Oly Rush (Environmental Campaigner & Ultra Swimmer): Passion fuelled fight against Plastic Pollution

Success on the South Coast is all about showcasing interesting people doing amazing things in the local community.

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My guest for episode #17 is Oly Rush, an environmental campaigner who takes on incredible ultra swimming challenges in aid of raising awareness of plastic pollution through his charity PROJECT PLANET EARTH.

- - - KEY TOPICS OF THE CONVERSATION - - -

In this episode we discuss:

• The moment that led to Oly giving up the rat race to fight plastic pollution • The “life or death” mindset that drives Oly to complete incredible swimming challenges • Oly’s charity Project Planet Earth - beach cleans & school visits  • THE GRAND SWIM documentary chronicling Oly's world record attempt to swim around Grand Cayman • Oly’s view on the true meaning of Happiness & Success

- - - CHAPTERS - - -

00:00:00 - Guest Intro 00:02:17 - Intro ("A sunny new podcast...") 00:02:44 - Welcome…  00:03:10 - Oly's Passion: Protecting the Ocean 00:04:03 - How Oly's childhood & competitive swimming fueled his passion 00:05:53 - The turning point: Plastic pollution at Chapman's Poole 00:09:57 - SWIM JURASSIC: Raising awareness through his first ultra-swimming challenge 00:12:34 - Swimming Challenge #2: Circumnavigating the Isle of Wight 00:16:11 - How support from friends & family helped Oly out of a dark place 00:18:15 - THE GRAND SWIM: Documentary chronicling Oly's Grand Cayman challenge 00:20:52 - The most challenging aspects of this 37 hour (95km!) swim 00:22:00 - Staying Safe: the threat of Sharks & dangers of reefs in Grand Cayman! 00:12:44 - Walking out of the water… 00:25:25 - The recovery: physical injuries & mental impact... 00:27:17 - Coming back to reality… importance of keeping busy & setting another goal 00:28:07 - Impact on the Grand Cayman Community -  the government's broken promises 00:31:42 - Making it into the Guiness Book of World Records 00:32:52 - Passion & Purpose: the importance of having a greater purpose… 00:36:00 - Resilience & staying motivated: Stay in the moment & forget the finish line 00:37:02 - Patience, Purpose & Gratitude 00:39:08 - PROJECT PLANET EARTH: Oly's charity & mission  00:40:12 - The small things: How to lessen your impact... 00:41:30 - Need for Funding  00:42:32 - School visits: Inspiring the next generation 00:45:21 - Plastic Pollution - the stats & Scale of the Problem 00:47:22 - Signs of hope 00:48:52 - The circular economy… and Circular11 00:51:42 - Future Plans & Next Challenges 00:52:07 - Rewind to a previous challenge - wimming around the Greek Island of ITHACA 00:53:02 - ISLE OF WIGHT No. 2: Repeating the challenge in 'skins' (no wetsuit) 00:54:52 - PROJECT 150: The Longest non-tidal assisted open water swim 00:57:24 - Maximising the impact… 01:00:33 - What is happiness? Being content - "a flat, calm ocean" 01:03:22 - Oly's favourite thing about living in the area - the Jurassic Coast 01:04:34 - What is success? Achieving that state of contentment 01:05:29 - Skills for Success - Hyper focus, fueling & a strong purpose 01:06:55 - Positive effect on family & friends - the 'ripple' Oly is most proud of 01:07:42 - Life by Misadventure - Importance of slowing down, being more compassionate towards animals & becoming vegan 01:10:05 - Thank you, guest links & wrap-up

GUEST Links:

• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/oly-rush • Website: https://www.bikingvikingrides.co.uk • Instagram: www.instagram.com/olyrush

Watch THE GRAND SWIM at: https://www.waterbear.com/watch/the-grand-swim

Special thanks to Mike Coggan & Steve Garay from Grizzly Productions (www.grizzly.co.uk) / The Biome Project (www.biome-project.co.uk) for allowing us to feature clips of their fantastic short film ‘RUSH’ and ‘THE GRAND SWIM’.

PROJECT PL