E56 - Kylie Frost - Twisted Sisters.

Today’s guest is someone who perfectly represents what’s possible when you back yourself and just start.

Kylie Frost is the driving force behind the Twisted Sisters Club here in Auckland offering coaching for swimming, biking and running. What makes Kylie’s story so relatable — and so inspiring — is that she didn’t come from a lifelong elite sporting background. She started later than most, finding her way into triathlon during Covid, like so many people who reassessed life, health, and personal goals during that time.

From those uncertain beginnings, Kylie went on to complete an Ironman — a huge achievement by anyone’s standards. But she didn’t stop there. She turned her experience into purpose, becoming a coach and building a community that supports, encourages, and empowers women to believe they can do hard things too.

Women relate to Kylie because she looks like a regular, everyday, middle-aged woman — juggling life, work, family, and commitments — yet she’s out there proving that extraordinary things are still possible. That relatability is exactly why she instils so much trust and confidence in the women she coaches. She’s walked the path herself, understands the doubts, and knows how to guide others through them.

At Twisted Sisters, it’s not about being the fastest or the fittest — it’s about showing up, supporting each other, and discovering what you’re capable of. And Kylie Frost sits right at the heart of that movement.

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Welcome to another Swimscape podcast. In this podcast we're talking to Kylie Frost. Kylie is the energy that exists behind the Twisted Sisters Club that does all sorts. They're into triathlons and a lot of swimming. She has helped so many women get into the water and enjoys swimming. It's a fantastic chapter. We hear a little bit about what she's done in her life and also the Twisted Sisters Group. Enjoy. Okay, so welcome to our podcast. We're talking to Kylie. Welcome Kylie. Hi, thanks for having me. Oh, it's wonderful to have you. So we always kind of start off and just ask you to give us your swim story. So just what got you into it, what keeps you going and then we'll discuss some of the things that you've managed to do in your athletic career. Okay, I actually, I was, I was never a swimmer. I could swim as a kid, but I was never very good swimmer. And then 2015, I was seeing a physiotherapy for a form of arthritis and he put me in the height of therapy pool at West Wape with very strict instructions. I wasn't allowed to swim because I was having so many issues with my arms. He was worried I'd drown. And I was literally walking up and down the pool and then my husband was doing his scuba dive training. He had to swim 400 meters in 16 minutes and I couldn't handle the cold water of the lane pool, but I could handle the warmer water of the wave pool. So in the mornings, I'd go along and I started after a while in the wave pool and I started swimming the 400 meters, but with snorkel and a mask because my neck was so bad, I couldn't tell you everything. And I would time myself and I think the first time took me 30 minutes to do the 400 meters, something like that. And I was really proud of myself and my idea was I was going to do the same thing he was doing, which I did. I went on and did that later. But then eventually I ended up over time joining the squad because I decided I wanted to do a triathlon and to be able to do a triathlon. I had to be able to swim. So it's been a very long steady slow journey and then 2021 I did Ironman New Zealand. Wow. Which is a 3.8k swim, a 180k on the bike and then a marathon. And I finished with 70 seconds to spare. So I got it done, but I need just. But the swimming has been the easiest part. It's the part I'm most comfortable with now and it's the part that keeps my body moving. It's being in the water, I can move easier and it keeps my joints moving so it helps me. So how many years ago did you kind of start on that swimming journey when you started in the pool? It would be 2015. It only taught me a couple of months to progress to the point that I started swimming swimming. So it's been about 10 years, roughly. That's a fantastic story, you know. Yeah, I'm impressed. Similar thing I always thought I could swim and I wanted to be a lifeguard. So you have to do a 400 meter swim. Yeah. And I had to look at the time and I thought I'll just crank it out just on my own and the time limit there was nine minutes. That's going to be easy. So 14 minutes later, I finished and I was like, oh, I've got a lot of work to do here. A very similar kind of story here. So you never swim as a kid? We had a pool growing up and I swim in the pool. And I can remember at school having to get in the pool and do swimming in a school pool. But I also remember a really bad experience with a school that I went to and we used to go to Lake Pu Puke. And they made us jump off the wall for the swim back through the reeds. And I got caught on the reeds and someone had to pull me out. So anything like that sort of situation, still to this day, excuse me a bit. Yeah, yeah. But I never really got in the sea and I still don't really do a lot of the long distance stuff. But I do love actually being in the water. I love the freedom it gives me out. So as I understand it, you can't have done a whole bunch of things for yourself. But you've also got into coaching as well. Do you want to tell us a little bit about your swim coaching? Well, after I and man, I wanted a new goal and I had a couple of injuries. And because of the injuries, one of them was to my ankle was pretty severe. And I couldn't exercise for about a year. So then my arthritis got so bad I had to start from scratch. And I've never 100% recovered, unfortunately. The disease I have is progressive. It's there's no cure. It is only going to get worse. And I found I wasn't able to compete as much. I wasn't able to do the races. But I still wanted to be involved. And I had a lot of friends that I was helping. But I wanted to make sure that I was giving them the right advice. And what I was telling them to do wouldn't lead to them beginning injured or anything like that. I had accumulated a lot of knowledge over the years of some really good coaches. And I seem to have a really good rapport with ladies starting out. So I did my coaching stuff get through Triathlon New Zealand. And I've gone on and done quite a few, including the Iron Man U course, which they've changed the name of now. So I've got quite a few different certificates behind my name now. I coach about a dozen ladies, not even all in Auckland or in the place, as well as a whole bunch of others that I just coach on a satellite or at a training session, things like that as well as that. So you coach in the pool and in the ocean? I don't coach in the pool because the way it's set up in New Zealand, if you coach in the pool, you have to hire the lane. And it just doesn't work because a lot of ladies like coach don't have a lot of money to be able to pay for pool, high-age and things like that. But we do do a lot of sessions at Takapuna Beach over the summer in the ocean, which of course then is free. So yeah, it works. And that's for most of them. That's one thing they love doing is being in the water on a satellite morning. So it's the best place for them. I have seen you with your twisted sister group down there. It's quite impressive. Yeah, you can't help but miss us now because we usually have about 40 and they've all got the season, we've all got the same pink swim caps. So you can't miss us. What is the name of twisted sister's come from? We had a group that went down and did the Kelly's Women's Try a couple of years ago, which is in Tarama, run by the Tarama Triathlon Club. We had about seven of us. And while we were down there, we were talking on through a messenger thread. And it was getting really hard to sort of keep track of who was saying what because the whole thing with a messenger thread is things disappear over time. They get lost. You know, you can be busy at work and suddenly you log on and find people have been chatting for the last hour and suddenly you've got a million messages to go through. So we sort of said, well, why don't we set up an actual Facebook group and we can chat through that. But then we need a name. And one of the ladies came up with the ideas with twisted sisters. And they're kind of snowballed from there. We've got really 400 on that group now. That's amazing. And that's just in a couple of years, right? That four five years or something? Awesome. Make it about 18 months. Oh, wow. Yeah. On the Facebook story. Wow. Yeah. No, I'm sorry to interrupt. But that obviously shows you the demand for help, right? Yeah. And you mentioned a little bit earlier that your clientele was in a specific way. And I'm quite nervous. I've gone on my head. But it's like they relate to you and they feel comfortable with you. Yes. What are you reckon? I think because I don't. I think I don't look like the average pro athlete. Yep. I think I just look like the normal regular middle-aged Kiwi lady. Okay. So you're less intimidating? Yes. Okay. There's hope for us, Duncan. Yeah. I think they don't look at me and think, I'm never going to keep up. Okay. I mean, I've the fact that I can do an Iron Man gives them the confidence that they can go and do what they want to do. Well, whatever, whether it's swim to the boy or go to cable or whatever it is. Yeah. Yeah. That's fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. The cable boy swim is end of March. Yeah. But last year, didn't you get set you or somebody to help you? Yeah. Set he had the boat and he had another guy, John, on the boat in case of any emergencies. And we were all within radio contact and then we had three groups and... All women, though, right? We did have a couple of guys, like my husband and there was another guy, Sean. They were there within the group as a strong swimmer in case you never got to trouble. So we do have guys that come and join us. Like twisted sisters, cousins. It's been all sorts of really funny names. I get told what to do by a twisted sister or something, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Because we had a couple of young girls working for us on our boats and they were like, I mean, we should go and ask if we can help and we can have like an all girls crew looking after the twisted sisters. Yeah. So if you're keen... Yeah, definitely. You try not to sort out all girls crew. Yeah. But if it's not an all girls thing, then... Now what's the set he said he'll do it? He said he'll do it again this year, but he's got other commitments and that. So if we can find another boat, it works better. If he does it, I really do think he needs to wear a tutu or something. At least he's got a way or pink, right? Yeah. Careful. Okay. So what's the cable boy's swim? For those that don't know, obviously. So at Tekapuna, you have the yellow boy line, which is... It high tide is about 350 metres offshore. Yeah. And there's some pink ones as well, but the main boy line is... It's the five knot boys and it's we are most of your more experienced swimmers swim. They go on off the beach either from where the toilet block is or the boat ramp. They swim out to the first one and there's five boys and then you've got the big cable boy. Which is a big marker where literally there are cables under the ground. So the distance there and back is roughly 3.2, 3.3k, depending on the tides at the time. This is not a race. It is a challenge to be able to swim to cable boy and back. So we have three groups. Each group has 20. The slowest people are in the first group. They go first and then the other two groups, depending on speed. And each group has a couple of kayakers with them. Gotcha. Just to keep an eye on them, to keep them, they have different colors swim caps for each group. So we can keep an eye on each group and make sure they're all fine. And then we have Seti with his boat just keeping an eye on things. So if there's an emergency, he can bring them into shore and we have our first respond on shore. In case there's anything major happens. Okay. And then when they finish, they get a medal. Everyone brings a plate of food. We have a big picnic on the beach. It's just really awesome. And the idea is the challenge is to be able to get to cable boy and back. But if you get part way back and you get really tired, you're only ever at the very outside, 350m offshore. To lift and go to the beach. Yeah, basically. And you've got a kayaker that will take you in. And then you walk down the beach. Okay. And you're still finished. Yes. It's just to me that you've got something awesome going there that is like super social. Because I spoke to Sue, who is playing with you. Sometimes these ladies spend more time chatting at both one and they do swimming there. This Saturday should be interesting. We've got, hopefully, Christmas carols of the boys. Oh, nice. And then we're having a picnic lunch, a picnic breakfast afterwards. So if you're in the area, you should come and join us. Well, yeah, Christmas I'll be out of Auckland. But one year we did a, um, to us in New Year's swim. Yeah. And people took a bottle of champagne all the way to the cable boy. I was happy drinking. This is not the senseless thing we've ever done. I don't, I don't think I'd go quite that far. But we did think that if we had a group of boy one and a group of boy two, we could have a competition to see who could be the loudest and make sure the other group could either. I think that would be, you have to get somebody to be on a kayak and film that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Who carried the champagne bottle too? Of course it was Roy. Where did he put the bottle while he was swimming? Like he was in a tow float. Yeah. No, that's an amazing swimmer. No, Tatum, that was her first time she ever went to cable boy and she came back to, to squat. She was super chuffed. There's an amazing photo of me putting a medal around the lady's neck, her name is Joy. Originally from the UK, she lives here now with her husband. And when I met her, she's 59. When I met her she'd never been able to swim. Couldn't put her head under the water. It'd been terrifying water her whole life. She said to me one day she even struggled on the shower. She just didn't like the water touching her head. She completed it. Now she did, we actually have a slightly shorter course where they go to the first pink boy and boy two. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they skip boy one. She did the shorter course and she did little breaststroke. And now she finished that and decided afterwards, no, I need to learn freestyle. So she's now taught herself freestyle. It's so amazing getting people into the water that have got those worries and concerns. Yeah, just having that support. It's a confidence thing, yeah, because you can't do that on your own. You need to have people around you that you can ask questions. And it's going to be kind of people like yourself. I think what you said of having people like yourself is kind of... We have a nice little group at the moment that are staying near shore. They're all very, very new. I feel them not so good as swimmers, but they're getting there. And they stay near the shore with me and we are more going up and down the beach. And then eventually those new people will progress. They usually get out to the pink boy first. Then we get them out to the boy two. And then eventually they can go up and down a bit on the boy line. And over usually takes six to eight weeks, I found. And then after that, they're away. And they just go with the strongest swimmers. Yeah, as you're as confident as thing. Once you've done it once, then you realise that you can do it. After that, then it becomes easy, easy. Once I get them to that first pink boy. And then usually convince them to get to the yellow one from there they're away. They suddenly realise actually this wasn't scary. There's nothing here that I need to be worried about. Nothing's happened to me. I'm perfectly fine. Yeah, actually this is quite cool. I wouldn't mind doing this again. So most of you guys all come back. They come back to season. Awesome. I think last year we had about 70. So it is growing. Each week I have to rewrite my safety list because I have a list with everyone's details in case of an emergency. Stays in the van. Each week I'm having to reprint it because I'm having to have a name as well. So if you've got, you might have 30 or 40 people you say going for some. How do you keep track of them? We have usually between 35 and 40 each week currently. And we have a whiteboard. And they have to put their name on the whiteboard. Everyone at the start of the season or before they start swimming with us has to fill in a health and safety form. So we have a emergency contact details. Anything they're allergic to, any injuries, anything like that. They put their name on the whiteboard. And when they exit the water they put a line through it. So we can see them out. If they don't, we start ringing. And it's actually become a bit of a joke actually because someone forgets to cross their name off. I'm going to have to bring a cake the next time. But we also have that health and safety form. One, I have access to it through my phone. Two, I have it printed just tap away in the van. So if there's an emergency, we can access it. And we also have at least two or three of us usually with first aid kits in the car. And of course you've got the DFED but the toilet block and things like that. And you're pretty close to the hospital. So if there was anything major. Do many of your swimmers use toilets? Pretty much all of them. That's really cool. Our girlboy swim challenge is mandatory. That's a girlboy swim challenge. That's the one in the march. That's what we call it. Girlboy. Girls go to all the boys. Oh, girlboy. They're using for me. Those are slow boys. Yeah, so it's mandatory for that. So because most of them did it last year, they have them anyway. And those that turn up without one, we've usually got, think at the moment, a good about 10 in the van. Just some speeds, yeah. Yeah, we get them cheap and then we sell them off basically for cost price. Yeah. So anyone that turns up that once one there's one there, they can buy it off. Nice. Nice. A bit of everything. A bit of everything. We've just, we had a big wetsuit grant about six months ago from New Zealand community trust, which paid for 10 wetsuits for 10 of the ladies. Okay. Nice. We did it through team line. And I think the 10 ladies, they put their name forward and then we drew them out of a hat. Gotcha. Obviously there were more than 10 that put their hands up. Cool. And then I think it ended up costing each of them $82. The rest of it was covered by the grant. So they each had to contribute a little bit to it. And then at the same time, we have what we call a gear library. Gear library is usually donated stuff that we have. And then like we had a lady last year whose car was broke, was stolen with all the gear in the back, including her wetsuit. So we were able to give her a wetsuit to use for season until she get the insurance payout and stuff like that. Or you might have someone starting out and they're a bit nervous. So it gives them a bit of buoyancy now. Well, we've just been given eight wetsuits, brand new through Revell Sport for our gear library. Gotcha. And they turned up Friday last week. So we were able to show everyone on Saturday, two big boxes with wetsuits and that. That's such a nice idea. So your gear library, have you got like a, is it on your website? Anything like that? No, so it is, but we don't list the gear we have. Yes. That is listed within the Facebook group itself. So if we've got any listeners that want to donate to the group, how did they go about doing that? Well, they could contact us through our website, which is TwistedSistersClub.org. They could flick us a message to them. We actually had, there's a group that swim on a satellite called 8 o'clock at the toilet block. Yeah, I was one of the originals. Yeah, one of the ladies came up to us, probably about a month ago and she said, well, she actually messaged me and then she came up to me at the swim and said, I've got this wetsuit. It's got a bit of a hole. You can have it. Just get it fixed. We had a young lady turned up. She's a student. She'd been swimming for a couple of weeks. She was in a very old two-piece surf wetsuit. Oh, yeah. Not ideal. She's got a really cheap wetsuit. And I just handed her the wetsuit and said, look, here, go take this. You've had it the cost of it. That's exactly what you want, right? And I'm assuming SQL wetsuits that the wetsuit are. Yes, they could cleanse. Oh, yeah. We need to interview Clinton. Yeah, actually, that would be cool. No, we need to interview Clinton's dog. Oh, the yellow lamb. Is there any reason I go there to say the donkey? I think so. I'm the same. I spend more time with Henry than I do with Clinton. Yeah. But our gear library at the moment, I think I've got, I'm running out of space in my garage. I've got about 10 bikes. I've got, now, I've got, um, probably about 15 wetsuits. Yeah. We've got watches. We've got power pedals. That's awesome. Which is really, really cool. You're more than just swimming. We had the Iron Marry, which was a quarter and a half, which is a 70.3. That's a T-shirt, you're wearing that, yeah? Yes, because I did this one. Nice. And then, um, we also had the, the one in Tamaki last week and last Sunday. Not the Sunday just being one before. We had 17 racing there, which was really cool. Cool. So most of these people, a lot of them had never done anything like this before. They're 40 to 70. We've got a few in their 70s now. And they're just starting out. Not all of them are just starting out, but most of them are. Like, they weren't sort of super deep at least, in their 20s. That's awesome, right? That is cool, yes. Often you get people who were, you know, competitive swimmers when they were young and then they stopped and had families and everything, and then come back. But you're picking up people who just, are these people who said their kids are getting older. And they thought, we've always wanted to do this, but we haven't. Haven't had the time. Haven't had the finances. And we're giving them the ability to come along and do something without having to pay a stupid amount of money. I mean, most people can't afford to go to squat each week. Yeah. Having a coach is not cheap. Races are not cheap. No, there's all the gear. And you swimming gear, swimming wetsuits, they started about $5.50 and go up. Yeah. You imagine if you've then got a triathlon, and you've got bikes and watches and running shoes. Running shoes, caps and everything. Yeah. Well, a pair of shoes for me is $300. And if someone running long distance, they don't ask for it. No. Now, I remember that. I started running. Yeah, I started running and adding it up for Ironman. One day got to 20 grand and thought, no, I'm not going any further. This was quite a few years ago. Yes, I've heard that. Yes. Where did you get your running shoes from? I was going to shoe clinic. The last lot we got through shoe science, because they sponsored one of the events we did in September. We did what we call the Henderson Shuffle, which is a bit like a backyard ultra, but a little bit smaller and it goes for 12 hours. And you do as many laps of a 4K courses you can in 12 hours. The record was 105 kilometres, I believe. Was there a young... That was what Eva did. Yes. Oh, you know Eva? Yes. Eva did. She never done anything like that. We were the ones that got Eva running. Back in May. And then I helped her with where to go to get shoes and stuff like that. She wants to do the triathlon with my husband, because she can't ride a bike. Yeah, on the tandem model. Oh nice. Eva is a machine. She's an endurance machine. Yeah, she got two golds and two silvers at the Special Olympics last week. Yes, I heard about that. I heard about that. And the week before that, she came and swam with us. She did 12 by one mile. She swam 19.2k. No, that's not true. She only swam with two. So, to call it 10 miles, I mean, in a day, she's a machine. So, what you need to do with your shoes is because shoe signs take a puna. Yeah. Is a friend of ours. Okay. And we need to join the twisted sisters to shoe signs take a puna and see what we're going to do. That would be awesome. Yeah. Do you have any guys some special treatments? We've just applied. Everyone's going to know about this now. And I haven't told any of our members. We've just applied for another funding grant and the aim is to get shoes next. Gotcha. But this is what we do. We get whatever funding grants we can. And then that money gets spent on, has to be spent on those specific items. Yes. So, last time was wet suits. This time, we're hoping to look at shoes. Because it's one thing that if you don't have the right shoe, it can cause a big issues. Injuries and all sorts of things. He's got a couple of new placements, say. Yeah. Both sides do. But do you kind of play for a girl? Two placements. Too late to fix these words. Okay, so we'll, we'll sort you guys. It'll be awesome. We'll be awesome. We'll be catching touch with Raymond from shoe science. He's a runner himself. And in my personal opinion, he runs the best shoe science in the country. And he's super passionate about running. And he's a coach. Okay. So, if you want some help with some advice, you know. A big background on trail running across country. Yeah. Distance running, you know. So, good guards are on board. And he's right there. Yeah. Okay. That's awesome. I've seen you guys at the pool before. So, I see it struck you. You take your guys to the pool as well. I will win till we were going to book. But I can't. Yes. We were going on a Sunday morning rather than because we weren't doing the Seaswim. Coming season, we might see if we can keep the Seaswim going all year. Just make a little bit shorter for you. Some of us did carry on swimming. We were swimming every week. But we went at least once a month. Including doing the, like a winter solstice swim. Yeah. We were helping fundraise for Nick. Yes. Yeah, charity. It was a get in. I was brave enough to half take my wetsuit off. Once I was in the water and swim just in my togs. It's quite exhilarating. Yeah. You just don't want to spend too much time with me. No. No. But we did have one lady turned up a bit late and she gets in the water up to her waist going, you didn't tell me I could wear my wetsuit. Actually, we did tell you could wear your wetsuit. This is going. Yeah. So, that was a lot of fun. So, you've been doing a whole bunch of coaching. Do you have a coach yourself, though? I don't at the moment. I was, when I started off, I was with Tonya Hagen from my head in sport. Yeah. He passed away the June 2020. So, and my Ironman was March 21. So, my husband's coach, which was Andrew McClay from Buscoaching, he picked up my coaching for me and saw me through to the Ironman. And a bit further after that until I got the injury. And I had to stop. So, I still do a lot with him. When it comes to specific one-on-one swimming, I send all ladies to him. So, they go into town and do a one-on-one swim lessons with him. And then they come back and try to put it into practice. So, we tend to utilise, although I'm a coach myself, he's got more experience than I do with swimming. So, we tend to utilise a lot of professionals like, as you said, Raymond, Andrew, being a martial performance by school tuning, who I saw today. He said he'll do a bike maintenance course because some of the ladies can't change tyres yet. So, that will be early next year. So, we tend to utilise people like that in the industry. So, the people that are in our group that are then progressing, then end up going and do bike fits with Ben or swimming with Andrew. So, it's actually helping promote the other people in the industry. And then you've got Tatum Swims with Merlin. We've got a big group at the moment swimming with Dean Greedwood in Calston this morning. We had about four or five at one point. It was quite funny because we were wearing our pink twists and twists with caps. And I've got two more that are starting next year. So, yes. So, some of those guys are now starting to come along and swim with us on a satellite, because they've noticed the caps and they're asking questions. Yes. The caps, I'm assuming, are pink. Yes. Yeah, they are pink. Funnily enough, I'm not a pink person, but they are pink. The ones where our girl voice swim challenge won't be pink. They're more for bright colours that can be seen in the colour of them. We've got a couple of waves there. Yeah, we've got three. So, we limit that to 60 to 20 per wave. Got you. Just to make sure we're one second. Hi, listeners. Jim here. You probably know that Duncan and I have a little business called Swimscape. Swimscape supports swimmers doing marathon swims, but we also support groups doing relays. The little group that we're with the length of tarpo a couple of years ago, and we had such a good day, and it was a real fun experience. So, if you and your friends want to do a relays swim, or have any description, and need some support, please drop us a line at info at swimscape.co.nz and we can talk about it. Come on. You know it's going to be fun. So, it's really cool that you've got this whole group going, that's almost all women. So, just from your perspective, is the barriers that women in general face when they're looking at sort of getting into sports, or swimming in particular that you're able to overcome, or is it just that they like being together with others? Are you helping break down barriers? We're definitely breaking down barriers. It wasn't something that as a woman, I ever really understood until I saw the difference this was making for a lot of them. Mostly it's a confidence thing. They're too scared to come on and try. They're scared, they're too slow, they're scared that there will be a whole bunch of people faster than them, and they just won't fit in. Once they've figured out, well hang on, there's a whole big group of ladies here, and there are all some of the levels to me. It helps give them that confidence to get started, and what I've found is the more they do with us, it helps build their confidence, and then they have confidence to go and join other groups, and to do another stuff. That is definitely breaking down their barrier, and I hadn't realised how many women actually out there are too scared to try. Do they find you, or do you find them, or both? They're actually finding us at the moment. We do a brick session, usually for a couple of weeks before a big race, so we'll go and do a 20 minute swim, do about an hour on the bike, and then a 15, 20 minute run off it. It's to get the ladies, if they're doing a triathlon, used to, especially with a swim, having people around them where they're going to be touched. Yes. Because you don't run on the boy. Yeah, you don't want to be in a race situation, and have someone touch you, and completely panic when you're in water. So it's to practice the transition and all that. And what we've found is people coming up to us at the beach, saying, who are you, can I join? Can I join? Can I tell you what to do with this? We've got a couple of ladies that saw us at Taekwondo Beach and now it's coming swimming. You should put up a flag up or something when you're there. We don't. We've got a big flag that goes up. We've got a big flag that goes up. We can see us. And there's usually often a sign on my band. So I actually had one chap who swims with a bait-a-bait group. You know, they're sort of my ringy-based. So no, my wife wants to get into it, but she doesn't want to swim with it. With, you know, she's nervous swimming with a bait-a-bait. I said, oh, go ahead. I think I've spoken down. Quite likely. I said, oh, I reckon maybe she should have a chat with the twisted sisters and see if that works out. No, we have anyone to come and join. The only thing we do ask is they do fill in that health and safety form, which is on our website. There's a one page of this, just all about swimming. And it will say register. You just click that. Takes about two minutes to fill it in. And they do require the swim cap. They're $10 each, but if you are a club member, then you get it as part of your membership. So if they decide then to join the club, we give them a $10 discount because they're paid for the cap. Yeah. And that way everyone's got the same cap. And most people just come along on the first day and either do an internet transfer or just bring a $10. Yeah. And then they've got the cap that I've brought up. Nice. So what other, I hope I didn't interrupt you, but so there's the Takapuna sort of swimming scenario. Yeah. And then there's the triathlon focus, I guess. Yeah. Are there any other like events that you train for? Maybe a trail one or a mission from series events? Yeah. I don't know. South Island or something. We went down and did tarrow era. Yes. This year, we had a group of about 10 went down. Distances between the 21k and the 50. Yeah. Which is really cool. So we all have accommodation, we stay together. We also obviously went down and did Napier on November 1st. So that was for most of them. That was a really big event. Like nothing they have ever done before. What was the distance of that one? So the quarter is a 1k swim, 50k on the bike and a 10k run. The half is a 70.3. So 2k's, 90k's and a half marathon. Okay. That's big. So it is big. It's the equivalent of the 70.3 tailpipe. Yeah. And for most of them, they had never done anything like that before. They might have done, a couple of them had done something, you know, the same thing but smaller. None of them had done those sort of distances before. So it was really, really cool to see them all finish. A couple of us, just, the thing I like about the Iron Married 2 is you can go down and just do this one. Like it. But it was 13 degrees in the water and it looked calm. But oh man, there was a current. That was not an easy as well. That's just pretty cool. That's pretty cool. And I have a wetsuit that's got short legs and no arms. I regretted my choice with my wetsuit. But we also have people do other things. We had a couple. We did the tapo cycle challenge. So all sorts of various different bits and pieces. Yeah. Just depends. And often there will be people say, oh look, I'm going to go and do this. Does anyone want to come and do it with me? And then they'll have a cup of people to do it with. Which is really cool. Yeah. Yeah. There's a fair number of sort of events around the country. There are. And sometimes just by learning about them and having somebody to go with. Yeah. There's not just the events too. Like we had a group of seven years that I did a trail hike. Up in the white eggs. About nine and a half k's. Lots of stairs. And you end up at the dam. The white battery dam. It's a loop. So that was our first one of those. We're going to be doing them once a month. We've got a lady that's going to lead them. We also often ride on a Sunday. Yeah. So we take groups. We've been getting 12 to 15 on the rides now. So the ride numbers are growing really well. So a group of us go down and do the pigeon run. Which is in St Hallears on a Wednesday night. Which is a three five k run. It's based. It's run by the guy that owns the pigeon club across the road. At the fire end is St Hallears. And it starts with a little playgrounders and goes through a mission bay back. So that's a really nice social group. So rather than creating our own run, we go and do this. Because there's lots and lots of runs. So I create another one. Sure. So we try to utilize a whole bunch of different bits and pieces. And we try to give most of our members a range of things they can do. And just so that there's because not everyone swims. Yeah. But not everyone runs with a triathlon. So it's creating a range of things that they can be more active. You must be super busy. I'm about to say just a second. I am at the moment. In fact, I woke up a few days ago thinking, oh no, I've missed the interview on Monday. And then I realized, no, it's the coming Monday. Well, we just got super busy. You might have heard of the swim, swim for live ocean. Yes, I think I did. Yeah, so we're helping on the logistics and water safety side. Yeah. On that one. Yeah. Everything got a bit quiet from us from all because Jesus just be so busy. Yeah. It reminds me, I'm going to finalise the health and safety plans for our swim event. Yes. We're getting them submitted. We need to say that in March, yeah? Yeah, that's March 22nd, I think it's a Sunday. Okay. Is that for the council? No, actually, because we follow the yellow boillines, we don't need anything council. Okay. We've actually contacted them last year and they said, no, you don't require any council permits. We're on the beach rather than on the green field. So we're not actually having to normally that space. Yeah, so normally that field you would have to hire it basically. It doesn't cost anything. You've got to reserve it. We're more on the beach. We don't need that. We're not affecting boat traffic because we're only at the yellow boys. And it's not a race. There's no timing or anything like that. Yes. So we actually don't need any of the stuff that we're doing, but we do it anyway. Just for your own self, yeah. Yeah. Our club, who is a nurse, and she's also a St. John's youth cadet. So she's used to health and safety. In fact, two of them on our committee are youth cadets, so with St. John's. So we have a lot of safety protocols just to be on the safe side. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And with Trians, they handle all of our indemnity insurance for our events. For the bigger events, not the training sessions. So that's one of the requirements as we have to lodge everything with them. And then they just check it over and make sure it's all good. Two things. Blockies. Okay. So we're going to offer twisted sisters a figure out the logistics. We do marathon support around Rangitoto Island. For example, or across Lake Topal. Yeah. Let's do a relay. You put together a team. A relay around Rangitoto. Either Rangitoto or Lake Topal. You tell us how many sores you want. We'll tell you how many we can put on the bugs, how much support we need. Okay. So Rangitoto is about 20k's. Yeah. Topal's double net. Yeah. No, I think we'd stick with Rangitoto to start with because it's also an area they're used to. Yeah. How many swimmers would you... What sort of distance would they make up? Well, so normally... I mean, again, there should be getting people involved in the sports scenario. But normally the rules, like if you're following like English-Ten or rules or something like that, it's an hour on and an hour off. So that's generally like four people. But I think, you know, considering you've got some guys that are new to drop ocean swimming and potentially swimming lesser distances, I would probably say about eight or so. So the boat that you can see outside, we can easily put 10 to 12 people on the boat. Yeah. So, you know, it just gives you kind of options. And, you know, it's up to, you know, some half an hour at a time. 20 minutes at a time, doesn't it? Yeah. Doesn't really... So the boat just goes along on their swimming next to the boat, yeah? Yeah. So one swimming or water at a time? Okay. And then... And then they could, that swim, they can just say, yeah, I've had enough. Yeah, I've had enough. Or we can make a, you know, we can... We can say, like you said, we can do every 20 minutes. So it's always good to have a plan. As long as you realise that the plan's going to change. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, it's just something to... Yeah. It's a really fun day off. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That sounds like fun. But only if we can get a trusted sister. Okay. Oh, definitely. Because we did something. Yeah, that would be very cool. Yeah. Another group of women that you've probably come across, they call themselves the iron aunties. Yes, I have to go there. And you have the iron aunties. So we were actually friends with Woody. Yeah. And it's Woody's sisters and aunties. And it's a bunch of Maori women that have a similar sort of approach in that they put themselves into an uncomfortable challenge. Yeah. And keep themselves going. And they're sort of really themselves up. You know, they'll be like two of them all up. Okay, we're going to do this. But then they get like another six or seven girls wrapped in. Yeah. I've been trying to get them to do any as well. Just in the interest of supporting the sport and getting people in there. Because it's... I'm going to go home and tell my husband about this. And he's going to be so generous. You can come and support. And he wants to do the cook straight crossing. Oh, nice. That's a big swim there, though. Yeah. Yeah. That's a bit of a technicality involved with that time, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's... Yeah, that's so tough. Yeah. Wow. Well, tell us about your husband. What else does he do? He sounds like he does anything as well, yeah. He has mine in. He did his first triathlon when I did my first one. Okay. We both went down into the banana boat swimmer in Rotorua. And it was my first time swimming in the lake. And it was my first swim race ever. And I did 300 metres. And for some reason, I don't think I understood the difference between a tri suit and a wet suit. And for some reason, I decided to be warm enough to do it in my tri suit. No, buoyancy. No, I know. It wasn't so much that because the arthritis affects my ribcage. Okay. Oh, that's so tough. If I get really cold, I can't move my ribs. And then I can't inflate my lungs. So at the time I got out of the water, which I had to doggy paddle it, which I was not in rest with, I was weezing really bad and I had really bad chest pain. So I got cleared by the ambulance there. It's called Kostro Kondroitus. And it can be quite painful. And then my GP cleared me, but he said, I had to see a cardiologist, which I did. I got all the clearance for it. And then I said to my husband, look, would you do it alongside me just to make sure a case is an issue. So he did the first one and I'm swimming and he's swimming out to sea because he's bored. I told the lifeguard to go on the boat turn around and then go back. And then he was talking to me on the bike and I got upset and swore at him. So he left me alone. So his first one wasn't very good. And at that point, he had done the hub across and he was doing a long distance swimming. So you're going to do another one. He goes, no, I'm going to stick to my long distance, ocean swimming. Okay. Next thing I know, he'd signed up for Iron Man and I'm like, what is Iron Man? So and he's been doing them ever since. He really, really wants to get to Kona. Okay. Yeah, but he did do the cycle challenge a few weeks ago. I mean, that was his first time doing that. And he went to Bolton last year and did the last of the full Iron Man in Bolton. Okay. He's got family over there. So yeah, he's, and he's done lots of marathons and bits and pieces like that. So I don't think there's a day he doesn't train anymore. Nice. That's cool. That's very good. So he finished Iron Man the same, like the year I did it, he finished as well. And yeah. So he was, he was there at the finish line when I was awesome. I had a group of about seven or eight people running with me on the last, but because I was one of the last ones, they give you lots of extra support that you don't know yet. Including one of the volunteers riding his bike with my special needs, which should have been back on the tent in his hand. So he'd give me anything I needed. They just want you to finish. And yeah, he was, he was there for the end. Along with my, my parents and our daughter and he was a lady running next to me. He was about seven months pregnant that I had trained with. But it was actually quite, quite funny. But yeah. Just to see you do the finish, I'm hoping she doesn't do the whole thing. No, no, no. That's a special, special event that time. Yeah. So, um, but he's, he's carried on and done them ever since. That's not a cheap event either, right? No. No, it is not. Besides the bike and all the caretakers. Yeah. He's basically done enough now. He's done his 12 so that that means he can go to Kona. Yes. But that's even more expensive. But yeah, it's, it's a great. Well, how does the 12, what is that rule? Man, man. Well, if you do 12, complete 12, I mean, they will give you what they call a legacy slot. Okay. So it's the last wave and it's people that are qualified under the legacy. Oh. So normally you've got to do it within a certain time. Um, and he is in his 60s and to qualify, he would have to go like 10 hours. Yeah, yeah. Which is insane. Yeah. There's some amazing, you've fed all the people, right? You know, you know what it is. A lot of the, a lot of the, um, pros, I think they just be going normal, go as normal. Age group athletes. Yeah. And they fall into that category. Yeah, yeah. I swear that's what it is. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. That, that, my age group and his age group would be two of the most competitive. Yeah. I've always thought, because I, I don't do many of this from races. But I, every, no, then I think the only way I'm actually going to win is just by being the last one alive. Yeah. So you get to the next age group and the people who beat you five years ago are still there. And they're still walking you out. Yes. I and Mary, I, I wasn't very well. I was supposed to do the half, um, and I, and me very well at all. And I got hold of them and they said, look, you can either get a team, which we didn't have enough accommodation for the crew members. Or you could just do this one, which was two K. I said, okay, I'll just do this one. So that way I still get my shirt. I'm still there. And then also when I'm finished, I can be there for the rest of my athletes in the coaching. Sweet. No problem. I really didn't want to do it. I didn't know why. And it turned out I was actually sick as a dog when I came home. Which will be why. But I got in the water and as I said, it was 13 degrees. I was freezing cold. I was really struggling. I couldn't get my rib cage to move. So I couldn't breathe. And that then settled. Um, but I was having a lot of pain in one hip. And that just wouldn't go away. And there was a massive current. So it's a big square going clockwise. And when you swim down towards the, um, the wolf. And then you had to go in towards shore. And I was getting pushed into shore. And at one point I was swimming at a 45 degree angle to try and get back. And I was not getting anywhere. And I got to the end of the first lap, supposed to do the second lap going right. That's it. I'm done. I'm out of here. I'm over this. I'm just not going to finish it. And then there was a guy floating on his back. And he went to do the second lap. And I'm like, that's really unfair. He can carry on. I can definitely carry on. So with a whole lap, there was him and a lady behind him. And every time I'd get to the boy, I'd call out to both of them. Come on, you can do it. You can do it. So I was encouraging them to keep going. I got out of the swim. My daughter-in-law who did the one-case swim. She was there waiting for me. She goes, thank God you finished. She goes, you were the only one in the 2k. You automatically win because you finished. Oh, yes. And I would have been gouted if I could have had that half of it. So I got this big trophy here. That's cool. Because I was the only one doing the 2k swim. Super cool. Oh no, it's lovely. Do you find there's a big difference between the ocean and a lake? Definitely. Lakin' on his buoyant. For me, the first cup of swimmers on the lake, I'm a lot slower. And I find it get tired a bit more easier. It's just like thicker water almost. Yeah, yeah. You've got to work harder for it. I think you've got a better technique in all that. Yeah. Well, that's what I found with me anyway. Down in Lake Tellpro and that. I love swimming there. You can be swimming along. You're looking down the bottom, going, why is there a miniature golf pool? You put miniature golf pools in there. And then you realise they're not miniature. They're just 20 metres down. They're tiny. I saw a swim cap. And it was literally the size of my big thumbnail. That's how deep it was. 20 metres deep. Yeah. And it's so clear. And if you get thirsty, will you just open your mouth and everything? That's great. Yeah. Just make sure you're not behind someone. Yeah, yeah. It's going to say, you're going to do that on eye-made day. So, you know, when you get out of a swim race and you run up the beach or whatever it is, and generally, they've got those mats. Yeah. On the arches with the Thomas the People. Now, I've been involved with a lot of these events. We helped pack things up afterwards. Now, if you could imagine all the guys swimming in their witsuits. Right. And then they'll stand up and exit the ocean and run. Right. Now, those mats stink of urine. Oh, yeah. They absolutely stink of urine because everybody reads in their witsuit. Right. So, yeah, definitely think about drinking the water at a topo of your suede. Why do you worry about it because all the wheeze in the witsuit? The way I figure it, so long as you're at the front of the pack. Yeah, it's good. Just don't drink it if you're at the back. Yeah, yeah. That's why I never drink anything. Have you got any, like, swimmers that sort of jump out as being sort of special memories or any sort of achievements that they've done or an experience that's been super difficult for them? Well, as I said, the lady Joy finishing that girl boy challenge. Got you. That would be one of, that would have to be one of my favourite memories. We had an awards night in May and we gave her swimmer of the year because of what she had to overcome to actually do that. Okay. And there's a few at the moment that I'm looking at them. Like, there's a lady, she owns Valley Worship on Mission Bay. Yeah, and her brother. And she comes over to Mission Bay. She's trained with Andrew from Boost. Yeah. But she was terrified of the water when I first met her. And she really wanted to do this triathlon. And now, I mean, she's still nervous. But now she gets in and swims and she even swim out to the boy. And it's just so cool to see how they progress. Yeah. I was swimming along one day with Joy. It was his head she's just learnt to do freestyle. And it was her first swim in the season. And she was doing freestyle. And we were swimming back towards the shore. And I looked up and she'd swapped a breaststroke. And I was like, Oi, Joy! Cut that out. And everyone just looked at her again. What are you doing wrong? And I was like, freestyle. The camera bit of a joke. And she was swimming with her husband one day. He joined us. And I was encouraging her and all that. And afterwards, apparently, he said to her, it was like watching a mother duck and all her babies. And he said he felt I was more excited than anyone else was. Well, the duck story makes sense, because we were going for a swim a couple of weeks ago and all of you guys were in the water. And we, somebody who refers to a bunch of chickens, there was lots of, lots of nettering going on at that stage. Yeah. I know when we first started this season, and the first time we went down to the beach, and it was really funny, because all of a sudden you hear this, all these little squeals as people got in the water for the first time and it was really cut. Now they get back to the beach afterwards and they just stand there. They don't want to get out. Yeah. That is awesome. We usually go up to the coffee shop and help them, help their husbands, and have something to eat in the coffee. And not at all of them stay, but probably about a third of them stay. And I think I swear we're just about taking over the coffee. The girlboy swim challenge, it was on the Sunday, and our satellite swim got rained off. So they actually opened early so that we could give out the gearbox and we could come down again. Oh, nice. The race back. Yeah. Which is really cool. It's a good close-to-compina, right? Yeah. Right. Well, this has been wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing your story. Thank you for having us. Everything that you do. Well, hopefully you might, there might be a few more ladies out there that hear this and realize that they could come along and join in with you. Yeah. Yeah. Super cool. Give us your website once more. TwistedSistersClub.org. You are a legend, keep doing what you're doing, and we'll see you around on Twitter sometimes soon. I'm all right. Yeah. Awesome. Thanks, Kylie. No race. Hi, my name is Caitlyn O'Reilly. I'm the youngest person who have completed the Ocean 7 Challenge. And if this really cool podcast has helped you learn something new, maybe it's introduced you to new swimmers, made you smile, then please take the opportunity to subscribe to Duncan and Jim's channel. I'm sure they would absolutely appreciate all your support. Cheers. Thank you, Caitlyn. As always, if you would like to give us feedback you can find us on Instagram at SwimscapeAdventures or email, which is infoatswimscape.co.nz. If you enjoyed this, please consider rating our show wherever you get your podcasts. It helps new people find the show. Thanks and we'll talk again soon.