Ultra-marathon swimmer Jono Ridler is heading for Gisborne in his Swim4TheOcean campaign that started in North Cape and will end in Wellington. He left from Tokomaru Bay on Thursday morning and intended to swim for 11 hours.
Ultra-marathon swimmer Jono Ridler is heading for Gisborne in his Swim4TheOcean campaign that started in North Cape and will end in Wellington. He left from Tokomaru Bay on Thursday morning and intended to swim for 11 hours.
Ultra-marathon swimmer Jono Ridler resumed a 1400km mission from Tokomaru Bay this morning, bound for Gisborne.
The 36-year-old Aucklander was around 800km into his Swim4TheOcean campaign – a swim down the east coast of the North Island that started at Waiuku Beach, North Cape, on January 5 and isexpected to finish in Wellington early April.
Swim4TheOcean is a public awareness campaign calling for an end to the industrial fishing method of bottom trawling and promoting healthy oceans.
The swim is also an attempt at the world record for the longest unassisted staged swim.
Weather disrupted Ridler’s progress this week as he swam down the East Coast.
Tuesday morning off the East Coast was extraordinary for Jono Ridler because of the bioluminescence in the water. "Every time I was taking a stroke, I could see it sparking up my arm."
Ridler and his support team went ashore at Tokomaru Bay on Tuesday night and stayed at Te Ariuru Marae.
“We got a really cool welcome when we arrived,” he told the Gisborne Herald.
“We spent the day there because of the southerly change that came through,” he said. “It was decided not to even get on the water.”
Ridler said the hospitality he and the team had received all the way down the coast was “amazing”, and they were very grateful.
“We intend to resume Thursday morning and I hope to swim 11 hours today.”
Ridler hit the water at 4am on Tuesday.
“It was a nice morning, both deeply uncomfortable and extraordinary at the same time.
“Extraordinary because of the bioluminescence in the water. Every time I was taking a stroke, I could see it sparking up my arm.
“Deeply uncomfortable because swimming at night is very unnatural, and I couldn’t see anything below me.”
As of Wednesday morning, he and his team were 80km from Gisborne.
Sharks have been sighted at times during Jono Ridler's marathon swim down the east coast of the North Island, but his support team take good care of him, using a shark shield device to deter anything sinister.
“At this stage, depending on the weather, we’re aiming to be in Gizzy early next week,” he said.
Over the 800km completed, he has encountered all sorts of marine life – jellyfish, turtles, whales, penguins, schools of fish, dolphins and some sharks.
“There’s been quite a few sharks sighted coming round East Cape,” he said. “There was hammerhead the other day, and another hammerhead and a bronze whaler off Lottin Point.
“They haven’t come close [enough] to be of concern. They were just cruising around. I normally hear about them from the support crew after I get out of the water each day.
“Sharks are on my mind, though, particularly when the water is murky, and when it’s dark and I cannot see much, like the other morning.”
The Swim4TheOcean on-water team deploy a shark shield as a deterrent.
“We have that dangling in the water and it sends out a small electrical pulse,” water safety lead Ben Goffin said.
“It’s uncomfortable enough to deter anything that wants to get too close to Jono.”
“Heck yeah. I’m still confident we’ll get there by then.”
Ridler is swimming in minimal clothing: no wetsuit, just swim togs and goggles.
Close to 19,000 people have already added their names to the Swim4TheOcean call for action. New Zealanders can track Swim4TheOcean live and add their name to the call to end bottom trawling at swim4theocean.org
