Public support is growing, with more than 2,300 people signing the call for action and the first community stopover planned at Waitangi on Tuesday 13 January.
113km down: Swim4TheOcean gains momentum in first week
By Live Ocean
11/01/2026
Read time: 3 min
Article Summary
Main Points
One week into his unassisted Swim4TheOcean world-record attempt, Jono Ridler has swum 113km over nearly 36 hours from North Cape toward Wellington, partnering with Live Ocean to call for an end to bottom trawling.
Battling sunburn, nausea and changing sea conditions, he has completed his first two-swim day, encountered whales and sharks, and begun night swimming under favourable currents.
A week since he waded into the surf at Waikuku Beach, North Cape, Jono Ridler has logged 113km and close to 36 hours swim time in his unassisted staged swim world-record attempt.
Partnering with Live Ocean in this Swim4TheOcean, he’s destined for Wellington taking a clear call for New Zealand to end bottom trawling.
Favourable conditions over the past two days have seen him clock long days and level up from daytime only swims to do his first two-swim day yesterday covering 26km, passing outside Mahinepua, Stephenson Island and coming ashore to base camp at Taupō Bay.
In week one he’s pushed through nausea and is now battling sunburn; he’s faced challenging sea conditions and enjoyed calm days; he’s encountered marine life – whales, seabirds and sharks. All expected challenges in an endurance feat of this scale.
Ridler’s wearing only swim togs, cap and goggles and doesn’t touch the support boat or people while in the water, in order to comply with ‘unassisted’ marathon swim rules. He’s suffered from sunburn in the sweltering conditions over recent days.
“It was really nice conditions. My body felt a little bit tender this morning with the sunburn, but it went away after a short while and then it was all about getting into the work,” he said after coming out of the water around 11am having swum three hours and close to 12km.
The crew pulled into Taupō Bay for a rest period through the hottest part of the day before heading back out and getting an evening swim leg underway, from 6-10pm.
Andy Tuke, On Water Lead for the operations team reported nice conditions with breeze from the northwest of about 9 knots during the evening. Mid shift he reported; “Jono’s going along really well with some positive current assistance. The sun’s going down and we’re going to swim for another two hours taking us through to around 10pm. It’s our first night swim.”
Swim4TheOcean calls for an end to bottom-trawling and the message is resonating with New Zealanders on-the-beach, on the water and online. Already more than 2,300 have signed the call for action at Swim4TheOcean.org
The first Swim4TheOcean community stopover will be at the Bay of Islands – and Ridler looks set to make it to Nine Pin at the outer entrance within the next 24 hours. He’ll transfer ashore and locals will have an opportunity to shake hands with Ridler between 3-5pm on Tuesday 13 January at Waitangi.
The ultra distance swimmer is attempting to swim the entire east coast of the North Island and minimising distance by ‘straight-lining’ between iconic coastal landmarks has aided his progress in week one. The on-water Operations Team are also ensuring he’s making the most of favourable current where possible.
Typically, rather than swim ashore, Ridler transfers to and from the last marked GPS point of each swim leg on the Swim4TheOcean StabiX support boat.
The plan for today, Monday 12 January is two swim legs, the first kicked off at 6am with another swim set to start in the evening and roll into nighttime.
People can follow the swim via live tracker and sign the call for an end to bottom trawling at swim4theocean.org
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