Dan Feist: Ocean Swim Event Director previews the series

Time to get your togs on. 

The Ocean Swim series gets underway this weekend, with the first event taking place in Nelson later today.  

Dan Feist is the event director, and he caught up with D'Arcy to preview this afternoon’s event and the series as a whole.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldgrave from News Talk SEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
We're talking Ocean Swim series now though it's under way today,
the first event of the series, and that Nelson. Dan
Feiss is the event director. He joined us now to
talk more about the series. Summer is here, Dan, Summer
excitement moving onward an upward. I think the sea's getting
warmer too, isn't it? Mate?

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Mate?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
It is so warm.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
I think we're down here at Nelson right now as
we speak, and it's moved up from thirteen just a
couple of weeks ago to nineteen. It's Auckland super hot.
The whole country is warming up. It's going to be
a great season.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, it should be a great day too to start
things off. What are you looking to achieve in the
opening round of this? I know what the swimmers want
to do. What about from an organizational point of view?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Oh? Look, I always say it's always a great event
when it's sunny, and the seasons really have changed a
lot this past twelve months, and we're getting really good
weather and we're get a lot of swimmers come back
to the ocean. I'm not sure if you remember all
those cyclones and everything we had, it was it really
was hard for the sport. But we are seeing a
good you know, green shoots and all that coming back

(01:18):
with swimmers coming back into the ocean and just really
enjoying it. So we're about that the season bringing everyone back.
We're doing a whole lot of you know, we brought
a whole lot of new ideas to it where we're
giving away free kids events twelve and unders. We just
want to support the sport. We want to see it
grow and that's going to be this entire season.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
How many injured have you got this time around it?
So it's the opening race of the season, so there'll
be more as it gets hot, although by the sounds
that we don't want any hotter it. How many athletes
are competing, Dan.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Well, it's Nelson, it's a fantastic venue to come to.
We're looking at around three to four hundreds for this one,
but it will grow over the season as it gets
warmer and as people you know, come out of the
shadows from winter and we could hit easily Oney twelve
hundred to some of our peak events.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
What's your peak event? What's the biggest one is it
the Alan swim through the White Mataro.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Funny enough, you say that randomly or not randomly. It's
actually the lake events people love coming to. So we're
still trying to educate people and just show them look
at the waters in the ocean, they're perfectly safe when
it comes to big fish. But the most popular swims
are the lakes. And we've introduced a third lake swim
this year at Karapiro. So we're going to have Talpo

(02:32):
wrote a Ruer and Karapiro and we're actually having a
two day festival. We're really going to pump it up.
We've got a DJ all weekend. We've got massive distances
from twenty five kilometers right down to two hundred and
one hundred meters for kids and everything in between. So
we're trying to provide something for everyone. Especially that swimmer.

(02:53):
And you are heard of like John Riddler and all
those just doing extreme swims. There's a lot of people
wanting to do the Cook Straits and we want to
try and give them a training ground for.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
That as well. Twenty five k how many real biting
into that, that's crazy many computer petits doing that, Dan.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
We're looking at about thirty to forty of some crazy,
crazy people coming down to give it a go. But
we've also got a team's events and that's opening it
up to about another hundred people. And the team's event,
you can wear any gear you can get into it.
You know, you come in, there's a feeding station because
we're going to be out there all day. But it's
going to be a whole lot of fun and the
music is going to be pumping. It's going to be awesome.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
As far as the Lakers concerned. Now I get it's
not being afraid of the marine wildlife. It's just crisp.
You're not dealing with salts.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
I can't understand why people gorgeous the swimming right, absolutely
beautiful and you know, crystal clear waters and you know
that's just what New Zealand puts on and we just
love putting swimmers in great water.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
No buoyancy though, right we're now salt. Yeah, it makes
a lott. What are your limitations around what you can
and can't wear depending on you know what you're in it.
You can put a great, big, huge suit on that
can float you along like a big dirty weddy or
what can and can't you do when you're competing here, Dan.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
Right, So we have a non witsuit division and we
have a wetsuit division, and a lot of the wetsuits
will just roughly be around three meals to five meals,
nothing thicker than that. They're all specially designed for swimming,
so it's not a surfing wetsuit or anything like that.
So it was really really really specialized. But you can
choose what division you go in, and of course if
you put a witsuit on, it makes you swim like

(04:29):
ten to fifteen percent and it's just a whole lot
easier for a whole lot of people. Also, it's a
little bit extra added safety.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
And for people listening right now going, I actually need
to have a go at this. This has been on
my bucket list for quite some time. I need to compete.
What's your website? How many events have you got this year?
And as far as booking your head how close for
the event can you enter right Well.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Unless it's sold out, you can book right up to
the day. And we've got seven events across the country.
Check it out. It's Oceanswim, dot co, dot and Z
and we will have a full range of events for
every ability from you know one hundred meters to two
meters for the kids, to five hundred meters for people
who want to give it a go, maybe a kilometer
right up to those five ten k swims, and some

(05:14):
of the events to give those experienced swimmers a bit
more of a challenge.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
For more from the All Sport Breakfast with Darcy Watergrave,
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