‘Crazy Energy’ – Tuke Joins Ridler in the Water

A fifth consecutive day of back-to-back, two-swim efforts of 25km-plus has seen Jono Ridler edge closer to breaking through the 200km-to-go mark in this epic Swim4TheOcean.

Across the past five days he’s logged 42 hours in the ocean and covered around 124km south down the Wairarapa coastline. The distance to go now stands at 213.14km. 

On Thursday 19 March, Jono faced grey skies, choppy seas and more jellyfish stings as he made his way south. The team left base camp at Herbertville for a daylight start, pushing through four hours and around 10km by lunchtime. 

After a short rest ashore at Ākitio, Jono and the crew were back out again at 2:43pm for the second swim of the day, with Live Ocean Co-founder Blair Tuke on board the support boat for the afternoon session. 

Encouraged by Jono, Blair pulled on some togs and jumped in for a stint as support swimmer, reporting a “full ice-cream headache” once back on board after half an hour in the water. 

He’d swum with Jono before, but that was in the middle of the Hauraki Gulf on a sunny day. 

“Not in the same stratosphere. I got in here and it was totally different,” Blair said. 

“It was pretty awesome… the sense of energy coming off Jono, I was behind him, and I was just trying to keep up. I could see him, and he was powering through stroke after stroke – crazy energy. This man is just going for it, with Wellington in his sights. 

“Personally, I found it really hard. The cold was super hard to contend with and this choppy sea state, I’ve never swum in anything like that before and it made it really hard to breathe. Struggling to breathe, freezing cold – just hanging onto Jono’s strength and trying to stay with him. 

“It was really cool to be in there with him again, especially in this really remote part of the coast.” 

The day wrapped with a four-hour, 9km evening push in easing conditions, bringing the five-day block to a close as Jono came ashore at Ākitio just before 7pm. 

Reflecting on the stretch, Jono said, “Well that’s a wrap on this five-day block. There’s been some really cool moments over those five days – of course the dolphins. That’s a life highlight.  The number of encounters that we’ve had all along this stretch of coast with some huge, huge pods. 

“Swimming today and yesterday there’s been these big congregations of salp of all shapes, colours and sizes. 

“The mollymawks coming by and landing right next to me, and of course swimming with not just one, but two Black Foils swimmers over the last five days.

“There have been some challenges – the incessant stings of the barbed wire jellyfish, cooling water temperatures, and just the sheer relentlessness of this programme. 

“But in the face of all of that we have made some really great progress. I’ve done 42 hours of swimming in the past five days and about 124km, which gets us just that much closer towards our final destination. 

“Tomorrow is a weather-forced break, but a good opportunity to put our feet up, and we’ll monitor again for Saturday.” 

Jono’s effort isn’t going unnoticed. Followers are growing, and so too is the number of signatures on the mission’s call for action to end bottom trawling. More than 32,000 people have now signed, showing they agree it’s time for New Zealand to stop being an outlier and protect the ocean’s most vital habitats. 

That’s tens of thousands of people calling on the Government to end bottom trawling on all seamounts – at home and on the high seas – by the end of 2027, and to activate a quick transition away from bottom trawling entirely. 

Follow Jono’s progress on the live tracker and add your name at Swim4TheOcean. 

Projected distance to go: 213.14km

Total distance covered: 1,152.36km 

Swims at a glance – 19 March 

Swim 1

Time: 4 hours 1 min 
Distance: 10.06km 
Average speed: 2.5km/h 

Swim 2

Time: 3 hours 58 mins  
Distance: 8.96km 
Average speed: 2.3km/h