Des Renford's Drunken Dare

In 1967, salesman Des Renford is enjoying a few drinks with his mates down the pub, when one of them proposes a mighty dare: to swim across Port Phillip Bay...the very next morning. What happened next, unexpectedly propelled Des into a new athletic career. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Des Renford had an auspicious birthday. He was born exactly
fifty two years after Matthew Webb became the first person
to swim the English Channel. Des had a few early
cracks at swinging himself, but it wasn't until his thirties
that a drunken dere from a mate took him out
to see Hi, I'm Tony Armstrong, and welcome to the

(00:30):
pool room. This is where we celebrate the winners, losers
and the weird stuff between. In nineteen thirty seven, as

(00:55):
a ten year old, des Renford won a fifty five
yard state swimming championship, and in the fifties he was
a surf lifesaver and part of a crew who rescued
three stranded fishermen who wrecked their boats on the rocks
off Botany Bay. But like many other men of his generation,
he'd gone to war. At sixteen, Dez joined the Navy,

(01:17):
and after he was discharged, spent time in and out
of hospital. Later on, he said of the experience, quote, altogether,
it took five years out of my life. That can't
be put back again. If I was ever going to
be any good at sport, that took it away from me,
dez tell that to Port Philip Bay. It's a drunken

(01:44):
night in Melbourne nineteen sixty seven. Des and some mates
are getting loose and he's taking a load off from
his job as a salesman. After a few frothies, his
journal friend Jack Ailing proposed a mighty dare to swim
across Port Philip Bay the next morning after their massive
night on the source. It was a twenty four mile

(02:12):
race thirty nine kilometers to put it into perspective, that's
seven hundred and eighty links of the Harald Holt outdoor pool,
or about twenty eight thousand inflatable kiddie pools lined up
in a row. What I'm saying is this was more
than just a nootie run across the local footy ground.

(02:32):
Morning came and Des was feeling pretty dusty. He tried
to make his mate Sea reason and you know, probably
just go for a pint or something, but they insisted
and he set off into the cold springtime water. Now
this isn't a fairy tale, so he didn't win. That

(02:56):
race was won by Linda McGill. Just a side note
on Linden, She was herself an iconic Australian marathon swimmer,
the first person recorded to have swum the Bay. She
was also the first Ossie to ever cross the English
Channel from France to England topless, and that swim was
also adare is this the secret to becoming a world champion? Hmm? Anyway,

(03:23):
so Mguil came first and our mate Dez didn't finish,
but neither did pretty much anyone else. Even though Dez
didn't complete the race, he still came third because no
one behind him finished either, probably just catch the very
next time a. But despite falling short of his destination,

(03:46):
DES's love of long distance swimming was set ablaze, and
while he was recuperating in hospital from his dip in
Port Philip Bay, he decided he wanted to swim the
English Channel. Des became kind of obsessed with it. His
first crossing was in nineteen seventy and after that he
said he starts on becoming King of the Channel, a

(04:06):
title that doesn't come with any castles or foreign lands,
but is bestowed on the man who successfully completed the
most crossings. In nineteen seventy five, he did it three
times in four weeks. That year, Des nabbed the King
of the Channel title from Mervyn Sharp and held it

(04:28):
for five years. In total, des Renford swam the English
Channel nineteen times in nineteen attempts, which was then the
best effort by any Australian. He did it in great
weather and in gale force wins. One time he got
run over by a hovercraft, but still managed to swim
his way to France. In nineteen eighty, when he was

(04:54):
fifty three years old. Does swam the Channel three times
in ten days, which is more often, and then some
of us managed to eat veggies. With that done, he
simply retired. The English Channel was his most famous marathon,
but does swam all over the place. He once had
to be pulled unconscious from the freezing waters of loch Ness.

(05:18):
He also swam ninety three kilometers from Watson's Bay to
North Wollongong Harbor. In nineteen eighty one, he attempted a
one hundred and thirty four kilometer stretch from Newcastle to Sydney,
but his sharkproof cage succumbed to choppy waters after only
thirteen hours. Let me say that again, only thirteen hours.

(05:44):
With his swimming days behind him, des Renford became an
inspiration and mentor to many other water babies, and his
son Michael also went on to become a champion marathon swimmer. Actually,
though the ward took him. On the twenty ninth of

(06:07):
December nineteen ninety nine, Dez suffered a heart attack while swimming.
By this point he'd already had three heart attacks and
a stroke. The fourth saw him slip into a coma,
and he died the following day. Des Renford received many

(06:27):
honors for his swimming efforts. He was inducted into the
Sport Australia Hall of Fame. He was a member of
the Order of the British Empire, and he was a
papal Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher. That's
like a fancy award from the Pope. Also, his cousin
was rock and roll singer Johnny O'Keefe. Overall, probably a

(06:49):
better outcome than most of our drunken DEAs. On your Dez,
You've been listening to the Ballroom and iHeart production. I'm
Tony Armstrong and I'll speak to you soon.