A long-distance swimming record's been broken by a New Zealander wanting to protect our ocean.
Open-water swimmer Jono Ridler has swum more 1300 kilometres, from the top of the North Island to the capital - with only his togs, goggles, and swim cap.
His trip was segmented, starting in January, and ending in Wellington only yesterday.
Ridler says yesterday was 'incredible', with lots of Wellingtonians coming out to help celebrate the cause.
"All of the excitement of the moment, the joy of finishing, the sadness of ending what has been an all-consuming mission - just a lot of different emotions."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talks'b.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Ninety days, one thy, three hundred and sixty seven calimeters
and more than four hundred and sixty eight hours swimming
in the ocean, no wetsuit, just togs, swim cap and
some goggles. Absolutely mad, right bonkers. But yesterday John O
Riddler finished his mammoth swim for the Ocean. It was
(00:35):
a history making journey that's expected to be ratified as
the longest unassisted stage swim ever. The swim was in
partnership with Live Ocean, with the aim of sending a
message to end bottom trawling. I've been keenly following John
Oh's journey and I am very excited to have him
with me now. John Oridler, good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Good morning, Francisca. Great to be here and great to
hear that you were following along. You've got some pretty
hard questions.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I've I got a little obsessed. First of all, congradulates,
how are you feeling today?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I feel I feel pretty good. My body feels feels
feels great. Actually, that's it's one of the things that
probably most surprises people expecting me to be a lot
more batted up than I am, but it's it's really
pulled through and it's been amazing to be able to
(01:31):
take me down the entire East Coast Emotionally, it's been
like a real whirlwind. You know. Yesterday was an incredible day,
bringing for three months all together culminating in this this
one very special day with a lot of Wellingtonians coming
out to support us and our cause and all of
(01:54):
you know, the excitement of the moment, the joy of finishing,
the sadness of ending this what has been an all
consuming mission, you know, just very a lot of different
emotions boiling around. Let's say that.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I was wondering about the emotions, especially maybe over the
last sort of few legs when you know, you realize
that you were going to make it. So what is
going through your mind.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Right now? It's reflecting on what we've done and appreciating
what has just happened. I'm kind of I'm a little
bit dumbfounded myself around how I've actually done this. Yes,
there's been a huge physical effort, mental effort on my behalf,
but the logistical effort from the team that communications, everything
(02:45):
that was brought together to make this mission of success.
It's just it's been unreal. We were reflecting on it
as a team yesterday. Yeah, I think this is all very,
very unique, and I don't know, I'd be surprised if
we could see something like this again. And I'm looking
at that from the point of view of an observer
(03:07):
somewhat rather than somebody in the thick of it. And yes,
I'm moving into a bit of a reflective stage. But also,
you know, my higher level reason for doing this around
the ocean advocacy. I think that's something that will help
to pull through what could be otherwise a difficult period.
(03:29):
You know, you talk to Olympic athletes and the like
after the Olympics end, and they go through this kind
of deep dark depression because their focus and mission for
four years has just ended. And I'm very very conscious
of that. You know, you've got to have good people
around you to stop that kind of potential.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
That's interesting. I was wondering whether it was going to
feel strange not swimming today, John, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I mean it's been normal to have rest days, right,
and some weather force breaks as well, but two or
three days in a row, yeah, I look at all
that'll feel a bit odd and not being around the
team and not climbing onto the boat tomorrow. And you know,
there's some things that I'm definitely not going to miss.
I'm not going to miss getting stung by jellyfish constantly.
(04:20):
I'm not going to miss being hypothermic. I'm not going
to miss being sleep deprived and in pain. But yeah,
all of that hardship has kind of made it all
the sweeter as well.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Were those the challenges that you thought that you would face,
like as this challenge unfolded, were the aspects of the
swim you hadn't anticipated being so hard or something that
maybe was easier than expected.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I think that the biggest thing in my mind, at
least if I look at my role and the team
was around my body holding up, you know, that was
an unknown and I really didn't know how it would perform.
And by the end of it, I was physically just
in such a good place now, in such a good
(05:07):
place where I feel like I could have gone for
hours and hours at a really good intensity and that
my body would hold through. Yes, there were some kind
of niggles that I was managing, but it ended up
in a really good place. I think the challenges that
I didn't quite expect, you know, things like the navigating
(05:27):
some of the difficult currents that we had to I
thought it would be a lot more consistent. But it's
just all over the place. You know, the ocean is
a very wild beast, and particularly in New Zealand, we're
just fully exposed to the Pacific Ocean on the east coast,
which brings a lot of challenges. The cold. I didn't
think it would get quite as cold as it was.
It got down to about fourteen and a half in places.
(05:50):
I was kind of thinking in my head eye, you know,
it'll get down to maybe seventeen degrees. So that was
a bit of a shock. And then the jellyfish. You know,
I just had no preparation for any of that, but
confidence that whatever we faced we could overcome with the
(06:14):
right mindset, the right attitude that you know, problems or
opportunities and we could push through them.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Okay, I've got a bit to unpack here, John, you
said that the body ended up in a really good place.
Can you actually prepare yourself for a feet like this?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I think somewhat you'd want to do some kind of
preparation in training. I've been doing marathons for me now
for about ten years, and so my body's adapted to
that quite nicely, but nothing like this. Like this, this
is very much going has been very much going into
new territory for me. I did a lot of strength
training in the lead up to make my body a
(06:55):
bit more robust, but there was a lot of adaptation
that happened during the course of the swim, whether that
be cold adaptation or muscular fitness adaptation, cardiovascular all of
that was happening while I was going, and so the
first if I kind of cast my mind back into
some of it blurz together, but probably the first six
(07:16):
weeks or so they were quite tough with with my
body adapting to that physical load.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
A fascinating This is a world first, and you world
record for the longest unassisted swim. Of course that's going
to got to be ratified yet, but that's absolutely incredible.
Speaking of the cold, was swimming unassisted the way to go.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I've tended to follow that style of swimming because that's
it's more aligned with kind of English Channel rules, what
you'd swim if you were swimming the Cook Straight or
any of these other iconic swims. You do it in
that same style of being unassisted. There were times, for
sure when I people reminded me of this that maybe
(08:01):
it would have been better to so when I was
constantly getting jellyfish things and battling hypothermia. But now I
think it's very very possible to do, and i'd like
to think that I proved that as well.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Is it kind of?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I don't want to I don't want to feel like
you've been snobby about it, But is it? Is it
true long distance swimming if you're unassisted.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Pure and interesting? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, it's very much more
of a purest view, and I don't like that where
it's you know, it's kind of our way is better.
I heard somebody use an analogy the other day though,
which I thought was quite good, which is using a
wetsuit is like using an e bike. It just makes
things a little bittier. So yeah, yeah, yeah, And everybody
(08:48):
can just choose what works for them. I guess my
body has has been quite good in dealing with some
of those elements that other body types might not be
in terms of the cold and the like. So you know,
I've been fortunate that I can tackle these with only
wearing togs. Some people might not be able to do that.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
John know, the jellyfish obviously made their presence found. What
other wildlife encounters did you have?
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Oh, we had so many, Yeah, so many encounters. I
mean that in the first ninety minutes of starting leaving
Waikuka Beach, I had a quite close encounter with a shark.
We had a lot of shark sightings up up in
the far north tertle whale in the first couple of weeks, penguins,
(09:35):
lots of school fish and refish around certain areas. Dolphins man,
so many dolphins from I was surprised we didn't see
more further up the East East coast actually, but down
south of Mahia Peninsula, between Mahia and probably Castle Point
(09:56):
or so, just incredible amounts of dolphins and sometimes pods
of hundreds and hundreds that came by. That was very
very special. As we got further down, it was quite cool.
During one of my swims as we as we kind
of came close to cat Pallaser around an area called
White Rock, I happened to cross a dead seal floating
(10:18):
in the water and we moved on quickly. Let's just
say that it had some amazing wildlife experiences out there. Yeah,
I've been able to see some things I think that
most people will never never experience or see, and it
gives me a different appreciation.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I think most of this experience nobody else will ever experience.
The purpose of all this, of course, was to raise
awareness and end bottom trawling. Why is this such an
important issue for you?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Well, ocean, the ocean generally, and this has just been
absolutely hammered home over this last ninety days. But the
ocean has given me so much. I grew up around
the ocean and I've had some amazing experience, has been
able to see some amazing things, some of the things
that we've just talked about over the last ninety days,
(11:12):
in particular, growing this connection with the ocean and understanding
that it is so important to us. It's not just
a source of of seafood. It's much much more than that.
Every second breath that we take is from the ocean.
It's got social value, it's a part of our cultural identity,
(11:37):
and as Mana Ahidi said, it's knowledge, it's connection. So
we need to look past what we kind of take
from it at a surface level and understand that it
gives us so much more. And I think at a
high level, that's really what it's all about. It's appreciating
that the ocean gives us a lot. We're taking too
(11:58):
much from it. And we've seen that over previous generations
we've depleted what was once a very resource and that
abundance can rebound, and I saw that as we went
down the coast. I also saw and heard from some
of the elders that have been in these coastal communities
for decades and hearing of the devastation that they've seen
(12:23):
through human impact over their lifetime. And so I think
we have the option, We have choices that we can
make to be able to change things, and human impact
has a considerable influence on the health of these ecosystems.
And so our mission has never been about opposition to
(12:49):
commercial fishing. I just want to make that clear. It's
looking at fishing methods and saying, well, can we do
better in terms of the methods that are being used
in New Zealand right now is the only country that
is bottom trawling in the South Pacific hight and we're
a lagged in that respect, you know. So there is work,
(13:12):
I think and based on the based on what what
what what, We've the discussions we've had with independent advisors,
independent science that that's informed where you know where we've
taken this. Many people have got behind us obviously as well.
We're well over seventy thousand signatures on our petition as
(13:34):
of yesterday. I haven't checked it this morning.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
So John, know, you've had ninety days, you've been swimming,
probably a little bit of time to let the mind
wander a bit. Have you got new plans for what's next?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Yeah, it's a funny question and an inevitable Christian as well. Yes,
of course I've been thinking about this, and you know,
I've just got I've got this incredible passion for ocean
health and and ocean conservation, and that I think will
(14:09):
be a through line for the rest of my life.
I don't see that going anywhere, and so I don't
know what it looks like, and I'm excited to discover
what's next.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
So am I. Well, congratulations, thank you so much for
joining us this morning. If you want a little bit
more information, just go to Swim for the Ocean. You'll
be able to find that petition there. I think what
John has done is actually kind of remarkable, and that
was very neat and me going what next. I mean,
you've just completed a world first right here? Am I going?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Okay? So what next? That's a pretty high bar, isn't it?
To leapover?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
live to News Talks It'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talks'b.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Ninety days, one thy, three hundred and sixty seven calimeters
and more than four hundred and sixty eight hours swimming
in the ocean, no wetsuit, just togs, swim cap and
some goggles. Absolutely mad, right bonkers. But yesterday John O
Riddler finished his mammoth swim for the Ocean. It was
(00:35):
a history making journey that's expected to be ratified as
the longest unassisted stage swim ever. The swim was in
partnership with Live Ocean, with the aim of sending a
message to end bottom trawling. I've been keenly following John
Oh's journey and I am very excited to have him
with me now. John Oridler, good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Good morning, Francisca. Great to be here and great to
hear that you were following along. You've got some pretty
hard questions.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I've I got a little obsessed. First of all, congradulates,
how are you feeling today?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I feel I feel pretty good. My body feels feels
feels great. Actually, that's it's one of the things that
probably most surprises people expecting me to be a lot
more batted up than I am, but it's it's really
pulled through and it's been amazing to be able to
(01:31):
take me down the entire East Coast Emotionally, it's been
like a real whirlwind. You know. Yesterday was an incredible day,
bringing for three months all together culminating in this this
one very special day with a lot of Wellingtonians coming
out to support us and our cause and all of
(01:54):
you know, the excitement of the moment, the joy of finishing,
the sadness of ending this what has been an all
consuming mission, you know, just very a lot of different
emotions boiling around. Let's say that.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I was wondering about the emotions, especially maybe over the
last sort of few legs when you know, you realize
that you were going to make it. So what is
going through your mind.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Right now? It's reflecting on what we've done and appreciating
what has just happened. I'm kind of I'm a little
bit dumbfounded myself around how I've actually done this. Yes,
there's been a huge physical effort, mental effort on my behalf,
but the logistical effort from the team that communications, everything
(02:45):
that was brought together to make this mission of success.
It's just it's been unreal. We were reflecting on it
as a team yesterday. Yeah, I think this is all very,
very unique, and I don't know, I'd be surprised if
we could see something like this again. And I'm looking
at that from the point of view of an observer
(03:07):
somewhat rather than somebody in the thick of it. And yes,
I'm moving into a bit of a reflective stage. But also,
you know, my higher level reason for doing this around
the ocean advocacy. I think that's something that will help
to pull through what could be otherwise a difficult period.
(03:29):
You know, you talk to Olympic athletes and the like
after the Olympics end, and they go through this kind
of deep dark depression because their focus and mission for
four years has just ended. And I'm very very conscious
of that. You know, you've got to have good people
around you to stop that kind of potential.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
That's interesting. I was wondering whether it was going to
feel strange not swimming today, John, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I mean it's been normal to have rest days, right,
and some weather force breaks as well, but two or
three days in a row, yeah, I look at all
that'll feel a bit odd and not being around the
team and not climbing onto the boat tomorrow. And you know,
there's some things that I'm definitely not going to miss.
I'm not going to miss getting stung by jellyfish constantly.
(04:20):
I'm not going to miss being hypothermic. I'm not going
to miss being sleep deprived and in pain. But yeah,
all of that hardship has kind of made it all
the sweeter as well.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Were those the challenges that you thought that you would face,
like as this challenge unfolded, were the aspects of the
swim you hadn't anticipated being so hard or something that
maybe was easier than expected.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I think that the biggest thing in my mind, at
least if I look at my role and the team
was around my body holding up, you know, that was
an unknown and I really didn't know how it would perform.
And by the end of it, I was physically just
in such a good place now, in such a good
(05:07):
place where I feel like I could have gone for
hours and hours at a really good intensity and that
my body would hold through. Yes, there were some kind
of niggles that I was managing, but it ended up
in a really good place. I think the challenges that
I didn't quite expect, you know, things like the navigating
(05:27):
some of the difficult currents that we had to I
thought it would be a lot more consistent. But it's
just all over the place. You know, the ocean is
a very wild beast, and particularly in New Zealand, we're
just fully exposed to the Pacific Ocean on the east coast,
which brings a lot of challenges. The cold. I didn't
think it would get quite as cold as it was.
It got down to about fourteen and a half in places.
(05:50):
I was kind of thinking in my head eye, you know,
it'll get down to maybe seventeen degrees. So that was
a bit of a shock. And then the jellyfish. You know,
I just had no preparation for any of that, but
confidence that whatever we faced we could overcome with the
(06:14):
right mindset, the right attitude that you know, problems or
opportunities and we could push through them.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Okay, I've got a bit to unpack here, John, you
said that the body ended up in a really good place.
Can you actually prepare yourself for a feet like this?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I think somewhat you'd want to do some kind of
preparation in training. I've been doing marathons for me now
for about ten years, and so my body's adapted to
that quite nicely, but nothing like this. Like this, this
is very much going has been very much going into
new territory for me. I did a lot of strength
training in the lead up to make my body a
(06:55):
bit more robust, but there was a lot of adaptation
that happened during the course of the swim, whether that
be cold adaptation or muscular fitness adaptation, cardiovascular all of
that was happening while I was going, and so the
first if I kind of cast my mind back into
some of it blurz together, but probably the first six
(07:16):
weeks or so they were quite tough with with my
body adapting to that physical load.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
A fascinating This is a world first, and you world
record for the longest unassisted swim. Of course that's going
to got to be ratified yet, but that's absolutely incredible.
Speaking of the cold, was swimming unassisted the way to go.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I've tended to follow that style of swimming because that's
it's more aligned with kind of English Channel rules, what
you'd swim if you were swimming the Cook Straight or
any of these other iconic swims. You do it in
that same style of being unassisted. There were times, for
sure when I people reminded me of this that maybe
(08:01):
it would have been better to so when I was
constantly getting jellyfish things and battling hypothermia. But now I
think it's very very possible to do, and i'd like
to think that I proved that as well.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Is it kind of?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I don't want to I don't want to feel like
you've been snobby about it, But is it? Is it
true long distance swimming if you're unassisted.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Pure and interesting? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, it's very much more
of a purest view, and I don't like that where
it's you know, it's kind of our way is better.
I heard somebody use an analogy the other day though,
which I thought was quite good, which is using a
wetsuit is like using an e bike. It just makes
things a little bittier. So yeah, yeah, yeah, And everybody
(08:48):
can just choose what works for them. I guess my
body has has been quite good in dealing with some
of those elements that other body types might not be
in terms of the cold and the like. So you know,
I've been fortunate that I can tackle these with only
wearing togs. Some people might not be able to do that.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
John know, the jellyfish obviously made their presence found. What
other wildlife encounters did you have?
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Oh, we had so many, Yeah, so many encounters. I
mean that in the first ninety minutes of starting leaving
Waikuka Beach, I had a quite close encounter with a shark.
We had a lot of shark sightings up up in
the far north tertle whale in the first couple of weeks, penguins,
(09:35):
lots of school fish and refish around certain areas. Dolphins man,
so many dolphins from I was surprised we didn't see
more further up the East East coast actually, but down
south of Mahia Peninsula, between Mahia and probably Castle Point
(09:56):
or so, just incredible amounts of dolphins and sometimes pods
of hundreds and hundreds that came by. That was very
very special. As we got further down, it was quite cool.
During one of my swims as we as we kind
of came close to cat Pallaser around an area called
White Rock, I happened to cross a dead seal floating
(10:18):
in the water and we moved on quickly. Let's just
say that it had some amazing wildlife experiences out there. Yeah,
I've been able to see some things I think that
most people will never never experience or see, and it
gives me a different appreciation.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I think most of this experience nobody else will ever experience.
The purpose of all this, of course, was to raise
awareness and end bottom trawling. Why is this such an
important issue for you?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Well, ocean, the ocean generally, and this has just been
absolutely hammered home over this last ninety days. But the
ocean has given me so much. I grew up around
the ocean and I've had some amazing experience, has been
able to see some amazing things, some of the things
that we've just talked about over the last ninety days,
(11:12):
in particular, growing this connection with the ocean and understanding
that it is so important to us. It's not just
a source of of seafood. It's much much more than that.
Every second breath that we take is from the ocean.
It's got social value, it's a part of our cultural identity,
(11:37):
and as Mana Ahidi said, it's knowledge, it's connection. So
we need to look past what we kind of take
from it at a surface level and understand that it
gives us so much more. And I think at a
high level, that's really what it's all about. It's appreciating
that the ocean gives us a lot. We're taking too
(11:58):
much from it. And we've seen that over previous generations
we've depleted what was once a very resource and that
abundance can rebound, and I saw that as we went
down the coast. I also saw and heard from some
of the elders that have been in these coastal communities
for decades and hearing of the devastation that they've seen
(12:23):
through human impact over their lifetime. And so I think
we have the option, We have choices that we can
make to be able to change things, and human impact
has a considerable influence on the health of these ecosystems.
And so our mission has never been about opposition to
(12:49):
commercial fishing. I just want to make that clear. It's
looking at fishing methods and saying, well, can we do
better in terms of the methods that are being used
in New Zealand right now is the only country that
is bottom trawling in the South Pacific hight and we're
a lagged in that respect, you know. So there is work,
(13:12):
I think and based on the based on what what
what what, We've the discussions we've had with independent advisors,
independent science that that's informed where you know where we've
taken this. Many people have got behind us obviously as well.
We're well over seventy thousand signatures on our petition as
(13:34):
of yesterday. I haven't checked it this morning.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
So John, know, you've had ninety days, you've been swimming,
probably a little bit of time to let the mind
wander a bit. Have you got new plans for what's next?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Yeah, it's a funny question and an inevitable Christian as well. Yes,
of course I've been thinking about this, and you know,
I've just got I've got this incredible passion for ocean
health and and ocean conservation, and that I think will
(14:09):
be a through line for the rest of my life.
I don't see that going anywhere, and so I don't
know what it looks like, and I'm excited to discover
what's next.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
So am I. Well, congratulations, thank you so much for
joining us this morning. If you want a little bit
more information, just go to Swim for the Ocean. You'll
be able to find that petition there. I think what
John has done is actually kind of remarkable, and that
was very neat and me going what next. I mean,
you've just completed a world first right here? Am I going?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Okay? So what next? That's a pretty high bar, isn't it?
To leapover?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
live to News Talks It'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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