January 16, 2024 • 47 mins
On today's Torpedo Swimtalk Podcast we chat to open water marathon swimmer Jeff Miller, who lives, works and swim on the island of St.John in the US Virgin Islands. Our conversation dives into the heart of open water swimming, where Jeff's background in marine biology informs not only his strokes but also his profound respect for the aquatic life he encounters.
Inspired by the beautiful waters of the Caribbean at his doorstep, Jeff has completed two marathon swims no one has ever accomplished before - the Sir Francis Drake Channel and a circumnavigation of St.John Island. He shares the unique challenges and highlights of these adventures, illustrating the intricate blend of physical stamina and mental strategy required to conquer such a challenge.
With no pools on St.John, Jeff does all his training in the ocean, detailing for us his 'swim hiking' around the island. His innovative techniques, from pre-placed hydration stations to adapting current models for navigation, offer a treasure trove of knowledge for anyone drawn to the call of the sea.
Follow Jeff
Facebook
YouTube
You can connect with Torpedo Swimtalk:
Website
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Sign up for our Newsletter
Leave us a review
Torpedo Swimtalk is sponsored by AMANZI SWIMWEAR
#swim #swimmer #swimming #mastersswimmer #mastersswimmers #mastersswimming #openwaterswimmer #openwaterswimmers #openwaterswimming #swimminglover #swimmingpodcast #mastersswimmingpodcast #torpedoswimtalkpodcast #torpedoswimtalk #tstquicksplashpodcast #podcast #podcaster #podcastersofinstagram #swimmersofinstagram #swimlife #swimfit #ageisjustanumber #health #notdoneyet
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello Swimmers and welcome to another episode of
Torpedo Swim Talk podcast.
I'm your host, danielleSpearling, and each week we chat
to a master swimmer from aroundthe world about their swimming
journey.
On today's podcast, we'rechatting to open water swimmer
Jeff Miller, who lives and swimsin the stunning Caribbean
(00:25):
waters around the island of StJohn in the US Virgin Islands.
Jeff has conquered some of theopen water swims no one else has
ever swum, as well as paintinga vivid picture for us of the
beautiful environments he swimsin, and I loved hearing about
the innovative training swimshe's designed for himself.
Let's hear from Jeff now.
(00:46):
Hi, jeff, welcome to thepodcast.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Thank you very much, Danielle.
It's very nice to meet you.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, lovely to meet you too.
Now you live and work in a verybeautiful part of the world, in
the US Virgin Islands.
How does a guy from Ohio end upliving in St John?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, it's quite a journey.
It took me a while to get here.
I went to university inMelbourne, florida, and learned,
got my degrees in marinebiology and biological
oceanography and you can't studythat real well in Ohio, so I
kept moving south, ended up inthe Cayman Islands for four
(01:27):
years doing work as a diveinstructor and a dive master,
and I did volunteer work withthe natural resources department
there it's called the mosquitoresearch and control unit, and
that got me into the Caribbeanand from there I went to the
Virgin Islands and spent acouple steps to get to here, but
it's been a great journey.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
It sounds amazing.
What's the population of theisland that you live on, St John
?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
St John and it's about 4,000 people at the last
census.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Right, and what about across the whole of the US
Virgin Islands?
How many islands are there inthe cluster?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Three main islands St Thomas, st John and St Croix.
My wife and I lived on St Croixfor about nine years.
It and St Thomas have about50,000 people on it.
They're much bigger islands andSt John has got about 4,000
people.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Oh, wow.
And how do you get between theislands these days?
Just with a boat or?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, I mean, there's car barges that take you back
and forth between St John and StThomas.
There is boats that go back andforth between St Thomas and St
Croix.
It's about 40 miles.
So sea planes and other smallcommuter planes work really well
too.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Amazing.
So now all of your swimming isdone in the open water, but back
in your youth you were a highschool and college swimmer in
the US.
How did you find transitioningbetween pool swimming and open
water swimming?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, it was sublime.
I mean I started off like manyyear listeners.
You know, my parents took me toan area club when I was six
years old and I went for atryout and communication wasn't
so well back in the 60s and Ididn't get the message.
I was supposed to go to a swimschool.
So I kept going back to thesame practice and I hung around
(03:26):
with that club for 12 years andspent two years at university.
But because I didn't go to swimschool I developed some pretty
bad habits and it's taken me along time to unlearn those
habits I developed as a kid butabout 1991, I guess it was, I
left the black line behind andwith getting into diving and
(03:48):
teaching diving and studyingmarine biology, I really feel
like I'm more comfortable in thewater than I am on land and
it's just amazing going out intothe open water every day or
having the ability to do so.
I love it.
I've occasionally gone back toa pool.
It comes back to me.
(04:08):
You know I can remember how toswim circles and do flip turns.
But you know, and it's so wild.
I remember as a young age groupswimmer.
You know those distance people.
They were, you know you didn't.
They ate different things andthey were just a different bunch
of people, right?
And now it's like well, let'sgo out and swim a mile and a
(04:30):
half or two miles, you know, andthat's your set.
It's a completely differentmindset, and so much of it is,
to what I get to look at andwhat I get to see.
You know, it's an amazingenvironment, swimming in clear,
warm tropical waters.
I mean, that's what it's allabout for me.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, and obviously your work as a marine biologist
puts you in great stead to knowwhat you're looking at as well.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah, yeah, you know it.
As I progressed through mymarine science education and
career and got more back intoopen water swimming, connecting
those two, you know, seeing thehabitats that I studied and
mapped and learned to monitor,and now I would be swimming
(05:18):
across those different habitats,like many pieces just really
begin to fell in the place from,like the spatial nature of
things, and it's spectacular,it's such a treat.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So give us, give us a few of your marine encounters
like what's the, what's thescariest thing that you've come
across out there?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Most of the encounters with marine life, you
know, or if they're on thenegative side, they're all
defensive actions of the animalor the organism.
You know you have to bump intoa jellyfish to get stung.
They don't chase you, right Imean?
So that's a defensive action ontheir part.
And you know the sharks, rightI mean, yeah, I've seen my fair
(06:02):
number of sharks and most ofthem are just fine to be
swimming in the same ocean as Iam.
We go our separate ways,everything's good.
The ones that do make me alittle nervous, of course, are
the ones that they're on thebottom and I'm on the surface
and then they come straight upand you're like, okay, this
one's, I've got its attention,you know, and we're we're
(06:24):
looking at each other and that'san okay encounter.
And then you know, it swimsaround a little bit and then it
swims off.
And that's when it gets alittle weird, because now you
don't see it anymore, but itcertainly knows you there, you
know.
But it's not a problem, youknow, the scariest thing is
really the conditions is gettingin currents or getting in waves
(06:47):
or being out in a thunderstormcomes up or something.
It's.
Rarely have I felt threatenedby any kind of marine life.
Now, barracuda, they, they canbe a little little on the
aggressive side and they,they're kind of interesting
(07:07):
because you never see them andthen all of a sudden they're
there and then you're like, oh,there's a barracuda and you keep
swimming and then it's gone,you know, and then it's there
again and you just kind of haveto.
You know, in my experience withit is is, you know, again, I'm
bigger than they are.
You don't usually pick onthings bigger than your size, so
(07:29):
, reasonably, why would it dothat?
You know, these animals, theyall survive by stealth, right,
they sneak up on their prey.
I mean I, I give talks andmarine biology and stuff and I'm
like, you know, try and grab afish with your hand.
You know you can't do it.
They're exceptionally fast inthe water.
I mean they're really fast.
(07:51):
So these animals grab otherfish with their mouths.
You know that's the way theyeat.
If they're gonna, if they'regonna eat you, you know you're
gonna feel a bump and you'll go.
You know what was that?
Because they can't announcethemselves and say, hey, you
know, I'm a predator, I'm here,you know, and then, because that
(08:13):
would make you know theywouldn't be able to eat their
prey.
That way their prey would thengo away, right.
So they attack by surprise andby stealth.
So if you've seen it, it'salready decided that it's just
gonna visit you.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
But that's reassuring .
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Right, that's what I think about.
And now your waters arecompletely different.
You got those blue bells andthose white pointers and you
know, I'm not sure I'd have thesame kind of kind of attitude
there, but I would try my best.
I really I really try and be inharmony with the animals that
I'm swimming in and just to tryto smell the spec.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, that's really interesting.
Do you do most of your swimmingby yourself in the open water?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I do, I do.
I always use a float bag.
I've got a great partnershipwith the new wave swim bag
people and once I found thatproduct I was like this is a
game changer, because I put myphone in it and my wife can then
track my phone.
Because we actually get bettercell reception offshore than we
(09:16):
do on the land, because theisland is so hilly and so
mountainous and most of my swimsare near shore.
You know, I'm within 50 metersof shore, so it's not that big
of a deal.
I may, you know, go acrosscertain passages, but I
generally swim early in themorning.
The winds are always better,it's always calmer, there's
always less people, always lessboaters, less boat traffic.
(09:38):
So I'll go up to maybe eightmiles, you know, by myself,
anything longer than that.
Or if I'm away from shore, thenmy wife will come with me in a
kayak or I'll get a support crewto come out with me.
She's a tremendous support.
I mean, you know I learned as ayoung kid my sisters would
drive me to those those earlyfive o'clock, five thirty AM
(10:01):
swim practices, right, because Ididn't have a driver's license.
So already my family waspitching in and I was like gosh,
you know you can't do this byyourself and even now you know
the open water swimming.
It takes a tremendous supportcrew behind yourself, and my
wife and my friends have beentremendous supporters all along
and I can't do it without them.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, oh yeah, it always it takes a village,
doesn't it?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
It does, it does and it's.
It can be great fun for them,but it's also kind of taxing on
them too, you know.
So you're asking them to dosomething that's that's not
necessarily easy.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, well, that leads me into my next question,
because you, you, you mentionedin some emails that we've had
between each other that youcompleted the 25 kilometer St
Francis Drake Channel.
So that's quite a swim, andobviously you would have had a
support crew and I hope you knowyour wife was probably on the
boat.
It's a long time for them to towatch you swimming.
Tell us about that swim and Iknow you were the first person
(10:58):
to actually swim it what broughtthat about?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, the Sir Francis Drake Channel is the, the
channel that separates theislands of the British Virgin
Islands.
There's the main island ofTortola and then the outer
islands, there's Norman, Peter,Saul, Cooper, Jinder Islands
that are separated by thischannel, and then the.
The far end of the channel isVirgin Gorda and at our end of
(11:23):
the channel, the US end of thechannel, is St John, and I would
do a lot of my work at a sitethat looked straight up that
channel.
You know, we could see straightup there and there was Virgin
Gorda in the distance and it'sjust like, oh man, that would be
interesting.
You know, 15 and a half miles,it's what that's, that's 35 or
(11:45):
so kilometers, I guess, and and37 and and that would be an
interesting swim.
So it just kind of is a seathat's planted it.
It just kept going around in mymind and finally was like all
right, let's, let's take thisseriously.
I'm not getting any younger.
It's time to either decidewe're going to do this and
(12:09):
seriously, you know, try andfigure it out or or, or or not.
And when you're doing somethingnobody's ever done before,
there's nobody really tell youhow to do it right.
So what are the currents.
No, you know, you know, andit's amazing.
I found a website that had acurrent model that covered that
area is out of the University ofPuerto Rico and the current
(12:32):
goes against the wind.
The wind is primarily in mydirection, from Virgin Gorda to
St John, east to west, southeastwind, but the current often
goes against the wind and it isextremely variable based on the
moon and the stars and the tides.
So this website was reallyreally important to help
understand how I would plan thisone.
(12:53):
It only updated 24 to 36 hoursin advance, so I was like that's
going to make it kind ofdifficult.
When I got my weather window,how do I know if tomorrow well,
if Thursday or Friday orwhenever you know days away is
the day, how do I know what thecurrents are going to be?
I don't know.
(13:13):
So I'd have to know only a dayin advance and then figure it
out.
So what I did was like a monthbefore every day, I would look
at this website and I'd say,okay, if the swim was tomorrow,
how would I do it?
I had pages for each day andI'd map out how I would handle
(13:33):
the currents that were forecastfor the next day.
Then the following day, I'd say, okay if the day after tomorrow
I'm doing it, how would I do it?
I kept doing this for over amonth so that I could gain the
confidence, saying, when myweather window happened, I would
be able to look at the websiteand say, okay, here's the way
we're going to do it, here's myeight to 10 hour expected time
(13:56):
to take it, here's when we wouldleave, here's the path we would
go and here's how we'd make thesuccess.
And it worked.
I had a great crew.
I had my observer was the sameguy who observed the around St
John's swim.
My wife and another friend ofours who was on that swim were
my main team supporters.
Then we invested in two peoplefrom Team River Runner, which is
(14:21):
a wounded veterans group in thestates that helps promote the
recovery of veterans who've beenwounded in conflict.
One of their big premises isthey want to get butts in boats.
They want their veterans tostart kayaking and whitewater
rafting and being active.
(14:42):
I raised money for them with theswim around St John and I was
like, okay, I want to do thisagain, but I want to also get
their butts in my boat.
Let them help support me.
I need kayakers because my wifecame up with the support plan,
which was we have a power boatand then we have a double kayak.
The power boat is around themain support vessel and then the
(15:05):
double kayak is with theswimmer.
They have my feeds and the GPSand all the tracking equipment
and some safety equipment.
Then I would feed every 30minutes and that all came by the
kayak.
If the kayak need to switch out, they would go to the power
boat.
The power boat will come bythem and that's another double
(15:26):
kayak would come in with anotherteam.
There was always a double kayakwith me and somebody then could
rest on the main boat.
It works really great.
We got to involve the teamRiver Runner folks with that.
It was so immensely satisfyingto have those amazing people be
(15:47):
part of my team.
We were able to raise money forthem and actually involve them
in the swim, which they werethrilled to be a part of and had
a great time.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah, that's really excellent.
I love the fact that you gotthem involved and hopefully
they'll be along on some of yourfuture swims as well.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
That would be great.
Yeah, that would be great.
It's a tremendous group.
They come here every summer totake part in an event that we
have on the island.
Back when I started doing thesein 2016, they were one of the
motivations behind it.
I mean, there's an event calledthe Beach to Beach Power Swim
(16:30):
that they helped design thecourse for.
It's gone on for 25 years andthese veterans would come down
and they would participate inthis event.
It's either a one mile, two anda quarter or three and a half
mile open ocean swim.
It's a spectacular venue.
350 people can take place in it.
(16:51):
I watched it in 2014, and one ofthe veterans had no, he was an
amputee from above his knees andhe swam the three and a half
miles.
I was like this is absolutelyincredible.
If I can raise some money bydoing some swims to bring more
(17:11):
of these people down and letthem participate in this
activity, it would be great.
It just would be so much fun.
That's what got me partneringup with Team River Runner and
it's been a great partnership.
Ever since I got to mention,cancer has unfortunately been in
my life, in my wife's lives.
(17:32):
I also raised money for the StJohn Cancer Fund, which is a
great organization here on theisland, I get to do these crazy
events.
It gets the community behind usand we raise money for really
good causes and it just feels sogood.
It's just a win, win, win, win,win all around.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Is there much of a swim community in St John and on
the US Virgin Islands?
You mentioned, obviously, theswim where you get 350
participants.
Are there other people outthere in the open water, maybe
not swimming with you, but partof the open water community?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah, it's not a large community.
It picks up when that racecomes around.
St Thomas there is a I thinkit's a 25-meter pool there.
In St Croix there's a couple 25and maybe a 50-meter pool.
They have very active swimclubs there.
The Virgin Islands has setseveral people to the Olympics
(18:30):
partake in those.
There's some great open waterevents.
There's a coral reef swim thattakes place over in St Croix.
It's a five-mile swim betweenan island called Buck Island and
the Buccaneer Hotel, which is ablast.
I've done that one a number oftimes.
There's really serious bassswimmers that come to that, so
(18:51):
that's a blast.
So yeah, there's drips anddrabs of open water swimming
that takes place here in St John.
It's picking up.
There's more and more.
I see more and more swim buoysaround, which is great fun that
more people are getting involvedin.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And has that swim that you did in the channel
being ratified now?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
It's not.
It's still pending.
So fingers across.
I believe we did everythingnecessary, so I'm fairly
confident it will be.
The crew is great.
We read all the rules ahead oftime and abide by an unassisted
swim and it certainly was notcurrent aided.
We spent a lot of time goingagainst the current, although I
(19:35):
never thought I had a negativesplit of 15 and a half miles
swim, the last half andcertainly the last three miles
were my fastest miles of theswim and it certainly wasn't
because of technique I hadfallen apart.
So it was definitely with alittle bit of a push from the
wooden ways going our direction.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, it's very interesting the way those
currents can assist and andhinder as well.
So I'm sure at the beginning ofyour swim it was against you.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
So it was.
It was yeah, and you know itwas fun, you don't.
You don't necessarily know that.
We knew there'd be.
We hope we were skirted to theside of it enough, you know, and
and we got out a little bit toomuch into the channel and and
and got the direct head oncurrents.
But you know, you just keep onswimming and keep on moving and
(20:26):
it's kind of interesting whenyou.
I swim in very shallow waterand it's clear water, so you
know I can see the bottom, andthere I couldn't.
So you kind of feel like you'reon a treadmill and you don't
know if you're really moving.
There's, there's no references,and I know this is stuff you
guys deal with all the time,right, Because you don't
necessarily get to see a lot ofstuff in the water.
But yeah, I mean I'm spoiled, Imean what can I say?
(20:49):
I mean I get to swim in clear,warm tropical waters.
I mean why not?
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yeah, very nice.
You know it's been a week downat the beach after Christmas and
I just we we swim every day butit was pretty murky down there.
It just really depends on thetides.
There's a lot of seaweed aroundthis year but other times,
where I swim can be completelyclear and you can see the bottom
.
But it just really depends, Isuppose.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Yeah, you know, I, I I had to do some night swimming
and it dawned on me then toothat you know it's a big deal
for me because I can't see.
But this is what people dealwith all the time when they
can't see in the daytime, right,I mean dark night, when it's
two feet of visibility, a footof visibility, they.
(21:37):
It doesn't matter whether it'sday or night.
Well, in me it does.
I mean I can see.
You know 50, 60, 80 feet downand and you know 30, 40 meters,
you know on this village is good, I can see that far and that's
that's why I swim is because Iwant to look and see what's
there.
You know I got prescriptiongoggles and and it, you know
(21:59):
it's.
That's what it's about.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
And one of your other big spills was you
circumnavigated the island of StJohn, where you live.
How far is that around?
Speaker 2 (22:08):
It was given 22.9 miles, it wouldn't give me the
extra tenth of a mile.
So if that turns out to be 37kilometers, there we go.
So it's about 37 K around.
Yeah, that was great.
That was in 2016.
And then that that was anotherbig one in that nobody had done
it.
Lots of people said I couldn'tdo it, like, oh, nobody's ever
(22:30):
kayaked around the island muchless swim around in it.
So it's like okay, so we justbroke it up into chunks.
You know, in the training Icould do all the segments and we
could play with what thecurrents were gonna be right.
So I do this four mile sectionand I do it when the tide is
(22:50):
rising and then I go back and Ido it another time when the tide
is falling.
And what's the difference?
In my time, you know, over afour mile section, it's not
gonna be a 22nd different, it'sgonna be 10 or 15 minutes if I'm
going against the tide or withthe tide.
So I developed a current modelthat you know, when the tides
(23:10):
were certain places, were incertain ways in certain places,
then it would be in a certaindirection, and just tried to
piece that together and thentried to work with my speed so
that I would be able to workwith that kind of movement.
(23:31):
Right, if you take an islandthat's maybe nine or 10, 11
miles, 12 miles long, and thewater's gonna move back and
forth and you've gotta kind ofbe here when it's one area and
around this side when it's goingthe other way, so that it's a
neutral current and just sohappens, my speed kind of works
with that.
So it turned out really, reallygood and it was amazing.
(24:00):
You know, we had a same kind of.
This is where my wife kind ofput the crew idea together with
using the two double kayaks inthe power boat.
We went on a training swim onetime and we were, I don't know,
three or four kilometersoffshore, going across this big
bay, and it was.
We had started at night and thesun was up now and it was just
(24:20):
a double kayak and myself, apower boat was supposed to meet
us and they were late and therewas a shark swimming underneath
us and we were like man, thisjust is not good.
We need to think about this alittle more.
So, you know, there's a lot ofdiscovery and that's what the
training's about, you know, isyou figure things out that you
(24:42):
need to do better, and wecertainly did.
So.
That's what I really enjoy thetraining part, the learning part
, the daily part.
You know the how am I gonna setup my weeks?
How am I gonna set up my months?
How am I gonna train in orderto swim 23 miles, 24, 25?
(25:03):
You know, I don't know if I canstay where the currents want me
to be.
You know, maybe I'll have toswim longer.
How long will it take?
11 hours to 16, 17, 18, I don'tknow.
You know the longest mytraining swim was 14 miles.
So I was like, okay, that's twothirds of it.
(25:24):
You know what's gonna happen inthe last third.
So for me the months that leadup to it is really.
It's anxious.
You know it's nerve-wracking,but it's fun and you know
everybody thinks wow, they'rereally long swims.
You know that took me almost 12and a half hours.
It was 12 hours, 19, but it'sover and a half a day.
(25:45):
You know you've been thinkingabout this thing for over a year
.
You know you've been trainingfor it for months and it's over
and a half a day.
You know it's like boom, it'sdone.
You know, and it's kind ofinteresting that way.
You know that they actuallyfinish up pretty quick when you
(26:06):
think about all you've done toget ready for it.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Well, I mean it's a huge senseof achievement to do those two
swims.
I mean, how much training doyou put in each week for
something like that?
Are you an everyday swimmer?
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah, you know, when I was focused on those events.
It does become an everydaything, you know, with the
swimmer out saying, john, 23miles or so.
That was a serious task.
I mean, yeah, I was youngerthen, but it, you know, we did
some strength training first,you know, to kind of build up
strength.
My wife is a really greatpersonal trainer.
(26:44):
She's got a number of clientshere on the island so she gets
to help me with that.
And you know there's a gym onthe island now, but there really
wasn't then.
So we have a home gym here thatwe can do that with.
And then, yeah, you swim everyday.
I was still diving a lot then,so for me it was like I want to
(27:08):
maintain a feel of the water.
Right, it's not always faster,it's stronger, but it's almost
mentally stronger than it isphysically stronger.
And your body gets to a point,I think, where you are
physically strong enough and nowit's time for your mind to be
physically strong or mentallystrong enough to drive the train
(27:30):
.
And to me that's what the swimsare about.
Okay, it's six o'clock, I gotto get in an hour and a half
swim before I go to work.
I got to get out and do it, youknow, and that's it's not
necessarily the strength I'mgoing to gain by doing that hour
and a half.
It's the mental strength ofsaying I've committed to this,
(27:51):
so I'm going to see thatcommitment through.
And I looked up some numbers.
I was doing like 30 to 40 miles, like it's like 50 to 65
kilometers, in the months aheadof time.
A couple of months before Ibumped it up to 40 to 16 miles,
so like 65 or 95 kilometers in acouple of months before the
round, st John, and then the bigone the month before.
(28:14):
It was about 80 miles, so 130kilometers in the month before.
So it was I just, you know,just keep swimming, just, and
I'm fortunate you know I'm notlike people who are racing it
that I have to be concerned fora time I just wanted to keep
going, you know, and it was allabout just keeping that diesel
(28:38):
engine kind of running in thatpace and it worked really well.
I would do a couple of trainingswims where it would be a seven
or eight or there'd be longerones, and I'd be coming in and
you'd be feeling tired and doneand you're like you know what,
let's go down the beach and backand then finish Because I just
(29:01):
want to go a little bit more.
You know you're ready to stop.
Your mind's been focusing on adescent now for the past hour,
but there's going to come apoint when you're out there
where you're going to want toquit and you're going to say I'm
done and you're going to haveto tell your mind no, you're not
done, you need to do, you needto get through this.
So I would tack on anotherextra half a mile at the end,
(29:24):
you know, just to say OK, keepgoing.
You know you thought you weredone, not quite.
Yet here you go.
And you know I don't have acoach.
These are all little games Iget to play with myself.
So it worked out.
You know it worked.
You know that training put mein a really good mindset to make
it all happen.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Do you listen to the podcast on Apple or Spotify?
If you do, we'd love you towrite a review for us.
It helps other swimmers findthe podcast and we're all about
spreading the word about thefantastic swimming journeys of
the people we interview.
Yeah, I can see how that wouldabsolutely increase your sort of
(30:10):
mental fortitude, because whenyou head into a swim that long,
you would come across parts init where you feel a bit down on
yourself.
You want to throw in the towel,go home, have a, put your feet
up, have a coffee, whatever.
So, building that up in yourtraining, you get the time to
practice that before you go intothe swim.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
I really, I see the training it's like rehearsals.
You know they were rehearsalsfor the swimming and I didn't
want to to experience somethingI would.
I'd never experienced thatlength of swimming.
I mean I would.
I would do like an eight mileswim and then I'd followed up
the next day with a 10 mile swim.
(30:51):
You know, still not as far as Iwas going to go, but I just
kept shortening the intervals inbetween.
But I knew there'd be a timewhen you're like man, I am
really tired.
You know that's what happenswhen you do this.
How are you going to deal withthat?
And it's going to be your mindas long as everything else
checks out right.
I mean, you do the self-check.
You know my head's fine, myshoulders are fine, my neck, my
(31:14):
back, you know everything's good, it's up here.
It's like you got to keep themind.
You know, driving the bus andand I was really, I was really
happy I did that.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yeah, Now something I find really intriguing.
You sent me a little video ofsome swim hiking that you did
and where you put some drinksalong the way.
Can you, can you tell everyoneabout that, Because I think
that's so innovative?
I haven't ever seen that before.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Two thirds of St John is a national park, right?
So there's no development inthe national park there's
there's no houses in it, youknow.
So there's no roads in a lot ofthe places and you can get to
some really beautiful areas toswim by hiking trails.
So again, with these, theseswim bags, it was like, all
(32:00):
right, I can put some food inthe bag and then I can take
bottles, you know, of what Iwant to drink, and I can hike in
and swim.
You know a route.
And because the marine sectionof St John, there's 5000 acres
the water are Marine Park aswell, so there's buoys that that
(32:22):
designate swim zones and so,instead of dragging my nutrition
, I can take two or three youknow bottles of of my drink with
me and I'll, I'll shake it upand I'll put, I'll freeze it and
then I put it in these bottles.
And then I clipped the bottlesto a buoy line that I know I'm
going to be swimming back by.
So now I don't have to have itclipped onto my float bag and
(32:44):
drag that through the water too.
I can just swim back by thebuoy that I have my bottle tied
onto and and there's mynutrition break and important
there is.
I leave a little bit of air inthe top of the bottle because
that way it still floats on theline.
It's submerged but it stillfloats and that way, no, no
(33:06):
water has leaked into it,because it somehow salt water
has leaked into it and now thebottle is all the way full.
I know that's probably not one Iwant to drink, you know,
because it's the bottles leakedand it's gotten me.
Not that that happened before,but yes, it did.
And I learned that you leave alittle air in the top there.
So now you know that it isn't.
It didn't leak, so it's great,you know it opens up.
(33:28):
It opens up the island to justamazing swims, you know, and my
wife has been completelysupportive of these activities.
But, man, I can route everyweekend, you know if I can do
these on my own and she cantrack me on the phone.
And you know it's, I've got abuoy bag, I go early, I'm most
(33:51):
of the time I'm near shore andif I'm not near shore, I go
early enough that there's not alot of boat traffic.
It's great, you know it's, it'sa ton of fun.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Yeah, it sounds really good.
I'm just intrigued by thatwhole innovation.
I think that's great.
It's fantastic yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
I love the hike and swims.
You know they're.
They're great fun yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Have you?
Have you got any upcoming swimson the horizon that you're
excited about?
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Yeah, nothing, nothing real big and grand.
There's a swim from Nevis to StKitts, two islands a little
further south down the Koreanchain, I think.
It's a two, two and a half mileswim, and at the end of April.
That we've never done and thatcould be a fun one.
There's a couple hundred peoplethat do that, so we might try
(34:39):
and look into seeing get down tothat.
We've got our power swim.
That comes up in in May, theend of May each year, so we'll
take a look at that.
My wife and I have been doing alot of biking too, so we'll
we'll probably do some biketrips, but I'm going to keep
swimming.
I mean, finding your podcastand getting in touch with you
has kind of put a spark in mehere as well.
(35:00):
So it's.
It's been a lot of fun gettingback out there while doing that.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
And look, just before I let you go, I wanted to ask
you what's your mostunforgettable experience that
you've ever had in the water?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
There's a couple of them that come to mind the swim
around St John and the DrakeChannel swim to, to commit to
those to, to do something thatnobody's done.
You know, it's kind of fun andthat's exciting.
And, and, geez, I did a swimbetween Cayman Brack and Little
(35:32):
Cayman in 19, 19, 19, 19, 18, 87.
And that was another one nobodyhad done before and it's that
was way back, you know, beforeGPS is on the internet and cell
phone and and didn't know muchof anything about open water
swimming.
But it's taking that leap offaith that you know, you think,
(35:53):
you think it's going to work outand yeah, there are things that
are scary, but go for it anyway.
You know, and and give that atry.
I have been fortunate enough tosnorkel with humpback whales,
which is just an extraordinaryexperience to be in the water
(36:16):
with something that magnificentand it's actually on a dive,
very briefly, for just like aminute and a half with a
humpback whale.
And I vividly remember thehumpback was here.
You know this big pectoral finand I was next to it and I could
see its eye move and like lookat me and I was like, oh my God,
(36:40):
the whale just looked at me andthen it swam up to the surface
to breathe, which is bizarrebecause I'm the one that has to
breathe on the surface and I wasunderwater in the whale and I'm
now again distinctly remembergoing.
I'm looking at the underside ofa whale which is the view not
(37:00):
many people get to see, and Iwas like you want to remember
this, because this doesn'thappen very often.
So those are charismatic.
Megafauna is a great experience.
Those are a couple that come tomind.
Yeah, there is also.
I sent you a little video of thelittle jack that swims with us,
(37:24):
you know, and that's that'sanother unbelievable experience.
I swam 10 miles from from halfof the island it was.
It was like a stepping stone tothe round island.
Thing was this little jack waswith me under my chest nearly
the entire way, just swimminglike a banshee, and it was
(37:48):
amazing, it?
You know?
I could look down and like, oh,I don't see it, and I would
like forget everything and keepswimming, and then like 20
minutes later, well, oh, thereit is, and it's not a different
one, it really is the same one,and I felt so bad that I had
taken it from one side of theisland to the other.
I'm like his parents are goingto wonder where it is.
(38:10):
You know, and you know someonewith these tarpon that are just
magnificent.
You know they're, they're,they're the green sea turtles.
You know that are dailyexperiences, you know, it's just
, it's, it's like.
You know, walk to the sidewalk,you walk your favorite route,
(38:32):
you walk your favorite trail,you know your favorite flower
and your favorite tree.
That's what I get to do here inthe water is I can swim my
favorite course and see coralsthat I've known for decades.
You know that I've watched growand, sadly, in some cases I've
watched die, and these areanimals that are hundreds of
(38:54):
years old.
I mean, they're they.
They started growing whenColumbus sailed by, you know,
and I get to see them on a dailybasis.
I get to get to know them andsometimes sadly watch them die
and that's amazing.
I mean, I don't take that forgranted.
Those are the kind ofoccurrences that keep me going
(39:14):
in the water.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Well, I think you've painted a wonderful picture of
the US Virgin Islands, so Iwouldn't be surprised if you get
some visitors coming along tocheck out the swimming.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Thank you very much.
Yeah, it is.
It's a big part of why I'm hereand we enjoyed a lot.
Thank you very much, yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
So before I let you go, I always ask all my guests
their deep dive five, which is abit of a snapshot of your
swimming.
So give us your differentanswers.
I suppose because you're in adifferent location, but what is
the favorite pool that you'veever swum in before?
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Favorite pool, talked to my wife about this a lot.
We went to Australia and mywife did the Australian Ironman
there and we had friends inSydney and they took us to a
five pools swim run and thisthis was so amazing.
You swim two laps down and backin this ocean pool and then you
(40:14):
run to the other side of thebay and there's another pool and
you jump in.
You swim two laps in the pooland you run another bay and
there's another pool and youswim.
So you swim.
He just dived in with his, his,his trainers on and you swim
with his shoes and those are myfavorite pools.
They're absolutely amazing,they're ingenious and they don't
(40:37):
have them here.
So your Australian pools arejust.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
It was very yes, the ocean pools of New South Wales
are beautiful.
They really are.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
I heard about your book you got for Christmas, so
I'm going to look into that.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Yeah, well, it's got every, every pool listed there,
so definitely the one.
The one that you're talkingabout is the Coastal Walk, I
think.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
I don't, it was a lot of years ago, but it was just.
It was Easter Sunday and we'rerunning in soggy tennis shoes
and our slug goes down thestreet, run into this next pool,
just lapping so hard it was.
It was tremendous.
So we did one here like that,where we started a beach.
You would swim out to a buoyand back and then you'd run to
(41:17):
the next bay.
You would swim out to a buoyand back and you'd run to the
next bay.
So we brought a little of thathere and and just couldn't do it
in pools.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Yeah, but you're doing it in another beautiful
environment, so that's great andyour favorite open water
swimming locations.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Well, I do have to say here yeah, and we've
discussed my thermal intolerance, so I'm kind of sucking.
The tropics there could be somecool tropical adventures.
There's some fun open waterswimming is in Fiji that, if we
can swing the cost, we may lookinto, but definitely I think the
Virgin Islands is a top of theheap.
(41:53):
The Caribbean is good swimming.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
And what about your favorite freestyle training
drill?
Speaker 2 (41:58):
The training drills.
I've got two.
One of them is sculling,because I do sculling when I
like to sneak up on fish.
So like those tarpon thatthey're like in the morning,
they're like right at thesurface, I know they're there
and I'm like, ok, I'm going toslow down here from the tarpon,
so I'll work on my scullingdrill and that allows me to kind
(42:19):
of slowly sneak up on thetarpon and get to see him better
that way.
So that's kind of fun.
And then the other one I'll dois a straight line drill between
buoys where I'll just try and,you know, really focus on stroke
and technique and say, ok, canI literally swim straight into
that next buoy?
You know, the waves are goingthis way, the currents doing
(42:40):
this, the swell is OK, so I'mgoing to kind of adjust for all
of that.
Can I swim a straight line?
And those are the two.
We make it work.
It's kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
I like that.
I love the sound of that.
You're really inventing thingsfor your environment, which I
think is perfect.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Yeah, and they're really functional.
You know the straight line, youknow you're swimming a couple
of miles and you deviate by 100meters, 200 meters.
A minute and a half, threeminutes, you know, adds to your
time.
Swimming straight is really key.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Absolutely.
And what about your favoritelittle open water training set?
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Yeah, the open water training set is.
Maybe we'll be able to post somevideos, but I think the one is
that beach to beach power swim,like it's a, do that three and a
half miles and then I walkthree and a half miles back to
the car and it's a hilly walk.
You'll get about 800 feet ofclimbing on that.
And then I get in and I do thetwo and a quarter mile swim and
then walk back to the car andthen I do the one mile swim and
(43:39):
then walk back.
So it's like doing the beach tobeach twice.
So it's seven miles or so, butyou also get the fitness and the
keeping up your heart rate ofwalking at the same time.
And then when I was doing thedirect channel training, I
needed to swim a little longer.
So I put another two miles swimat the end of that and you know
(44:00):
it's a way to get in eight ornine hours of exercise where I'm
not exposed to the water andthe sun the whole time and it's
it's an extreme of a set, butyou know it's like a hike and
swim.
Those are, those are myfavorite sets.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Yeah, do you carry your your running shoes in your
in your floaty bag?
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Yeah, I do, yeah, and I've got some really light
shoes.
That works out really great.
So they fit in the bag and youknow a cover up and you know a
little nutrition bar and andwe're good, and my phone and
we're good to go.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
Yeah, fantastic.
And how about the swimmer youmost admire?
Speaker 2 (44:41):
I'm sisters.
I had a mother with a reallystrong personality.
I was the only boy in thefamily with me and my father, so
I I love being involved in openwater swimming, where the women
are amazing.
I mean, they're the leadersthere, they're, they're doing
(45:04):
unbelievable things and it in away, it's my own tribute to my
mom and my sisters and my wifeand and that I was raised in an
environment where, even in the60s and the 70s, my sisters
played baseball.
You know they did the thingsthat they want to do and my mom
(45:25):
said, do what you want to do,you know, and that was early for
that.
So I think Len Cox is the femaleswimmer that I really admire
the most.
I mean talking about doingthings nobody else has ever done
that.
Aleutian Islands swim betweenthe Aleutian Islands and Russia.
You know, when she did that wasjust that redefines
(45:50):
unbelievable, you know, and shebelieved it could be done is
just absolutely.
I just have a ton of regard.
It gives me chills justthinking about, not because it's
cold, but it's such a greatevent, just a great achievement.
That is absolutely amazing.
I corresponded a little bitwith her when I was getting
ready for some things and justamazing perspective and amazing
(46:14):
accomplishment and amazingattitude.
I really admire her.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
Thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast
, jeff.
I think you've really lit up awhole other area of the world
that I'm sure a lot of peoplehaven't heard about, and it's
great to hear that swimming andopen water swimming is thriving
there and you're obviously a bigproponent of it.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
Thank you very much.
Thank you for letting me playwith your deep dive.
Bye, I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
You're welcome.
Thank you, bye.
I hope you enjoyed my chat withJeff.
Maybe that has opened up youreyes to swimming in a new part
of the world that you may nothave considered before.
Till next time, happy swimmingand bye for now.
Hello Swimmers and welcome to another episode of
Torpedo Swim Talk podcast.
I'm your host, danielleSpearling, and each week we chat
to a master swimmer from aroundthe world about their swimming
journey.
On today's podcast, we'rechatting to open water swimmer
Jeff Miller, who lives and swimsin the stunning Caribbean
(00:25):
waters around the island of StJohn in the US Virgin Islands.
Jeff has conquered some of theopen water swims no one else has
ever swum, as well as paintinga vivid picture for us of the
beautiful environments he swimsin, and I loved hearing about
the innovative training swimshe's designed for himself.
Let's hear from Jeff now.
(00:46):
Hi, jeff, welcome to thepodcast.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Thank you very much, Danielle.
It's very nice to meet you.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, lovely to meet you too.
Now you live and work in a verybeautiful part of the world, in
the US Virgin Islands.
How does a guy from Ohio end upliving in St John?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, it's quite a journey.
It took me a while to get here.
I went to university inMelbourne, florida, and learned,
got my degrees in marinebiology and biological
oceanography and you can't studythat real well in Ohio, so I
kept moving south, ended up inthe Cayman Islands for four
(01:27):
years doing work as a diveinstructor and a dive master,
and I did volunteer work withthe natural resources department
there it's called the mosquitoresearch and control unit, and
that got me into the Caribbeanand from there I went to the
Virgin Islands and spent acouple steps to get to here, but
it's been a great journey.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
It sounds amazing.
What's the population of theisland that you live on, St John
?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
St John and it's about 4,000 people at the last
census.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Right, and what about across the whole of the US
Virgin Islands?
How many islands are there inthe cluster?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Three main islands St Thomas, st John and St Croix.
My wife and I lived on St Croixfor about nine years.
It and St Thomas have about50,000 people on it.
They're much bigger islands andSt John has got about 4,000
people.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Oh, wow.
And how do you get between theislands these days?
Just with a boat or?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, I mean, there's car barges that take you back
and forth between St John and StThomas.
There is boats that go back andforth between St Thomas and St
Croix.
It's about 40 miles.
So sea planes and other smallcommuter planes work really well
too.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Amazing.
So now all of your swimming isdone in the open water, but back
in your youth you were a highschool and college swimmer in
the US.
How did you find transitioningbetween pool swimming and open
water swimming?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, it was sublime.
I mean I started off like manyyear listeners.
You know, my parents took me toan area club when I was six
years old and I went for atryout and communication wasn't
so well back in the 60s and Ididn't get the message.
I was supposed to go to a swimschool.
So I kept going back to thesame practice and I hung around
(03:26):
with that club for 12 years andspent two years at university.
But because I didn't go to swimschool I developed some pretty
bad habits and it's taken me along time to unlearn those
habits I developed as a kid butabout 1991, I guess it was, I
left the black line behind andwith getting into diving and
(03:48):
teaching diving and studyingmarine biology, I really feel
like I'm more comfortable in thewater than I am on land and
it's just amazing going out intothe open water every day or
having the ability to do so.
I love it.
I've occasionally gone back toa pool.
It comes back to me.
(04:08):
You know I can remember how toswim circles and do flip turns.
But you know, and it's so wild.
I remember as a young age groupswimmer.
You know those distance people.
They were, you know you didn't.
They ate different things andthey were just a different bunch
of people, right?
And now it's like well, let'sgo out and swim a mile and a
(04:30):
half or two miles, you know, andthat's your set.
It's a completely differentmindset, and so much of it is,
to what I get to look at andwhat I get to see.
You know, it's an amazingenvironment, swimming in clear,
warm tropical waters.
I mean, that's what it's allabout for me.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, and obviously your work as a marine biologist
puts you in great stead to knowwhat you're looking at as well.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah, yeah, you know it.
As I progressed through mymarine science education and
career and got more back intoopen water swimming, connecting
those two, you know, seeing thehabitats that I studied and
mapped and learned to monitor,and now I would be swimming
(05:18):
across those different habitats,like many pieces just really
begin to fell in the place from,like the spatial nature of
things, and it's spectacular,it's such a treat.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So give us, give us a few of your marine encounters
like what's the, what's thescariest thing that you've come
across out there?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Most of the encounters with marine life, you
know, or if they're on thenegative side, they're all
defensive actions of the animalor the organism.
You know you have to bump intoa jellyfish to get stung.
They don't chase you, right Imean?
So that's a defensive action ontheir part.
And you know the sharks, rightI mean, yeah, I've seen my fair
(06:02):
number of sharks and most ofthem are just fine to be
swimming in the same ocean as Iam.
We go our separate ways,everything's good.
The ones that do make me alittle nervous, of course, are
the ones that they're on thebottom and I'm on the surface
and then they come straight upand you're like, okay, this
one's, I've got its attention,you know, and we're we're
(06:24):
looking at each other and that'san okay encounter.
And then you know, it swimsaround a little bit and then it
swims off.
And that's when it gets alittle weird, because now you
don't see it anymore, but itcertainly knows you there, you
know.
But it's not a problem, youknow, the scariest thing is
really the conditions is gettingin currents or getting in waves
(06:47):
or being out in a thunderstormcomes up or something.
It's.
Rarely have I felt threatenedby any kind of marine life.
Now, barracuda, they, they canbe a little little on the
aggressive side and they,they're kind of interesting
(07:07):
because you never see them andthen all of a sudden they're
there and then you're like, oh,there's a barracuda and you keep
swimming and then it's gone,you know, and then it's there
again and you just kind of haveto.
You know, in my experience withit is is, you know, again, I'm
bigger than they are.
You don't usually pick onthings bigger than your size, so
(07:29):
, reasonably, why would it dothat?
You know, these animals, theyall survive by stealth, right,
they sneak up on their prey.
I mean I, I give talks andmarine biology and stuff and I'm
like, you know, try and grab afish with your hand.
You know you can't do it.
They're exceptionally fast inthe water.
I mean they're really fast.
(07:51):
So these animals grab otherfish with their mouths.
You know that's the way theyeat.
If they're gonna, if they'regonna eat you, you know you're
gonna feel a bump and you'll go.
You know what was that?
Because they can't announcethemselves and say, hey, you
know, I'm a predator, I'm here,you know, and then, because that
(08:13):
would make you know theywouldn't be able to eat their
prey.
That way their prey would thengo away, right.
So they attack by surprise andby stealth.
So if you've seen it, it'salready decided that it's just
gonna visit you.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
But that's reassuring .
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Right, that's what I think about.
And now your waters arecompletely different.
You got those blue bells andthose white pointers and you
know, I'm not sure I'd have thesame kind of kind of attitude
there, but I would try my best.
I really I really try and be inharmony with the animals that
I'm swimming in and just to tryto smell the spec.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, that's really interesting.
Do you do most of your swimmingby yourself in the open water?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I do, I do.
I always use a float bag.
I've got a great partnershipwith the new wave swim bag
people and once I found thatproduct I was like this is a
game changer, because I put myphone in it and my wife can then
track my phone.
Because we actually get bettercell reception offshore than we
(09:16):
do on the land, because theisland is so hilly and so
mountainous and most of my swimsare near shore.
You know, I'm within 50 metersof shore, so it's not that big
of a deal.
I may, you know, go acrosscertain passages, but I
generally swim early in themorning.
The winds are always better,it's always calmer, there's
always less people, always lessboaters, less boat traffic.
(09:38):
So I'll go up to maybe eightmiles, you know, by myself,
anything longer than that.
Or if I'm away from shore, thenmy wife will come with me in a
kayak or I'll get a support crewto come out with me.
She's a tremendous support.
I mean, you know I learned as ayoung kid my sisters would
drive me to those those earlyfive o'clock, five thirty AM
(10:01):
swim practices, right, because Ididn't have a driver's license.
So already my family waspitching in and I was like gosh,
you know you can't do this byyourself and even now you know
the open water swimming.
It takes a tremendous supportcrew behind yourself, and my
wife and my friends have beentremendous supporters all along
and I can't do it without them.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, oh yeah, it always it takes a village,
doesn't it?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
It does, it does and it's.
It can be great fun for them,but it's also kind of taxing on
them too, you know.
So you're asking them to dosomething that's that's not
necessarily easy.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, well, that leads me into my next question,
because you, you, you mentionedin some emails that we've had
between each other that youcompleted the 25 kilometer St
Francis Drake Channel.
So that's quite a swim, andobviously you would have had a
support crew and I hope you knowyour wife was probably on the
boat.
It's a long time for them to towatch you swimming.
Tell us about that swim and Iknow you were the first person
(10:58):
to actually swim it what broughtthat about?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, the Sir Francis Drake Channel is the, the
channel that separates theislands of the British Virgin
Islands.
There's the main island ofTortola and then the outer
islands, there's Norman, Peter,Saul, Cooper, Jinder Islands
that are separated by thischannel, and then the.
The far end of the channel isVirgin Gorda and at our end of
(11:23):
the channel, the US end of thechannel, is St John, and I would
do a lot of my work at a sitethat looked straight up that
channel.
You know, we could see straightup there and there was Virgin
Gorda in the distance and it'sjust like, oh man, that would be
interesting.
You know, 15 and a half miles,it's what that's, that's 35 or
(11:45):
so kilometers, I guess, and and37 and and that would be an
interesting swim.
So it just kind of is a seathat's planted it.
It just kept going around in mymind and finally was like all
right, let's, let's take thisseriously.
I'm not getting any younger.
It's time to either decidewe're going to do this and
(12:09):
seriously, you know, try andfigure it out or or, or or not.
And when you're doing somethingnobody's ever done before,
there's nobody really tell youhow to do it right.
So what are the currents.
No, you know, you know, andit's amazing.
I found a website that had acurrent model that covered that
area is out of the University ofPuerto Rico and the current
(12:32):
goes against the wind.
The wind is primarily in mydirection, from Virgin Gorda to
St John, east to west, southeastwind, but the current often
goes against the wind and it isextremely variable based on the
moon and the stars and the tides.
So this website was reallyreally important to help
understand how I would plan thisone.
(12:53):
It only updated 24 to 36 hoursin advance, so I was like that's
going to make it kind ofdifficult.
When I got my weather window,how do I know if tomorrow well,
if Thursday or Friday orwhenever you know days away is
the day, how do I know what thecurrents are going to be?
I don't know.
(13:13):
So I'd have to know only a dayin advance and then figure it
out.
So what I did was like a monthbefore every day, I would look
at this website and I'd say,okay, if the swim was tomorrow,
how would I do it?
I had pages for each day andI'd map out how I would handle
(13:33):
the currents that were forecastfor the next day.
Then the following day, I'd say, okay if the day after tomorrow
I'm doing it, how would I do it?
I kept doing this for over amonth so that I could gain the
confidence, saying, when myweather window happened, I would
be able to look at the websiteand say, okay, here's the way
we're going to do it, here's myeight to 10 hour expected time
(13:56):
to take it, here's when we wouldleave, here's the path we would
go and here's how we'd make thesuccess.
And it worked.
I had a great crew.
I had my observer was the sameguy who observed the around St
John's swim.
My wife and another friend ofours who was on that swim were
my main team supporters.
Then we invested in two peoplefrom Team River Runner, which is
(14:21):
a wounded veterans group in thestates that helps promote the
recovery of veterans who've beenwounded in conflict.
One of their big premises isthey want to get butts in boats.
They want their veterans tostart kayaking and whitewater
rafting and being active.
(14:42):
I raised money for them with theswim around St John and I was
like, okay, I want to do thisagain, but I want to also get
their butts in my boat.
Let them help support me.
I need kayakers because my wifecame up with the support plan,
which was we have a power boatand then we have a double kayak.
The power boat is around themain support vessel and then the
(15:05):
double kayak is with theswimmer.
They have my feeds and the GPSand all the tracking equipment
and some safety equipment.
Then I would feed every 30minutes and that all came by the
kayak.
If the kayak need to switch out, they would go to the power
boat.
The power boat will come bythem and that's another double
(15:26):
kayak would come in with anotherteam.
There was always a double kayakwith me and somebody then could
rest on the main boat.
It works really great.
We got to involve the teamRiver Runner folks with that.
It was so immensely satisfyingto have those amazing people be
(15:47):
part of my team.
We were able to raise money forthem and actually involve them
in the swim, which they werethrilled to be a part of and had
a great time.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah, that's really excellent.
I love the fact that you gotthem involved and hopefully
they'll be along on some of yourfuture swims as well.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
That would be great.
Yeah, that would be great.
It's a tremendous group.
They come here every summer totake part in an event that we
have on the island.
Back when I started doing thesein 2016, they were one of the
motivations behind it.
I mean, there's an event calledthe Beach to Beach Power Swim
(16:30):
that they helped design thecourse for.
It's gone on for 25 years andthese veterans would come down
and they would participate inthis event.
It's either a one mile, two anda quarter or three and a half
mile open ocean swim.
It's a spectacular venue.
350 people can take place in it.
(16:51):
I watched it in 2014, and one ofthe veterans had no, he was an
amputee from above his knees andhe swam the three and a half
miles.
I was like this is absolutelyincredible.
If I can raise some money bydoing some swims to bring more
(17:11):
of these people down and letthem participate in this
activity, it would be great.
It just would be so much fun.
That's what got me partneringup with Team River Runner and
it's been a great partnership.
Ever since I got to mention,cancer has unfortunately been in
my life, in my wife's lives.
(17:32):
I also raised money for the StJohn Cancer Fund, which is a
great organization here on theisland, I get to do these crazy
events.
It gets the community behind usand we raise money for really
good causes and it just feels sogood.
It's just a win, win, win, win,win all around.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Is there much of a swim community in St John and on
the US Virgin Islands?
You mentioned, obviously, theswim where you get 350
participants.
Are there other people outthere in the open water, maybe
not swimming with you, but partof the open water community?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah, it's not a large community.
It picks up when that racecomes around.
St Thomas there is a I thinkit's a 25-meter pool there.
In St Croix there's a couple 25and maybe a 50-meter pool.
They have very active swimclubs there.
The Virgin Islands has setseveral people to the Olympics
(18:30):
partake in those.
There's some great open waterevents.
There's a coral reef swim thattakes place over in St Croix.
It's a five-mile swim betweenan island called Buck Island and
the Buccaneer Hotel, which is ablast.
I've done that one a number oftimes.
There's really serious bassswimmers that come to that, so
(18:51):
that's a blast.
So yeah, there's drips anddrabs of open water swimming
that takes place here in St John.
It's picking up.
There's more and more.
I see more and more swim buoysaround, which is great fun that
more people are getting involvedin.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And has that swim that you did in the channel
being ratified now?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
It's not.
It's still pending.
So fingers across.
I believe we did everythingnecessary, so I'm fairly
confident it will be.
The crew is great.
We read all the rules ahead oftime and abide by an unassisted
swim and it certainly was notcurrent aided.
We spent a lot of time goingagainst the current, although I
(19:35):
never thought I had a negativesplit of 15 and a half miles
swim, the last half andcertainly the last three miles
were my fastest miles of theswim and it certainly wasn't
because of technique I hadfallen apart.
So it was definitely with alittle bit of a push from the
wooden ways going our direction.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, it's very interesting the way those
currents can assist and andhinder as well.
So I'm sure at the beginning ofyour swim it was against you.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
So it was.
It was yeah, and you know itwas fun, you don't.
You don't necessarily know that.
We knew there'd be.
We hope we were skirted to theside of it enough, you know, and
and we got out a little bit toomuch into the channel and and
and got the direct head oncurrents.
But you know, you just keep onswimming and keep on moving and
(20:26):
it's kind of interesting whenyou.
I swim in very shallow waterand it's clear water, so you
know I can see the bottom, andthere I couldn't.
So you kind of feel like you'reon a treadmill and you don't
know if you're really moving.
There's, there's no references,and I know this is stuff you
guys deal with all the time,right, Because you don't
necessarily get to see a lot ofstuff in the water.
But yeah, I mean I'm spoiled, Imean what can I say?
(20:49):
I mean I get to swim in clear,warm tropical waters.
I mean why not?
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yeah, very nice.
You know it's been a week downat the beach after Christmas and
I just we we swim every day butit was pretty murky down there.
It just really depends on thetides.
There's a lot of seaweed aroundthis year but other times,
where I swim can be completelyclear and you can see the bottom
.
But it just really depends, Isuppose.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Yeah, you know, I, I I had to do some night swimming
and it dawned on me then toothat you know it's a big deal
for me because I can't see.
But this is what people dealwith all the time when they
can't see in the daytime, right,I mean dark night, when it's
two feet of visibility, a footof visibility, they.
(21:37):
It doesn't matter whether it'sday or night.
Well, in me it does.
I mean I can see.
You know 50, 60, 80 feet downand and you know 30, 40 meters,
you know on this village is good, I can see that far and that's
that's why I swim is because Iwant to look and see what's
there.
You know I got prescriptiongoggles and and it, you know
(21:59):
it's.
That's what it's about.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
And one of your other big spills was you
circumnavigated the island of StJohn, where you live.
How far is that around?
Speaker 2 (22:08):
It was given 22.9 miles, it wouldn't give me the
extra tenth of a mile.
So if that turns out to be 37kilometers, there we go.
So it's about 37 K around.
Yeah, that was great.
That was in 2016.
And then that that was anotherbig one in that nobody had done
it.
Lots of people said I couldn'tdo it, like, oh, nobody's ever
(22:30):
kayaked around the island muchless swim around in it.
So it's like okay, so we justbroke it up into chunks.
You know, in the training Icould do all the segments and we
could play with what thecurrents were gonna be right.
So I do this four mile sectionand I do it when the tide is
(22:50):
rising and then I go back and Ido it another time when the tide
is falling.
And what's the difference?
In my time, you know, over afour mile section, it's not
gonna be a 22nd different, it'sgonna be 10 or 15 minutes if I'm
going against the tide or withthe tide.
So I developed a current modelthat you know, when the tides
(23:10):
were certain places, were incertain ways in certain places,
then it would be in a certaindirection, and just tried to
piece that together and thentried to work with my speed so
that I would be able to workwith that kind of movement.
(23:31):
Right, if you take an islandthat's maybe nine or 10, 11
miles, 12 miles long, and thewater's gonna move back and
forth and you've gotta kind ofbe here when it's one area and
around this side when it's goingthe other way, so that it's a
neutral current and just sohappens, my speed kind of works
with that.
So it turned out really, reallygood and it was amazing.
(24:00):
You know, we had a same kind of.
This is where my wife kind ofput the crew idea together with
using the two double kayaks inthe power boat.
We went on a training swim onetime and we were, I don't know,
three or four kilometersoffshore, going across this big
bay, and it was.
We had started at night and thesun was up now and it was just
(24:20):
a double kayak and myself, apower boat was supposed to meet
us and they were late and therewas a shark swimming underneath
us and we were like man, thisjust is not good.
We need to think about this alittle more.
So, you know, there's a lot ofdiscovery and that's what the
training's about, you know, isyou figure things out that you
(24:42):
need to do better, and wecertainly did.
So.
That's what I really enjoy thetraining part, the learning part
, the daily part.
You know the how am I gonna setup my weeks?
How am I gonna set up my months?
How am I gonna train in orderto swim 23 miles, 24, 25?
(25:03):
You know, I don't know if I canstay where the currents want me
to be.
You know, maybe I'll have toswim longer.
How long will it take?
11 hours to 16, 17, 18, I don'tknow.
You know the longest mytraining swim was 14 miles.
So I was like, okay, that's twothirds of it.
(25:24):
You know what's gonna happen inthe last third.
So for me the months that leadup to it is really.
It's anxious.
You know it's nerve-wracking,but it's fun and you know
everybody thinks wow, they'rereally long swims.
You know that took me almost 12and a half hours.
It was 12 hours, 19, but it'sover and a half a day.
(25:45):
You know you've been thinkingabout this thing for over a year
.
You know you've been trainingfor it for months and it's over
and a half a day.
You know it's like boom, it'sdone.
You know, and it's kind ofinteresting that way.
You know that they actuallyfinish up pretty quick when you
(26:06):
think about all you've done toget ready for it.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Well, I mean it's a huge senseof achievement to do those two
swims.
I mean, how much training doyou put in each week for
something like that?
Are you an everyday swimmer?
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah, you know, when I was focused on those events.
It does become an everydaything, you know, with the
swimmer out saying, john, 23miles or so.
That was a serious task.
I mean, yeah, I was youngerthen, but it, you know, we did
some strength training first,you know, to kind of build up
strength.
My wife is a really greatpersonal trainer.
(26:44):
She's got a number of clientshere on the island so she gets
to help me with that.
And you know there's a gym onthe island now, but there really
wasn't then.
So we have a home gym here thatwe can do that with.
And then, yeah, you swim everyday.
I was still diving a lot then,so for me it was like I want to
(27:08):
maintain a feel of the water.
Right, it's not always faster,it's stronger, but it's almost
mentally stronger than it isphysically stronger.
And your body gets to a point,I think, where you are
physically strong enough and nowit's time for your mind to be
physically strong or mentallystrong enough to drive the train
(27:30):
.
And to me that's what the swimsare about.
Okay, it's six o'clock, I gotto get in an hour and a half
swim before I go to work.
I got to get out and do it, youknow, and that's it's not
necessarily the strength I'mgoing to gain by doing that hour
and a half.
It's the mental strength ofsaying I've committed to this,
(27:51):
so I'm going to see thatcommitment through.
And I looked up some numbers.
I was doing like 30 to 40 miles, like it's like 50 to 65
kilometers, in the months aheadof time.
A couple of months before Ibumped it up to 40 to 16 miles,
so like 65 or 95 kilometers in acouple of months before the
round, st John, and then the bigone the month before.
(28:14):
It was about 80 miles, so 130kilometers in the month before.
So it was I just, you know,just keep swimming, just, and
I'm fortunate you know I'm notlike people who are racing it
that I have to be concerned fora time I just wanted to keep
going, you know, and it was allabout just keeping that diesel
(28:38):
engine kind of running in thatpace and it worked really well.
I would do a couple of trainingswims where it would be a seven
or eight or there'd be longerones, and I'd be coming in and
you'd be feeling tired and doneand you're like you know what,
let's go down the beach and backand then finish Because I just
(29:01):
want to go a little bit more.
You know you're ready to stop.
Your mind's been focusing on adescent now for the past hour,
but there's going to come apoint when you're out there
where you're going to want toquit and you're going to say I'm
done and you're going to haveto tell your mind no, you're not
done, you need to do, you needto get through this.
So I would tack on anotherextra half a mile at the end,
(29:24):
you know, just to say OK, keepgoing.
You know you thought you weredone, not quite.
Yet here you go.
And you know I don't have acoach.
These are all little games Iget to play with myself.
So it worked out.
You know it worked.
You know that training put mein a really good mindset to make
it all happen.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Do you listen to the podcast on Apple or Spotify?
If you do, we'd love you towrite a review for us.
It helps other swimmers findthe podcast and we're all about
spreading the word about thefantastic swimming journeys of
the people we interview.
Yeah, I can see how that wouldabsolutely increase your sort of
(30:10):
mental fortitude, because whenyou head into a swim that long,
you would come across parts init where you feel a bit down on
yourself.
You want to throw in the towel,go home, have a, put your feet
up, have a coffee, whatever.
So, building that up in yourtraining, you get the time to
practice that before you go intothe swim.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
I really, I see the training it's like rehearsals.
You know they were rehearsalsfor the swimming and I didn't
want to to experience somethingI would.
I'd never experienced thatlength of swimming.
I mean I would.
I would do like an eight mileswim and then I'd followed up
the next day with a 10 mile swim.
(30:51):
You know, still not as far as Iwas going to go, but I just
kept shortening the intervals inbetween.
But I knew there'd be a timewhen you're like man, I am
really tired.
You know that's what happenswhen you do this.
How are you going to deal withthat?
And it's going to be your mindas long as everything else
checks out right.
I mean, you do the self-check.
You know my head's fine, myshoulders are fine, my neck, my
(31:14):
back, you know everything's good, it's up here.
It's like you got to keep themind.
You know, driving the bus andand I was really, I was really
happy I did that.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yeah, Now something I find really intriguing.
You sent me a little video ofsome swim hiking that you did
and where you put some drinksalong the way.
Can you, can you tell everyoneabout that, Because I think
that's so innovative?
I haven't ever seen that before.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Two thirds of St John is a national park, right?
So there's no development inthe national park there's
there's no houses in it, youknow.
So there's no roads in a lot ofthe places and you can get to
some really beautiful areas toswim by hiking trails.
So again, with these, theseswim bags, it was like, all
(32:00):
right, I can put some food inthe bag and then I can take
bottles, you know, of what Iwant to drink, and I can hike in
and swim.
You know a route.
And because the marine sectionof St John, there's 5000 acres
the water are Marine Park aswell, so there's buoys that that
(32:22):
designate swim zones and so,instead of dragging my nutrition
, I can take two or three youknow bottles of of my drink with
me and I'll, I'll shake it upand I'll put, I'll freeze it and
then I put it in these bottles.
And then I clipped the bottlesto a buoy line that I know I'm
going to be swimming back by.
So now I don't have to have itclipped onto my float bag and
(32:44):
drag that through the water too.
I can just swim back by thebuoy that I have my bottle tied
onto and and there's mynutrition break and important
there is.
I leave a little bit of air inthe top of the bottle because
that way it still floats on theline.
It's submerged but it stillfloats and that way, no, no
(33:06):
water has leaked into it,because it somehow salt water
has leaked into it and now thebottle is all the way full.
I know that's probably not one Iwant to drink, you know,
because it's the bottles leakedand it's gotten me.
Not that that happened before,but yes, it did.
And I learned that you leave alittle air in the top there.
So now you know that it isn't.
It didn't leak, so it's great,you know it opens up.
(33:28):
It opens up the island to justamazing swims, you know, and my
wife has been completelysupportive of these activities.
But, man, I can route everyweekend, you know if I can do
these on my own and she cantrack me on the phone.
And you know it's, I've got abuoy bag, I go early, I'm most
(33:51):
of the time I'm near shore andif I'm not near shore, I go
early enough that there's not alot of boat traffic.
It's great, you know it's, it'sa ton of fun.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Yeah, it sounds really good.
I'm just intrigued by thatwhole innovation.
I think that's great.
It's fantastic yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
I love the hike and swims.
You know they're.
They're great fun yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Have you?
Have you got any upcoming swimson the horizon that you're
excited about?
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Yeah, nothing, nothing real big and grand.
There's a swim from Nevis to StKitts, two islands a little
further south down the Koreanchain, I think.
It's a two, two and a half mileswim, and at the end of April.
That we've never done and thatcould be a fun one.
There's a couple hundred peoplethat do that, so we might try
(34:39):
and look into seeing get down tothat.
We've got our power swim.
That comes up in in May, theend of May each year, so we'll
take a look at that.
My wife and I have been doing alot of biking too, so we'll
we'll probably do some biketrips, but I'm going to keep
swimming.
I mean, finding your podcastand getting in touch with you
has kind of put a spark in mehere as well.
(35:00):
So it's.
It's been a lot of fun gettingback out there while doing that.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
And look, just before I let you go, I wanted to ask
you what's your mostunforgettable experience that
you've ever had in the water?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
There's a couple of them that come to mind the swim
around St John and the DrakeChannel swim to, to commit to
those to, to do something thatnobody's done.
You know, it's kind of fun andthat's exciting.
And, and, geez, I did a swimbetween Cayman Brack and Little
(35:32):
Cayman in 19, 19, 19, 19, 18, 87.
And that was another one nobodyhad done before and it's that
was way back, you know, beforeGPS is on the internet and cell
phone and and didn't know muchof anything about open water
swimming.
But it's taking that leap offaith that you know, you think,
(35:53):
you think it's going to work outand yeah, there are things that
are scary, but go for it anyway.
You know, and and give that atry.
I have been fortunate enough tosnorkel with humpback whales,
which is just an extraordinaryexperience to be in the water
(36:16):
with something that magnificentand it's actually on a dive,
very briefly, for just like aminute and a half with a
humpback whale.
And I vividly remember thehumpback was here.
You know this big pectoral finand I was next to it and I could
see its eye move and like lookat me and I was like, oh my God,
(36:40):
the whale just looked at me andthen it swam up to the surface
to breathe, which is bizarrebecause I'm the one that has to
breathe on the surface and I wasunderwater in the whale and I'm
now again distinctly remembergoing.
I'm looking at the underside ofa whale which is the view not
(37:00):
many people get to see, and Iwas like you want to remember
this, because this doesn'thappen very often.
So those are charismatic.
Megafauna is a great experience.
Those are a couple that come tomind.
Yeah, there is also.
I sent you a little video of thelittle jack that swims with us,
(37:24):
you know, and that's that'sanother unbelievable experience.
I swam 10 miles from from halfof the island it was.
It was like a stepping stone tothe round island.
Thing was this little jack waswith me under my chest nearly
the entire way, just swimminglike a banshee, and it was
(37:48):
amazing, it?
You know?
I could look down and like, oh,I don't see it, and I would
like forget everything and keepswimming, and then like 20
minutes later, well, oh, thereit is, and it's not a different
one, it really is the same one,and I felt so bad that I had
taken it from one side of theisland to the other.
I'm like his parents are goingto wonder where it is.
(38:10):
You know, and you know someonewith these tarpon that are just
magnificent.
You know they're, they're,they're the green sea turtles.
You know that are dailyexperiences, you know, it's just
, it's, it's like.
You know, walk to the sidewalk,you walk your favorite route,
(38:32):
you walk your favorite trail,you know your favorite flower
and your favorite tree.
That's what I get to do here inthe water is I can swim my
favorite course and see coralsthat I've known for decades.
You know that I've watched growand, sadly, in some cases I've
watched die, and these areanimals that are hundreds of
(38:54):
years old.
I mean, they're they.
They started growing whenColumbus sailed by, you know,
and I get to see them on a dailybasis.
I get to get to know them andsometimes sadly watch them die
and that's amazing.
I mean, I don't take that forgranted.
Those are the kind ofoccurrences that keep me going
(39:14):
in the water.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Well, I think you've painted a wonderful picture of
the US Virgin Islands, so Iwouldn't be surprised if you get
some visitors coming along tocheck out the swimming.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Thank you very much.
Yeah, it is.
It's a big part of why I'm hereand we enjoyed a lot.
Thank you very much, yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
So before I let you go, I always ask all my guests
their deep dive five, which is abit of a snapshot of your
swimming.
So give us your differentanswers.
I suppose because you're in adifferent location, but what is
the favorite pool that you'veever swum in before?
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Favorite pool, talked to my wife about this a lot.
We went to Australia and mywife did the Australian Ironman
there and we had friends inSydney and they took us to a
five pools swim run and thisthis was so amazing.
You swim two laps down and backin this ocean pool and then you
(40:14):
run to the other side of thebay and there's another pool and
you jump in.
You swim two laps in the pooland you run another bay and
there's another pool and youswim.
So you swim.
He just dived in with his, his,his trainers on and you swim
with his shoes and those are myfavorite pools.
They're absolutely amazing,they're ingenious and they don't
(40:37):
have them here.
So your Australian pools arejust.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
It was very yes, the ocean pools of New South Wales
are beautiful.
They really are.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
I heard about your book you got for Christmas, so
I'm going to look into that.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Yeah, well, it's got every, every pool listed there,
so definitely the one.
The one that you're talkingabout is the Coastal Walk, I
think.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
I don't, it was a lot of years ago, but it was just.
It was Easter Sunday and we'rerunning in soggy tennis shoes
and our slug goes down thestreet, run into this next pool,
just lapping so hard it was.
It was tremendous.
So we did one here like that,where we started a beach.
You would swim out to a buoyand back and then you'd run to
(41:17):
the next bay.
You would swim out to a buoyand back and you'd run to the
next bay.
So we brought a little of thathere and and just couldn't do it
in pools.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Yeah, but you're doing it in another beautiful
environment, so that's great andyour favorite open water
swimming locations.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Well, I do have to say here yeah, and we've
discussed my thermal intolerance, so I'm kind of sucking.
The tropics there could be somecool tropical adventures.
There's some fun open waterswimming is in Fiji that, if we
can swing the cost, we may lookinto, but definitely I think the
Virgin Islands is a top of theheap.
(41:53):
The Caribbean is good swimming.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
And what about your favorite freestyle training
drill?
Speaker 2 (41:58):
The training drills.
I've got two.
One of them is sculling,because I do sculling when I
like to sneak up on fish.
So like those tarpon thatthey're like in the morning,
they're like right at thesurface, I know they're there
and I'm like, ok, I'm going toslow down here from the tarpon,
so I'll work on my scullingdrill and that allows me to kind
(42:19):
of slowly sneak up on thetarpon and get to see him better
that way.
So that's kind of fun.
And then the other one I'll dois a straight line drill between
buoys where I'll just try and,you know, really focus on stroke
and technique and say, ok, canI literally swim straight into
that next buoy?
You know, the waves are goingthis way, the currents doing
(42:40):
this, the swell is OK, so I'mgoing to kind of adjust for all
of that.
Can I swim a straight line?
And those are the two.
We make it work.
It's kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
I like that.
I love the sound of that.
You're really inventing thingsfor your environment, which I
think is perfect.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Yeah, and they're really functional.
You know the straight line, youknow you're swimming a couple
of miles and you deviate by 100meters, 200 meters.
A minute and a half, threeminutes, you know, adds to your
time.
Swimming straight is really key.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Absolutely.
And what about your favoritelittle open water training set?
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Yeah, the open water training set is.
Maybe we'll be able to post somevideos, but I think the one is
that beach to beach power swim,like it's a, do that three and a
half miles and then I walkthree and a half miles back to
the car and it's a hilly walk.
You'll get about 800 feet ofclimbing on that.
And then I get in and I do thetwo and a quarter mile swim and
then walk back to the car andthen I do the one mile swim and
(43:39):
then walk back.
So it's like doing the beach tobeach twice.
So it's seven miles or so, butyou also get the fitness and the
keeping up your heart rate ofwalking at the same time.
And then when I was doing thedirect channel training, I
needed to swim a little longer.
So I put another two miles swimat the end of that and you know
(44:00):
it's a way to get in eight ornine hours of exercise where I'm
not exposed to the water andthe sun the whole time and it's
it's an extreme of a set, butyou know it's like a hike and
swim.
Those are, those are myfavorite sets.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Yeah, do you carry your your running shoes in your
in your floaty bag?
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Yeah, I do, yeah, and I've got some really light
shoes.
That works out really great.
So they fit in the bag and youknow a cover up and you know a
little nutrition bar and andwe're good, and my phone and
we're good to go.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
Yeah, fantastic.
And how about the swimmer youmost admire?
Speaker 2 (44:41):
I'm sisters.
I had a mother with a reallystrong personality.
I was the only boy in thefamily with me and my father, so
I I love being involved in openwater swimming, where the women
are amazing.
I mean, they're the leadersthere, they're, they're doing
(45:04):
unbelievable things and it in away, it's my own tribute to my
mom and my sisters and my wifeand and that I was raised in an
environment where, even in the60s and the 70s, my sisters
played baseball.
You know they did the thingsthat they want to do and my mom
(45:25):
said, do what you want to do,you know, and that was early for
that.
So I think Len Cox is the femaleswimmer that I really admire
the most.
I mean talking about doingthings nobody else has ever done
that.
Aleutian Islands swim betweenthe Aleutian Islands and Russia.
You know, when she did that wasjust that redefines
(45:50):
unbelievable, you know, and shebelieved it could be done is
just absolutely.
I just have a ton of regard.
It gives me chills justthinking about, not because it's
cold, but it's such a greatevent, just a great achievement.
That is absolutely amazing.
I corresponded a little bitwith her when I was getting
ready for some things and justamazing perspective and amazing
(46:14):
accomplishment and amazingattitude.
I really admire her.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
Thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast
, jeff.
I think you've really lit up awhole other area of the world
that I'm sure a lot of peoplehaven't heard about, and it's
great to hear that swimming andopen water swimming is thriving
there and you're obviously a bigproponent of it.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
Thank you very much.
Thank you for letting me playwith your deep dive.
Bye, I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
You're welcome.
Thank you, bye.
I hope you enjoyed my chat withJeff.
Maybe that has opened up youreyes to swimming in a new part
of the world that you may nothave considered before.
Till next time, happy swimmingand bye for now.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.