wide ranging covering his swimming career, his views on what is happening with swimming in New Zealand and so much mo...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Colin McLeod. Colin lives in the outer Hebrides which is part of Scotland. He has done some amazing swims, even though the water there must be quite cold (he happily uses a wetsuit). Many of his swims are for charity, he has supported quite a few in his time. Currently he is attempting to swim the same distance as from Land's End to Jo...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Sheryl McLay. Sheryl used to be a competitive marathon swimmer and has swum many of the great marathon swim, Cook Strait, English channel & Taupo.  After stopping to swim competitively Sheryl carried on coaching swimmers and organising swim events. We talk about how Covid made it too hard to continue organising events and how local/smal...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Ben Clavel. We met Ben when he came over to New Zealand from Australia to swim at our Ice Swimming pool championships. Ben hasn't been swimming for long, but already has achived more than many others. He got started as a means to support his kids who were into swimming, and then got going in his own way. He swam the English Channel in...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Brent Bythell. Brent is a disbled swimmer from the top of the south island of New Zealand. We first met Brent at the St Bathans openwater ice swimming event in 2023, and later at Alexandra ice pool champs in 2024. We talk to him about why he started cold water immersion and the road to ice swimming. (he hasn't had a hot shower in 8 yea...

Send us Fan Mail In this episore Duncan & Jim talk to Peter Plavec. Peter has done numerous ice swims with a number of ice kilometers and an ice mile. He gives us lots of nuggets about how he approaches cold water swimming and we talk about what it is like in Europe. He is very active on Instragram so if you would like to see what he is up to, here's a link. Peter Plavec on Instagram

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Duncan & Jim speak to Ruth. Ruth grew up in Spain, then spent some time in Chile before settling in New Zealand. Ruthy (as most peope refer to her as) loves the pool, but took up openwater swimming in NZ with the Kohi Kippers. Ruthy has swum Lake Taupo and the Apolima Strait, both big swims with their own challenges. A passionate swimmer she even talked Duncan...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Ram Barkai. Many people will know of Ram as the founder of the International Ice Swimming Association (IISA), but there's more to Ram than that. Before founding IISA he had done numeraous adventure swims, including a massive swim along the Orange river in South Africa over 4 years. He organised 'freedom' swims from Robben Isl...

Send us Fan Mail The New Zealand Ice swimming pool championships occured from 9 - 13 July 2024. Duncan & Jim were there (and did some swimming) and got to speak to a number of swimmers there. We talked about our swoms, why we do cold swimming and asked others why they swim in cold water. An interesting group of people and interesting answers. If you want to know why people do it, or if you are...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we talk to Bree while we were at the NZ Ice Swimming Championships. Bree is a lovely, bubbly young womanwho was quite happy to challenge some older male clever dicks! We got to speak about her swimming story and some of her other life experiences, including living in the arctic for a year. Bree has done ice swimming and has also complete 2 of the NZ triple crown sw...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Francois Lambrechts . We talk about Francois about his start to swimming in Queenstown in a borrowed wetsuit, but ended up swimming in skins in Dunedin. Impressive as the water can get below 10C in Dunedin. Francois has a rare disease call Charcot Marie Tooth syndrom which affects his electrical system, and in spite of this has become quite...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Woodie Campbell, or as we found out to Wirimu Campbell. Wiri/Woodie only started a few years ago when people at his gym convinced him to join in the swim squad. Before that he was doing his version of a triathalon, 10 min each in the Sauna, the steam room & the spa pool! Not long after starting to swim his sister convinced him (told him...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Duncan & Jim interview  Jeannine Goddard.  Jeannine learned to swim in Zimbabwe where she grew up and has carried on swimming since then. We talk about getting into ocean swims as well as her grit & determination in achieving more & more goals. Recently she completed an ICE MILE at her first attempt and gives a great account of the swim.

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Andy Donaldson. Andy has achieved what no other swimmer has done before, he completed the Oceans 7 swims within a year. And set the world record for crossing the Cook Strait taking only 4hours 33 minutes, that is seriously fast. But we talked about much more than swimming, his support of mental health charities, whether the aussies understa...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Cameron Bellamy.  Cameron is an extreme athlete by any standard. He has swum 100km around Barbados and from Barbados to St Lucia, a swim of over 151 km in 56 hours. And this is just his swimming, his rowing exploits as just as fantastic. We talked about swimming in the hot waters of the carribean, the mental aspects of swimming through the...

Send us Fan Mail In this captivating podcast episode, Duncan and Jim sit down with Phillip Rush , a remarkable New Zealand swimmer. Phillip’s aquatic journey is nothing short of extraordinary. Let’s dive into the highlights of his life: Background and Achievements : His claim to fame lies in conquering the English Channel in both two and three-way swims. In 1987, he achieved the world record for t...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we (well mainly Duncan) talk to Shamima. Shamima is the mother of Shazeel, a swimmer with autism and reduced mental capacity. We hear what water means to Shazeel and how it has always calmed him down, and the challenges of teaching him how to swim.  Shazeel & Duncan have swum together for 4 years now, training swims, short (2km) races all the way up to a 20km c...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to Ryan Stramrood from his home in South Africa. Ryan has done some amazing swimming in cold water. He has swum in the Arctic and the Antarctic as well as doing 140 Robben Island crossings. Robben Island was famously where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for many years. Ryan has written a book called 'Push Past Impossible' where he c...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Duncan & Jim talk to James Hanson-Chong. James is the Special Operations Manager for Event safety New Zealand and has been looking after swimmers in events large & small for years now. We cover a number of areas: Safety - equipment, skills, information sources, what to look for and even what happens when sharks are around. The safety team & lifeguards C...