E43 - Peter Gibbs - Old Salt, New Adventures.

In this episode we dive into the life of Peter Gibbs—a spirited adventurer from Nelson, New Zealand. Peter's journey from triathlon to the open waters of Abel Tasman National Park showcases his enduring passion for endurance sports. As a seasoned writer, he shares tales of his aquatic escapades and the vibrant community that surrounds them. Join us as we explore Peter's stories of resilience, camaraderie, and the call of the sea.

Transcript

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Welcome to another Clever Dicks podcast and this podcast we're talking to Peter Gibbs.
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Peter Gibbs is a swimmer from Nelson who's been around for a while which isn't really
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strange because he's actually in his 70s now.
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Peter's been writing about swimming and been involved in swimming for ages now.
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He's done his work with triathlons and also organising a number of memorable swim
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adventures slash holidays around the Nelson area.
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We talk about what he puts into swimming but also what he gets out from swimming as well.
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So it was a great chat with a great person.
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I'm thinking, I love this one.
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Well, welcome to another Clever Dicks podcast and this podcast we're talking to Peter Gibbs.
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Welcome, Peter.
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Hey, thank you.
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Yeah, cool.
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So what we normally do just to start off with is just ask people just to give us their
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swim story.
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Yeah, so what got you into swimming?
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What keeps you swimming and then we can start diving down into some of the interesting
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things that you've done and organised.
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All right.
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Well, like so many, I started as a teenager just getting into a swim squad when I was
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13 or something and learning to swim.
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This was in Wangarai at Wangarai Boys High School and then when I was 17, I left school
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and I stopped swimming and that was pretty well the end of the story as far as those
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concerned.
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You were four years ago, Peter, right, when you left school?
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I left school in 1965.
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Cool.
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So then when I was in my early 30s, I started to get a bit fat and so I took up running
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and found I really enjoyed that mainly the competitive business because I got bored
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with running but I really liked the competition.
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And then to my amazement, I saw a TV programme about triathlon and I couldn't believe that
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people were doing, this is an Ironman triathlon, in fact it was niece which is probably a little
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short of a full Ironman but I just couldn't believe it.
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I thought that's bloody amazing that people could do all that and then learn to behold,
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I got talking to a guy called Greg Frain who was an Olympic cyclist and lived here in
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Nelson and we talked around the business and thought well we could do triathlon here.
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So we started up a triathlon club, I got back into swimming, in fact I'd already got
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back into swimming because this is around about story.
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A guy in about 1985, so 40 years ago called Peter Owen who owns a local company had put
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an ad in the paper saying he's interested in sea swimming and who'd like to join him.
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So six of us turned up at Tahuna Beach and Swam and then the skype Peter Owen started
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a regular swim series a year or two later, I'm a bit vague about the details now.
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But yeah so I got into swimming then I met up with Greg Frain who had been Olympic cyclists
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as I said but had just started doing triathlon and we formed with other people a club and
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just basically got into doing triathlons, sea swims in Nelson became a weekly affair over
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the summer and Peter Owen ran them for 20 years and then he asked me to run them which I
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did, I put them under the umbrella of the triathlon club because then we could get insurance
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and stuff and so that's how when I carried on doing triathlons until I was about 70 which
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is seven years ago and now I just swim. And then I'm rambling on a bit. I think I ran
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the swims here in Nelson for five or six years and then kind of stepped back a bit but I've
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continued to write about them for a site you may know sports hub for many years and that was
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about it until I was this, turned out I was a single man at about the age of 72 and I met this
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well you will know the ocean swim series used to be run by Scott Rice. He started a swim in
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Nelson and the big Tahuna so he ran up for three years and on the third of those years I was
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organising the local ground crew setting up tents and all that and I was walking along the beach
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chatting up people and saying how you're doing it you have them good time can we help and so on
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and so on and so on and I ran into this woman and six months later I started traveling up to
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Auckland to visit her and while I was up there a member of the Coe Kippers and you will know about
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them said to me as anybody ever organised the swim the length of Abel Tasman National Park
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and I said well they have as a matter of fact but it was only a very small crew four or five years
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ago but it should be possible so I sit out and organised a swim the length of Abel Tasman National
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Park over four days I'd been swimming a little bit while I was on my romantic visits to Auckland
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also with the first seals and on mass they decided they were all going to come and before we knew
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it we had 60 people swimming the length of Abel Tasman over four days but it was a hell of an exercise
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and it was really expensive to hire boats so we didn't do it the following year but that was about
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the first one must have been in 2021 we didn't do it in 22 23 some friends here with a yacht
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said we could take 20 people and do it again so we did 24 I said uh it's really hard to organise
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Abel Tasman because you have to shift accommodation and that's an S every every day
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why don't we base ourselves somewhere in the Mulberry sounds and swim there so
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Kathy and I by now we've been married for a few years and she lives down here of course
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um yeah we walked into a place called Misalto Bay in Queen Charlotte Sound and checked out the
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accommodation and thought yep um we could do this so um so this is 2024 we um we got boats from
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two friends in Nelson and they on fact one was um um permanently anchored in Waikawa
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in the in the Mulberry sounds the other one sailed around from Nelson so that's
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you know up Tasman Bay and three French pass and into Cook straight and down Queen Charlotte sound
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quite a long two-day trip anyway we met up at Anna Kewa outside of it outward bound with 40 swimmers
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and they just jumped in the water there and then and swam two stages of four kilometres each
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into Misalto Bay and um then for the next two days we swam three stages each of about four K
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and uh just kept moving out and out and out through the sounds and on the last day we packed
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our bags and crossed over to the other side of Queen Charlotte to the road that goes between
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Havelock and packed them and swam down that shore and finish up back at Anna Kewa that was all good
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so we did it again this year um 2025 and um that was all good
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by now we've got quite a group of friends including Marika who I think put you on to me
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yes Marika's done all four of the trips both able Tasman and both Queen Charlotte's
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and there's quite a group of um people from Auckland and Nelson of course um and all over who
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come in our trips this recent one in March we had people from Dunedin Christchurch
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Nelson and Auckland not from Wellington we had something from Wellington our first trip but anyway
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that's all by the by and I said well we're never doing it again um because we rely on so much
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um volunteers to do all the catering and the cooking and um so we keep them minimal price cut price
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really um I think we charge six hundred dollars for last year's for everything that's all the food
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all the beer you can drink um all the wine um both Wonderman and Marika keep going back
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okay you know how I understand it okay we put it up to seven hundred dollars this year but um
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the some of the crew were a bit enthusiastic we ran out of beer after two nights out
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anyway that the trips are not all about drinking beer but you know you know
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don't understand that after swimming 12k and you know getting highly you know people just can't
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stop talking when they finish and they get highly excited and um that's all kind of part of
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them fun of it anyway um as soon as we got back from this year's trip in March I started thinking
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well I don't want to do it again like that we can't rely on so much volunteer help because um
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the boat people these people that bring these whopping great yachts around from Nelson and so on
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they only charge us costs um you know so it's minimal and that's you know all those reasons
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that why we can keep it so cheap anyway um I um once upon a time in the outer sounds up towards
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ship cove which is famous for um kept cook anchoring up and refueling as boats and as sailors
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and so on just around the corner from there as resolution bay and there's a bunch of old cottages
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there um and uh we started having a look at their website and then we realized that they actually
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would cater and cook meals and so um four days after finished the last trip this year's trip
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Kathy and I and a couple of other friends who look after the catering went out there and we did a
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couple of days walking on the green Charlotte track and we stayed at at resolution bay and got
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them to cook our dinner for us and talked to them with the result that we came up with a scheme
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to um do another trip but this time from ship cove um bound into resolution bay and then
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ran into endeavor and uh and there's lots of swimming to be had and there and uh there we are we
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advertised it to a limited number of people and said well the first 40 people who paid the deposit
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are in i'm sending out a bank account at seven o'clock well i sent it out and got five just
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serving and by two minutes past seven um we had 55 people paid up well we only have this
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forced so uh there is anyway um there we are we're kind of faced with another trip and um a lot of
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disappointed people and we're trying to think of ways that we might be able to take more people but
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um i don't know how we can but anyway that that's that there's um the abbreviated version of how
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we came to be organizing these trips well i can tell you are any ever heard amazing things about them
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so it's not definitely not all about the bay in fact nobody's spoken to me about the bay it's
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been all about the swimming and how amazing it is to swim in that area and um how well everybody's
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looked after and um the food and the the laughter and the camaraderie is it's become a little bit
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legendary here in Auckland so i'm not surprised to solve that Peter up the two minutes uh well um
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yeah we've got more people from Auckland this year the um the north shore group they call
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themselves the maca group that's emocHA and they're based at tachypuna and this marica as well
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whose partner work does cryic support for us um but then we've got a few of the first seals
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from the other side coming back this year as well so um yeah we have a good Auckland representation
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and we're getting picked up more people did from dan Eden too it's funny we get a little
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pockets of people and they all come with their friends and and and that's what happens yeah
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awesome very cool yeah so it definitely sounds like it's a word of word of nothing um yeah and
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i really like the you know what you're saying about sort of all this building a community but
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coming from the whole country yeah yeah it's good um you know we we usually have a a wrap-up
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affair of some sort and this year a lot of the Nelson guys decided they were all um going to go
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up and do the banana boat swim at them out and that was going to be their wrap-up for the season
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and they went up there and um learn to be holding it up with a whole lot of the Auckland swimmers
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and um you know it was a zip they were all part of the part of the community and uh they worked really
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well we didn't go up there because we um kathy and i now like to go on long walks every winter so
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we're doing a several hundred kilometer walk in italy in a couple weeks time yeah but meantime
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back in Nelson people are still plunging into the sea the temperatures dropping
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steadily but you know that's a phenomenon obviously all over the country of people who swim
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all year round now and um without wetsuits and god knows what i don't know how they're doing
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which um which walk are you doing in italy is it by any chance down the umalfi coast
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no we're doing um uh we're doing it well just to put this into perspective before i met um kathy
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on the beach in Nelson i loved the camino in Spain um on my hand and uh i said oh well you
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know we need to do this kath's canadian and likes to see her mother every year because her mother's
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getting on for a hundred now and uh so we've taken the going to Canada and visiting the family
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and so the first year we walked the camino again and then the following year we walked the
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northern camino which is along the coastline of northern spain and then last year oh yeah be
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full-ast we walked um uh uh the british code oh well last year we walked the coast coast and
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Britain from the Irish sea to the North Sea and okay this year we're doing a section of the
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via french hirjana french hirjana french hirjana i think you pronounce it that's a pilgrimage from
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canterbury to Rome of two thousand kilometers but we are only doing the last four hundred starting
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somewhere in tuscany and walking down to Rome so yeah that's yeah that's our plan for this year
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very cool wow wow that's super impressive yeah it's great so peda when you um if i just sort of
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not just back a little bit towards towards the swimming when you did get back into swimming was it
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was it in the pool or was it in the ocean or was it specifically to do an i-man or something along
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those lines no um well um i started out um just doing art events and i would people didn't really
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swim in in the mid 80s it wasn't a regular thing for people to go bolting down to the sea all the time
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so i swam in the pool and um at first i'm in but i later joined a squad and those days the swim
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squads were all teenagers and um so i was swimming with all these teenagers but as time went by and we
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started having you know a Thursday night series and um uh we had expanded swim squads with adults
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and so on but it was pretty well all in in the pool um it's only in recent years i think that we've
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started to meet up with bunches of other people and swimming the sea probably the last
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seven or eight years perhaps but i still i still but Kathie and i both still swim with a squad um
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three or four days a week um at least in the winter uh used to be all year round but the numbers
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have dwindled so much in the summer that we we swim in the sea in the summer now and in the pool
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in the winter yeah yeah we've kind of almost got the opposite challenge with with our swim squads
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um yeah somebody said that we needed to reduce the average age of of the swim squad and get
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somebody under 70 into it yeah i can i'd like to have a couple of youngsters come along and and
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and start rocking us up a bit yeah yeah um yeah i think our group uh that's probably i need me and
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uh oh there's no there's about three of us in our seventies i guess or all through the three lanes
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that we occupy so yeah but um most of them are in their sixties or fifties you know there's not
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well there are some youngest women but not that many uh i love the way that he'd call us six
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year oldy young indian rum are loving this chip in
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um so so maybe maybe uh an obvious question but obviously uh um always reference
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myself to to Roger Soulles be right from the the first seals and always joke and say when um
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We're not big, I want to be like Roger, right?
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What do you sort of contribute towards
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that success of staying swimming and staying healthy
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as you get older and move into your seventies?
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Like what's been the reason that you contribute
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to keep moving and keeps swimming?
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Well, you know, I have done a lot of writing about sports
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over the years.
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I worked for a newspaper for quite a long time,
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and for fifteen years I had a column called The Fitness Zone
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where I would, and in those days I was full on Triathlon.
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And so there was always a bike race or a running race or a swim
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or some other form of activity to write about.
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And I think having to write about something made me
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go and do things, you know, because I had to have something
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to write about.
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And I always said through these columns and other writing
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that I've done that the most important thing in my life
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just about was joining a swim squad when I was thirteen.
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If it hadn't been for that, I wouldn't have had the ability
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to swim.
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I know people pick up swimming when they're older,
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but I know it's much harder for them.
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And at the culmination of Triathlon,
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and I had my most successful and hard training years
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between 60 and 70 for Triathlon,
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and I just feel that I'm so well and so healthy
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because of that lifelong habit.
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And also that a lot of my friendships have come,
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you know, from that involvement as well.
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And a lot of my motivation for life.
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So it's kind of a no-brainer that we can't give up.
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I was basically since now that I'm married to a swimmer
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and she loves going to the pool and she loves beating me
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in races as much as I love beating her.
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So it's inconceivable that we would give it up really.
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Clevverdex is New Zealand's largest swim-focused podcast.
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Lately, we've been trying to do a bit more walking,
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but life's got really busy.
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We were trying to walk to train for our long walk,
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but we don't need to swim right now for any reason,
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but we do.
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We go to the pool,
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like we were there yesterday morning,
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Friday morning,
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because we knew that was the morning
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that people would go off and have coffee
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and we wanted to catch up with our friends again.
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So, you know,
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all those things interrelated,
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and yeah, I think we'll swim till we die.
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One of our very good friends,
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well, just to go back to Roger Solzby,
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is an inspirational figure.
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He was on our first able Tasman trip too,
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like Roger, who one of those.
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But an even older friend, Derek Eason,
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he used to be the Bishop of Nelson,
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and he has done something like
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70 banana boat, ocean swims,
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and his seldom being beaten.
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He still gets up there and wins the 80 plus age group
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and all the swims,
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and he married us.
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Well, he said to him, Derek,
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well, you marry us,
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and not the normal sort of a question
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you put to a bloke,
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but he did.
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That's cool.
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And that's just to illustrate the kind of interconnectedness
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of friends and the things that we do.
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You know, the reasons that we just keep on exercising
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and trying to be fit.
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I thoroughly agree.
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I think that a lot of swim groups are actually
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really coffee groups that just all agree to swim
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before the coffee.
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They are.
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You know, down at the beach in Nelson to Henna Beach,
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there's a large contingent of people who swim there
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all year round.
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And as I said, we don't.
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But we're doing the summer.
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And on Saturday mornings in the summer,
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there can be 60 or 70 people swimming off to Henna Beach.
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Some will start at 6.30, 6.45, 7.30.
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But they'll pretty well all pass through the same cafe
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just across the street from the beach.
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So you can go there anytime between 8 and 10
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on the Saturday morning,
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and there might be 20 or 30 swimmers all shouting at each other
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across the coffee cups.
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So yeah, it's.
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You're right.
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It's a very sociable thing.
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It's good for the coffee industry too.
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Do you have this?
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Yeah.
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Do you use any equipment when you're in the pool,
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like paddles or snorkels or anything like that
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to sort of assist your technique?
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Sometimes we.
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On a Saturday and the winter on a Saturday,
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we have a coach.
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Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we don't,
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but the same coach writes us a program.
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And he will often put in, you know,
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a pool boy or paddles or something.
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I have a snorkel, which I sometimes use.
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I must say I always wear buoyancy shorts
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because now that I'm fat and old,
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my bum seems to sink in the water.
(0:24:37)
Since I discovered them,
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since I discovered them,
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I've shown much better in the pool.
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So yeah, I use them all the time,
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but basically I like swimming
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because you just get in the water and off you go, you know.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Paragog.
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Wednesday shorts are super cool.
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They're very handy.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Oh, I was just going to say,
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so looking forward now that Dan Fist has taken over
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the banana boats.
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He's returned at our
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distance, returned to Nelson.
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So we had a,
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a big tahuna last summer.
(0:25:16)
And this one on the cards for mid November this year.
(0:25:19)
So I guess that's our next chance to lure people down to Nelson.
(0:25:24)
And, you know, get a mass participation.
(0:25:28)
And another thing that we're planning on doing.
(0:25:32)
We, when we had to disappoint a lot of people
(0:25:36)
for our next year's trip in the Moabrasounds,
(0:25:39)
we're quite a large group of slower swimmers
(0:25:42)
who really wanted to,
(0:25:44)
to be part of it.
(0:25:46)
And I'd asked a series of questions.
(0:25:49)
And one was half-assed,
(0:25:51)
do you think, just cruising?
(0:25:53)
Would you swim a kilometer?
(0:25:55)
And we had replies from 15 minutes,
(0:25:58)
up to half an hour.
(0:25:59)
Well,
(0:26:00)
if somebody in a half an hour is swimming a kilometer
(0:26:03)
and somebody else is swimming two kilometers,
(0:26:05)
it doesn't take very long
(0:26:07)
for the field to get stretched to dangerous levels, really.
(0:26:12)
And for that reason,
(0:26:14)
actually, we turned a few people down.
(0:26:15)
We said,
(0:26:16)
well, we just don't have the safety resources to do that.
(0:26:19)
So what I said instead was,
(0:26:21)
well,
(0:26:22)
Kathy and I've got a batch now at Anakiwa.
(0:26:25)
And in the Anakiwa kind of bay,
(0:26:30)
there are three jetties.
(0:26:32)
And if you swim from one to the other to the third,
(0:26:36)
and then back to where you started,
(0:26:38)
it's a circuit of three kilometers.
(0:26:40)
So we've decided to institute a more or less free swim
(0:26:44)
for anybody who wants to turn up.
(0:26:46)
We're calling it the Turamoana Triangle.
(0:26:50)
And I think there's every sign
(0:26:53)
that will have 100 or more people turning up already.
(0:26:56)
And we haven't mentioned it to anybody yet.
(0:26:58)
So,
(0:26:59)
yeah, that's just a fun.
(0:27:02)
It's easy to organize things like that in a contained base.
(0:27:05)
And, you know,
(0:27:06)
and the safety is reasonably,
(0:27:09)
well,
(0:27:10)
I have to say that the work in putting the safety together
(0:27:13)
is reasonably minimal.
(0:27:15)
And fortunately,
(0:27:16)
in the mobra sounds,
(0:27:18)
the mobra harbomaster
(0:27:20)
is pretty loose about,
(0:27:22)
well, not loose.
(0:27:23)
I wouldn't say it's lax,
(0:27:24)
but realistic.
(0:27:25)
You know,
(0:27:26)
when you say,
(0:27:27)
I want to do a swim,
(0:27:28)
and I'm just telling you about it.
(0:27:31)
He doesn't say,
(0:27:32)
well, you have to have a permit
(0:27:33)
and go to the council.
(0:27:34)
He says, well,
(0:27:35)
you're not actually doing anything,
(0:27:36)
you're not allowed to do.
(0:27:37)
Swimming in the sea is,
(0:27:39)
is not an illegal activity.
(0:27:41)
So,
(0:27:42)
thanks for letting me know.
(0:27:43)
I hope you have a good time.
(0:27:44)
And that's quite refreshing, you know.
(0:27:46)
I like doing it.
(0:27:47)
That is super reverishing.
(0:27:48)
Yeah.
(0:27:49)
Yeah.
(0:27:50)
Yeah.
(0:27:51)
That's definitely not how that operates in Auckland.
(0:27:54)
No,
(0:27:55)
not in Nelson either, really.
(0:27:57)
Things we've done there
(0:27:59)
that have a master's,
(0:28:00)
because we deal with two
(0:28:02)
have a master's here in Nelson,
(0:28:04)
one attached to the Tasman District Council,
(0:28:06)
and one to that Nelson City.
(0:28:08)
And they're accommodating and helpful,
(0:28:11)
but you still have to fill in forms
(0:28:13)
and submit safety plans and so on.
(0:28:15)
Well, we have a safety plan,
(0:28:17)
but I mean,
(0:28:18)
it's common sense.
(0:28:19)
You don't have to keep reading it.
(0:28:21)
No, what you've got to do.
(0:28:22)
Yes.
(0:28:23)
I'm curious.
(0:28:24)
That's that.
(0:28:25)
Hmm.
(0:28:26)
Yeah.
(0:28:27)
No, I was just going to ask you
(0:28:29)
for your mobile sound trip.
(0:28:32)
What is the safety measures look like there?
(0:28:35)
You've got, you said you mentioned you had
(0:28:37)
a couple of kayakers.
(0:28:38)
Obviously, you've got the boat.
(0:28:40)
Yeah.
(0:28:41)
Do your sprimmers use safety tow floats, for example?
(0:28:45)
Yeah.
(0:28:46)
Yeah, we make them compulsory.
(0:28:48)
Cool.
(0:28:49)
So we,
(0:28:50)
we've had,
(0:28:52)
we've had three inflatables.
(0:28:57)
And two kayaks and the two bigger boats.
(0:29:01)
In fact, we have three kayaks as well this year.
(0:29:05)
Next year, we're employing a mid-range boat,
(0:29:09)
as well as the two.
(0:29:10)
Well, one's a yacht and one's a launch,
(0:29:14)
but we can put 25 people on each of those.
(0:29:17)
So at the end of every stage,
(0:29:19)
we get people on board and we give them tea and coffee and so on and so on and so on.
(0:29:24)
But we've also got another boat that will hold about eight people
(0:29:27)
that we're taking this year.
(0:29:30)
And what we're going to do,
(0:29:31)
we've got about five people who,
(0:29:34)
us, we've classes, slower swimmers,
(0:29:37)
we're going to take them a kilometer or so down the track for each stage next year
(0:29:43)
and throw them in ahead of everybody else.
(0:29:46)
So that,
(0:29:47)
okay, rather than expanding the field compressors and,
(0:29:51)
you know, just,
(0:29:52)
just so we can keep a tighter watch on things.
(0:29:55)
So,
(0:29:56)
so we'll have three small unmotorized boats,
(0:29:59)
two inflatables and this other one,
(0:30:01)
the two bigger boats and probably three kayaks this year.
(0:30:04)
And, and tow floats for everybody, of course.
(0:30:08)
That's very cool.
(0:30:09)
So one of the things Marika said when she came back that
(0:30:12)
there can be quite a lot of jellyfish,
(0:30:14)
not the stinging kind,
(0:30:15)
but is that,
(0:30:16)
is that very common?
(0:30:19)
Yeah.
(0:30:20)
Down the sounds it is.
(0:30:22)
It can be like swimming over a bloody foam rubber mattress sometimes.
(0:30:28)
It's just creepy.
(0:30:30)
But,
(0:30:31)
you, you come out with jellyfish under your fingernails.
(0:30:34)
It's,
(0:30:35)
they're just,
(0:30:36)
somebody described them as breast implants, you know,
(0:30:39)
which is a bit sexistish, must say.
(0:30:43)
It's like,
(0:30:44)
you know,
(0:30:45)
it's like you've got a cat with no skin floating in the water
(0:30:48)
and your plunger hand into it.
(0:30:49)
And it's all kind of spongy and,
(0:30:51)
it's, it's a bit creepy,
(0:30:54)
but you can,
(0:30:55)
across shows of them,
(0:30:57)
you know, you're swim along and then suddenly you'll be in the thick of them.
(0:31:00)
I mean,
(0:31:01)
I swim with a wetsuit,
(0:31:02)
now I find it creepy,
(0:31:03)
but the people like Marika,
(0:31:05)
who swim without wetsuits,
(0:31:06)
they,
(0:31:07)
you know,
(0:31:08)
fortunately they don't stink,
(0:31:09)
so that's a good thing.
(0:31:11)
But swimming in the sea,
(0:31:12)
you do get sea lice and other things.
(0:31:16)
I'm one of our able Tasman swims,
(0:31:18)
we had people with,
(0:31:19)
two people had to go to hospital with,
(0:31:22)
something like,
(0:31:24)
I don't know what they were,
(0:31:26)
little eggs that got into their eyes
(0:31:28)
of jellyfish or something.
(0:31:30)
I didn't quite understand what it was,
(0:31:32)
but, you know,
(0:31:33)
a couple of people have very badly affected eyes,
(0:31:35)
and we had to
(0:31:37)
get the Habermaster to bail them out,
(0:31:39)
and they had to go to hospital,
(0:31:41)
so,
(0:31:42)
that only happened on one swim and on one day,
(0:31:44)
so I don't know what that was.
(0:31:46)
So, yeah, there's a nine things out in the sea,
(0:31:49)
things you don't see,
(0:31:50)
and you'd rather not see,
(0:31:51)
and things you don't see,
(0:31:53)
which find you anyway.
(0:31:55)
That's part of that route.
(0:31:57)
No, I thought you were going to tell me
(0:32:01)
that everyone goes down there
(0:32:02)
because of all the dolphins or something like that,
(0:32:04)
because that will get everyone down there anyway.
(0:32:06)
That would be lovely.
(0:32:07)
We do have dolphins around.
(0:32:12)
We've never had them when we were swimming,
(0:32:14)
and we also have Orca coming as far down as Anakiba,
(0:32:17)
where our batches,
(0:32:19)
we've never encountered them swimming either,
(0:32:22)
but they're around,
(0:32:24)
and they're coming clean out the stingrays every year or two,
(0:32:26)
so, yeah.
(0:32:28)
We have swum with them in the years
(0:32:31)
that I was organizing the Thursday Night Series in Nelson.
(0:32:35)
We had a couple of occasions,
(0:32:37)
one in particular,
(0:32:39)
the swim started at six,
(0:32:41)
and at five when I went down there,
(0:32:43)
there was a pot of six Orca prowling around the harbour in Nelson,
(0:32:47)
and one of them swam right across the ramp,
(0:32:50)
right in front of us.
(0:32:52)
That was pretty impressive.
(0:32:53)
It's like having a bloody bus just posting through the water at your feet.
(0:32:58)
Anyway, we had a couple of policemen
(0:33:02)
who were swimming in those days.
(0:33:05)
In fact, one of them was the father of a girl
(0:33:08)
who just swam cooked straight the following year,
(0:33:10)
or had just swam cooked straight.
(0:33:11)
That's right.
(0:33:12)
So he got on the phone to fill up rush.
(0:33:14)
So what was the story about these Orca?
(0:33:16)
Should we swim or should we cancel?
(0:33:19)
And he advised us that it was going to be safe,
(0:33:21)
and I felt good that a policeman had advised us that,
(0:33:24)
and so I'd fill up rush.
(0:33:25)
So we did the swim anyway,
(0:33:27)
and nobody got eaten.
(0:33:29)
I mean, the prevailing wisdom is that,
(0:33:32)
you know, you're okay with Orca,
(0:33:34)
but it's still pretty scary when you see them out there.
(0:33:37)
Yeah, they're hunters, right?
(0:33:39)
Yeah.
(0:33:40)
If you just don't look like a stingray,
(0:33:42)
and you'd be okay, I think.
(0:33:44)
I haven't seen an anti-kilogram stingray,
(0:33:48)
so I should be fine.
(0:33:50)
No.
(0:33:51)
But we have had other occasions in the Nelson Harbor,
(0:33:54)
where they've come around while we're swimming.
(0:33:57)
And as swimmers, we don't see them.
(0:33:59)
We just wonder while the boats are whizzing up and down so quickly,
(0:34:02)
alongside us.
(0:34:03)
Yeah.
(0:34:04)
But I mean, once every five or six years,
(0:34:07)
it's not a regular account.
(0:34:08)
If I can turn a little bit about some of your writing
(0:34:12)
and your interviews that you've done,
(0:34:15)
have you, you know,
(0:34:17)
who's the most sort of interesting character triathlon slash swimming
(0:34:21)
wires that you've, that you've interviewed?
(0:34:24)
Ah.
(0:34:25)
Hell, I don't know.
(0:34:28)
You know, over the years, one of the,
(0:34:31)
because when I worked at the news paper and had my column,
(0:34:36)
which was just advised about this and that and other things,
(0:34:40)
but also because I was on the kind of sub-editor side,
(0:34:45)
rather than the reporter side,
(0:34:47)
after the Thursday night swims,
(0:34:50)
I could go home write a story,
(0:34:52)
and then get into work at six in the morning,
(0:34:54)
put it on the page.
(0:34:55)
So I would know it was going to be here.
(0:34:59)
One of the things that I've liked about that particular aspect,
(0:35:02)
is seeing these young people come up,
(0:35:06)
you know, you get this 11 or 12-year-old.
(0:35:08)
Well, there's always a couple that look promising,
(0:35:11)
and then by the time they're 13 or 14,
(0:35:14)
or one or two will really stand out.
(0:35:18)
And there have been some fabulous young swimmers come
(0:35:22)
through the ranks over the years.
(0:35:27)
There've been two males and two females,
(0:35:29)
that have won the Banana Boats series in the last seven or eight years.
(0:35:34)
And recently, of course,
(0:35:36)
Alex Dankley's dominated that,
(0:35:38)
and I've always enjoyed,
(0:35:40)
because nowadays, well,
(0:35:42)
up until now, I've written for Sports Hub,
(0:35:45)
and interviewed Alex pretty well after every swim.
(0:35:50)
There hasn't been a single dominant female swimmer,
(0:35:54)
since Abby Smell, who, of course, was an else in swimmer.
(0:35:57)
She's gone on,
(0:35:59)
and living in Christchurch,
(0:36:02)
well, she might be going to Dunedin, I think.
(0:36:04)
But anyway, forming those kind of relationships
(0:36:07)
with those young swimmers is quite satisfying.
(0:36:11)
But I've also, I've interviewed my good friend Bishop Derek,
(0:36:16)
and on many occasions,
(0:36:18)
and it's kind of privileged to know people like that.
(0:36:21)
And I really admire some of these oldest swimmers.
(0:36:24)
I've got a very good friend called Ben Van Dyke.
(0:36:27)
Ben's not as old as me.
(0:36:29)
He's only a youngster of 64 or something.
(0:36:32)
But when he was 60, Ben went to Sweden for the world,
(0:36:38)
I don't know, age groups from championships.
(0:36:41)
I don't know what it was,
(0:36:42)
but he won gold medals,
(0:36:44)
three gold medals in 100 metres and 200 metres,
(0:36:47)
butterfly and freestyle.
(0:36:49)
And then he did a three-kilometer lake swim,
(0:36:52)
which he was leading.
(0:36:53)
But he's as skinny as a rake, Ben.
(0:36:55)
And the cold got him,
(0:36:57)
because it was pretty cold and a Swedish lake.
(0:36:59)
So I only got a bronze medal in the world.
(0:37:02)
But it's just fabulous.
(0:37:03)
We've brought people like that.
(0:37:05)
Ben, at his age,
(0:37:08)
in a swim of 150 people here in Nelson of Sylvie in the top 10, you know.
(0:37:13)
That's amazing.
(0:37:15)
It is...
(0:37:17)
So, like him, for example,
(0:37:19)
did he swim as a teenager?
(0:37:21)
Or did he pick it up later in life?
(0:37:23)
I think Ben's probably...
(0:37:25)
He's from San Francisco area, I think, Ben.
(0:37:29)
He's lived here probably for 50 years,
(0:37:32)
but yeah, I think he swam from a young age.
(0:37:35)
I don't know, his background too much.
(0:37:38)
Yeah, I've got another friend, Ralph Hetzel, who's 82 now.
(0:37:45)
Ralph was a kind of lifeguard at Huntington Beach down in California.
(0:37:49)
And he came to New Zealand,
(0:37:52)
and I've known him since 1975.
(0:37:56)
So it's quite a long time now, isn't it?
(0:37:59)
That's 50 years.
(0:38:02)
That's actively.
(0:38:03)
Anyway, Ralph is still swimming.
(0:38:06)
I mean, I love the young people coming through,
(0:38:09)
but I really...
(0:38:11)
I've got a lot of time.
(0:38:13)
My old friends, really.
(0:38:15)
They're so motivational,
(0:38:17)
because I'm not a very good swimmer,
(0:38:19)
but some of our friends are fabulous swimmers.
(0:38:21)
I just wish I was like them.
(0:38:25)
Yeah, I can relate to that.
(0:38:27)
Yeah, me too.
(0:38:28)
I was just wondering,
(0:38:29)
you've probably managed to swim in a lot of places around the world,
(0:38:33)
and you've got to live in a wonderful part.
(0:38:36)
Do you have any particular favourite locations
(0:38:39)
or things like that,
(0:38:42)
or memorable places that you've swung?
(0:38:45)
Yeah.
(0:38:46)
Well, I love swimming to Huntington Beach.
(0:38:51)
It's like a gigantic swimming pool,
(0:38:53)
and we feel so much at ease there.
(0:38:56)
There are fixed points in a five-year rock,
(0:39:00)
and there's rows of boys.
(0:39:02)
There's lots of nice things.
(0:39:03)
I love that,
(0:39:04)
and as always,
(0:39:05)
you can just go out on your own,
(0:39:07)
swim to any boy,
(0:39:08)
and you'll be surrounded by swimmers everywhere.
(0:39:11)
I love swimming at our batch in the sounds,
(0:39:14)
off the jetty.
(0:39:15)
We just...
(0:39:17)
We walk down the jetty,
(0:39:19)
at Turamilana,
(0:39:20)
which is...
(0:39:22)
The Turamilana jetty is about 700 metres away from the Anakiwa jetty,
(0:39:27)
and you can walk down out the jetty,
(0:39:29)
the Turamilana one,
(0:39:30)
and there'll be stingray prowling around the jetty.
(0:39:34)
So you have to jump in and splash a lot,
(0:39:38)
you know, that...
(0:39:39)
Anyway, they're not very scary,
(0:39:40)
but I love swimming there.
(0:39:42)
Unusual places I've swam in.
(0:39:46)
I've been to a lot of...
(0:39:48)
This sounds like showing off.
(0:39:50)
I've been to nine world championships of triathlon in my youth,
(0:39:56)
and...
(0:39:57)
Well, in my 60s,
(0:39:59)
it was very interesting.
(0:40:01)
Let's use...
(0:40:02)
I'll go with that.
(0:40:03)
Yep.
(0:40:04)
In Manchester, which is further back, 93,
(0:40:08)
we swam in the city reservoir up in the Felderstrik.
(0:40:11)
That was interesting.
(0:40:13)
In Budapest,
(0:40:15)
we swam in a little bay off the Danube,
(0:40:18)
and...
(0:40:20)
Man, I was freezing.
(0:40:21)
I was going to swim non-wetsuit,
(0:40:23)
because we were travelling a lot afterwards,
(0:40:26)
and I didn't want to have so much baggage.
(0:40:30)
So, I got there,
(0:40:32)
and it was only 13 degrees,
(0:40:34)
and it was wetsuit compulsory.
(0:40:36)
I had to borrow one,
(0:40:37)
and it was too tight.
(0:40:38)
I couldn't breathe.
(0:40:39)
Oh, my God.
(0:40:40)
That was memorable,
(0:40:42)
because I went off like a bed out of hell, of course,
(0:40:44)
and just completely lost my breath.
(0:40:47)
Yeah.
(0:40:48)
There was a lesson, I suppose.
(0:40:50)
Yeah.
(0:40:51)
Oh, we...
(0:40:52)
I quite like swimming in up in the abutersman,
(0:40:56)
as an adjunct to those swims of the length of the park,
(0:41:01)
and a consolation prize for others,
(0:41:03)
we...
(0:41:04)
For several years did a free swim
(0:41:06)
from narrow how to criteria of five kilometres,
(0:41:10)
and that's always been well.
(0:41:12)
I mean, people love a free swim,
(0:41:14)
and that's a really nice swim to do,
(0:41:17)
because, you know, it's kind of point to point,
(0:41:19)
and that you cross past lots of scenic landmarks.
(0:41:22)
I don't know if you know of Split Apple Rock,
(0:41:25)
which is a bit of a landmark in that area,
(0:41:28)
we stopped there for a photo shoot.
(0:41:30)
So, these swims are not races,
(0:41:32)
they're just swims,
(0:41:33)
come along, have a swim,
(0:41:35)
and yeah, people love it.
(0:41:37)
Cool.
(0:41:38)
So, Peter, as I...
(0:41:42)
So, I've just turned 50.
(0:41:45)
I feel like I'm...
(0:41:47)
I'm embarrassed to sort of talk as if I'm old,
(0:41:50)
and I'm hanging out with you guys,
(0:41:53)
and making me feel really bad.
(0:41:56)
But anyway, I've noticed for myself,
(0:42:00)
in the last couple of years,
(0:42:02)
that we...
(0:42:04)
I could go right into the ocean, for example,
(0:42:07)
and my preference was always to wear a darker,
(0:42:10)
sort of tinted goggle.
(0:42:13)
And I found that,
(0:42:15)
because my ass art's not quite what it used to be,
(0:42:18)
I prefer wearing a clear lens as an example.
(0:42:21)
Yep.
(0:42:22)
And with that said,
(0:42:24)
just the conversation I'm going on,
(0:42:26)
there's a couple of guys in Aswam Squad,
(0:42:28)
and I won't mention any names,
(0:42:30)
but a lot of them really struggle in their 70s,
(0:42:33)
and they will sort of weave from the one side of the paint
(0:42:37)
to the other.
(0:42:38)
And it's just because, you know,
(0:42:40)
as I thought was,
(0:42:41)
it's not quite what it used to be, right?
(0:42:43)
Yeah.
(0:42:44)
Do you find...
(0:42:46)
Like, have you got any issues as you've got older
(0:42:48)
with your eyes and visibility
(0:42:50)
while you're swimming?
(0:42:52)
Be it different color lenses or the sun or, you know,
(0:42:55)
what else can you give me as I'm getting older?
(0:43:00)
I don't suffer anymore.
(0:43:05)
Now that I did when I was younger,
(0:43:07)
I've always been reluctant to pick up my head
(0:43:10)
and look where I'm going,
(0:43:11)
because it's my fault I'm supposed to pick your head down.
(0:43:16)
Okay.
(0:43:17)
I've always preferred to have clear lenses in my goggles.
(0:43:21)
Yeah, it wasn't until...
(0:43:24)
In fact, I always had clear lenses.
(0:43:27)
I went up to do...
(0:43:29)
I don't know if you remember the King of the Bays,
(0:43:31)
the Banana Boat King of the Bays,
(0:43:32)
when they changed it from a milford start to a narrow next start,
(0:43:36)
and that was only four years or five years ago.
(0:43:40)
I got to the start line or to the start venue,
(0:43:44)
and I didn't have my goggles.
(0:43:46)
And so I had to go across to Blyman and Dan Christen
(0:43:49)
and say, I need a pair of goggles,
(0:43:51)
and he didn't have any clear ones.
(0:43:54)
So he gave me some with blue lenses,
(0:43:57)
and I really liked them, actually.
(0:44:00)
Okay.
(0:44:01)
I lost them eventually,
(0:44:03)
and I never bought another pair,
(0:44:05)
but that was quite nice.
(0:44:06)
But, yeah, on the whole,
(0:44:08)
I think I prefer clear lenses,
(0:44:10)
especially on cloudy days.
(0:44:12)
Okay.
(0:44:15)
And in the...
(0:44:17)
I don't know what 40 odd years of swimming,
(0:44:20)
what is your preference with suit wise?
(0:44:23)
Well, I don't have a special preference.
(0:44:29)
My first good with suit was zone three.
(0:44:33)
In fact, my friend Ben Van Dyke,
(0:44:35)
who I was just talking about,
(0:44:37)
decided he was going to import one for his daughter,
(0:44:40)
one for his daughter's coach, one for him,
(0:44:42)
and one for me, which he gave me,
(0:44:45)
I can't believe that's a generous offer,
(0:44:47)
and I've still got that wetsuit.
(0:44:49)
It must be 12 years old now.
(0:44:51)
So I've worked more way through a series of zone three wetsuits.
(0:44:57)
But they've started to get so good and expensive.
(0:45:02)
I looked to replace my current one a couple of seasons ago,
(0:45:06)
and it was going to be a small fortune,
(0:45:09)
like nearly $1,000.
(0:45:11)
And then I found for Peter Seven,
(0:45:13)
selling off these Orca.
(0:45:16)
I can't remember what they call.
(0:45:19)
Athletic, so anyway.
(0:45:21)
So yeah, I thought one of these Orcas,
(0:45:23)
for something like $300,
(0:45:24)
and I find it's pretty good, you know.
(0:45:27)
I'm not good enough for, you know.
(0:45:32)
I only win medals in those races
(0:45:35)
if everybody else stays away,
(0:45:37)
and when you get into my age group,
(0:45:40)
it's not that many people will start with.
(0:45:42)
So, you know.
(0:45:44)
It's funny.
(0:45:46)
Last summer, some had just gone in the ring of Toto's swim.
(0:45:49)
Nelson's swim was completely dominated,
(0:45:52)
75 to 79 age group.
(0:45:54)
There were only two of us.
(0:45:56)
And my mates do it.
(0:45:58)
I'm finished 20 minutes ahead of me.
(0:46:01)
So whatever wetsuit over here isn't going to make a blind
(0:46:06)
but a double swim.
(0:46:09)
So yeah, so I don't have a lot of preferences
(0:46:13)
long as it's, you know,
(0:46:15)
decent wetsuit.
(0:46:16)
It's probably all right for me.
(0:46:18)
Nice.
(0:46:20)
Nice.
(0:46:21)
Yeah, yeah, that's actually my plan for winning my age group
(0:46:24)
is I just kind of stick around and keep on doing it.
(0:46:27)
But every time I move into the next age group,
(0:46:29)
the same guys who beat me last time around are still there.
(0:46:32)
So,
(0:46:34)
it happens to me.
(0:46:38)
I can never quite break through into that
(0:46:41)
middle-winning area, but anyway,
(0:46:43)
I tell myself I'm not in it for the competition,
(0:46:46)
but, you know,
(0:46:48)
there's something glorious about winning a medal,
(0:46:51)
even if you only got it because everybody else stayed away.
(0:46:54)
You know.
(0:46:56)
I've got a couple like that, you know.
(0:46:59)
The first guy crossed without a wetsuit.
(0:47:01)
Oh, the only guy across without a wetsuit, yeah.
(0:47:04)
That's the only one.
(0:47:06)
As people console you with, you know,
(0:47:08)
you had to be there.
(0:47:10)
Just thinking that hundreds of people who are not there
(0:47:12)
growing feds are there.
(0:47:14)
Yeah.
(0:47:16)
It reminds me of a story used to tell me.
(0:47:21)
Up here in Auckland,
(0:47:22)
there was a guy that used to enter the
(0:47:26)
oceans from series with his dog.
(0:47:29)
Oh, yeah.
(0:47:30)
And remember that.
(0:47:31)
That's the sort of big challenge for your sort of
(0:47:35)
backmarkers was was to beat the dog.
(0:47:38)
Yeah.
(0:47:39)
Yeah.
(0:47:40)
Yeah.
(0:47:41)
Yeah.
(0:47:42)
I remember that dog doing that.
(0:47:44)
Yeah.
(0:47:45)
Did you beat it?
(0:47:46)
Yeah.
(0:47:47)
Yeah.
(0:47:48)
Yeah.
(0:47:49)
Yeah.
(0:47:50)
Yeah.
(0:47:51)
Have you seen the sport of open water swimming change?
(0:47:56)
Like over the last 10, 20 years.
(0:47:59)
Yeah.
(0:48:00)
Is it a good space at the moment?
(0:48:02)
Especially in the last maybe
(0:48:06)
six, seven years.
(0:48:07)
It seems to just exploded somehow.
(0:48:10)
And the interesting thing is to me anyway,
(0:48:15)
like in Nelson,
(0:48:17)
let me think about 12 years ago,
(0:48:20)
we were getting something like 170 people competing
(0:48:24)
on a Thursday night.
(0:48:26)
Nowadays we're going to get about 120.
(0:48:28)
And that's because so many there are a lot of far more swimmers,
(0:48:32)
far more dedicated swimmers,
(0:48:34)
but they can't be bothered with competition.
(0:48:36)
You know, they say,
(0:48:37)
well, we just we just swim.
(0:48:39)
And why should we pay to swim?
(0:48:41)
We can swim for nothing.
(0:48:42)
And sure.
(0:48:43)
You know,
(0:48:44)
it's all those people,
(0:48:45)
as far as our local series go,
(0:48:47)
all those people paddle the kayaks and,
(0:48:49)
you know, provide backup.
(0:48:51)
But they don't,
(0:48:52)
they don't race necessarily.
(0:48:53)
So,
(0:48:54)
you know,
(0:48:55)
competition,
(0:48:56)
yeah,
(0:48:57)
for organizers,
(0:48:58)
I think it's getting tougher,
(0:48:59)
probably,
(0:49:00)
even though I'm on the fringes now.
(0:49:02)
But yeah,
(0:49:03)
people just want to swim.
(0:49:04)
And that's expanded hugely,
(0:49:06)
particularly the all year round crew,
(0:49:09)
which is much bigger than it used to be.
(0:49:11)
Yeah.
(0:49:12)
Yeah.
(0:49:13)
Yeah.
(0:49:14)
The all year round crew is getting bigger.
(0:49:16)
Okay.
(0:49:17)
Thanks so much for your time.
(0:49:19)
I think it's,
(0:49:20)
we should wrap this up.
(0:49:21)
We've taken,
(0:49:22)
taken some of your valuable,
(0:49:23)
um,
(0:49:24)
weekend time,
(0:49:25)
even if,
(0:49:26)
every day's a weekend for,
(0:49:27)
for some of us.
(0:49:28)
Yeah.
(0:49:29)
Yeah.
(0:49:30)
Just really like to say,
(0:49:31)
thank you for,
(0:49:32)
for sharing your story with us.
(0:49:34)
That's fine.
(0:49:35)
And it's in me a link.
(0:49:36)
So I can,
(0:49:37)
figure out where to,
(0:49:38)
where to get it.
(0:49:39)
And, um,
(0:49:40)
I look forward to hearing it.
(0:49:41)
I will absolutely do that, Peter.
(0:49:43)
Thank you so much for the time.
(0:49:44)
I never have an awesome weekend.
(0:49:46)
Thank you.
(0:49:47)
Thank you for everything.
(0:49:48)
Bye.
(0:49:49)
Hi,
(0:49:50)
my name is
(0:49:51)
Caitlyn O'Reilly.
(0:49:52)
I'm the youngest person
(0:49:53)
who have completed the
(0:49:54)
Ocean 7 Challenge.
(0:49:55)
If this really cool podcast has
(0:49:56)
helped you learn something new,
(0:49:58)
maybe it's introduced you to new
(0:50:00)
swimmers,
(0:50:01)
made you smile,
(0:50:02)
um,
(0:50:03)
then please take the opportunity
(0:50:04)
to subscribe to
(0:50:05)
Duncan and Jim's channel.
(0:50:06)
I'm sure they would
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(0:50:09)
Cheers.
(0:50:10)
Thanks, Caitlyn.
(0:50:11)
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(0:50:12)
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(0:50:26)
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