Endurance swimmer Jono Ridler has embarked on a 1,000-mile world-record attempt to swim the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island unassisted – a major feat that carried with it one clear call to the country’s lawmakers to end bottom trawling in New Zealand waters.
Launched this week from Waikuku, North Cape, the campaign – aptly titled Swim4TheOcean – is delivered in partnership with marine conservation charity Live Ocean. Ridler’s route will trace the entire east coast of the North Island, a journey expected to take around 90 days.
With every stroke southward, he is carrying a clear message to decision makers in Wellington: it’s time to end bottom trawling.
The campaign is being shared with the public in real time via a live tracker on Swim4TheOcean.org, which displays Ridler’s location, pace, progress and the conditions he faces at sea. His schedule will involve long, rotating swim shifts, carefully timed to work with the tides. For the first few days he will swim during daylight hours, before transitioning to day-and-night swimming. On day one, he completed just over three hours in the water, covering 9.2 kilometres.
Ridler was waved off at Waikuku by mana whenua, with Ngāti Kuri representatives gathering to acknowledge the beginning of his record attempt. Family and supporters were also present, including Ridler’s parents and Blair Tuke, an Olympic sailor and co-founder of Live Ocean.
Conditions on the opening day offered an early test. A 15-knot easterly breeze, a swell of around 1.5 metres and surface chop challenged both swimmer and support crew. Both the tide and current will be decisive factors throughout the journey; at North Cape, the flow was running across Ridler’s southbound route and did not significantly hinder his progress.
“There’ll be ups, there’ll be downs, there’ll be challenges, there’ll be euphoria. It really will be a crazy adventure for the next 90 days. I feel nervous and excited at the same time – I’m keen to get going, to stop thinking and to start doing,” Ridler said before setting out.
“It comes back to why we’re doing this… it’s about igniting New Zealanders around the race for a healthy ocean. If you’d like to support this, put your name to the call to end bottom trawling on swim4theocean.org. You can also leave a message for me that will help to power me through when things get tough.”
