An Ocean Swim Story

On Friday 20th March 2009 i became the oldest person in the world to swim Cook Strait i am 55yrs old. I was looking for a new challenge after 15 Ironmans and your Ocean swim series that i have done a few years now gave me the inspiration to take up the ch

Hi Scott, Natasha and all the crew from the series, On Friday 20th March 2009 I became the oldest person in the world to swim Cook Strait i am 55yrs old. I was looking for a new challenge after 15 Ironmans and your Ocean swim series that i have done a few years now gave me the inspiration to take up the challenge to swim Cook Strait. I started my swim at 10am from Ohau Point in the North Island and finished in 9hrs and 23mins 2kms east of Perano heads in the South Island.It was a tough day big seas and the water temp dropped from 18deg to 16deg (NO wetsuit) My coach Scott Donaldson from Rotorua has worked with me for the past 18mths and was on the boat next to me all day he has done a superb job.Phillip Rush and his crew were fantastic the navigation was spot on everybody did a marvellous job on the day for me to achieve this.It is a shame i have no memory of the last few kms as I was very cold hypothermia had set in and I started swimming in circles I may have added an extra 20mins to my time but I made it to land and that is what counts. I wanted to share this with you all as your series was part of my journey to achieve this I am sorry to have missed the Mount swim as it was the day after. I will see you all at King of the Bays next month.