FEATURE
Type Ryan Stramrood’ s name into the Guinness World Records database and three entries pop up – though he has held a fourth record too, one since eclipsed.
His current list: A first-ever international relay swim across the Bering Strait and a first open water swim around Cape Horn.
Both of those were group efforts. Then, just when you thought it couldn’ t get any more extreme, there’ s the third one – the fastest circumnavigation swim around St Helena Island. An extraordinary feat achieved by covering the 48km distance in just 16 hours 50 minutes and 42 seconds.
But Stramrood thrives on extraordinary. He’ s completed 146
Robben Island crossings, swum a mile in the icy Antarctic, and compiled a crazy list of achievements that include destinations such as the English Channel, Alcatraz, the Strait of Gibraltar, Siberia and Alaska.
“ The main attraction for me to make an attempt on Saint Helena Island when I saw the opportunity was the fact that it had never even been attempted before. It is so remote, it is so wild, it is so unforgiving, and those are the things that tick my boxes as an adventure swimmer,” explained the businessman, entrepreneur and motivational speaker.
“ I love the pioneering aspect of trying to be something first, figuring it out, doing the homework, doing the research, making the attempt, hopefully succeeding and paving the way for others.”
It turns out two other swimmers got there before him, but that didn’ t deter Stramrood who had just four months between making the decision to take on the challenge and actually arriving on the Atlantic Ocean island.
That meant building from 10 – 15km a week in training to around 50km, balancing pool and open-water sessions with around a 60-40 split, while managing injury risk at age 52.
While the open water training was essential, nothing could have prepared him for the water he was met with in St Helena.
“ The conditions around Saint Helena Island are something to behold and completely different to anything I’ ve ever done,” he said, mentioning the wind he experienced from every angle during the circumnavigation.
It wasn’ t only the wind he was battling.
“ The main problem with the conditions of a Saint Helena swim is that most of the circumference is sheer cliff faces and the waves come in and bash those cliff faces and then refract back...
“ Also, you have the island’ s shelf that comes up from the deep ocean at quite a steep angle, and this causes the water to be really tumultuous. So the conditions for me were absolutely hectic.
“ That was all covered in my research. But what I did not expect is that for at least 46 of the 48 kilometres I would have that washing machine effect, and it was exceptionally difficult to swim in.”
While the physical challenges were extreme, almost 17 hours in the water puts your mind to the ultimate test, particularly when starting out at midnight and heading into the black of night.
“ As soon as you leave the harbour, which takes all of one minute, you are in the darkest of the dark water you could possibly imagine, and that water immediately becomes exceptionally rough and tumultuous. To do that in the pitch dark and knowing you have seven hours ahead of this rough water, where you are denied any kind of rhythm, is quite a mental challenge to say the least.”
Part of Stramrood’ s strategy was not to simply power through the mental anguish but to allow himself to feel and deal with it.
“ I pre-think … how I am going to react to the curveballs, how I am going to keep a sense of humour and stay in a positive frame of mind. Because when you are exhausted and you are hurting all over because of chafe and various other things, your muscles and your shoulders are screaming at you, the smallest thing that goes wrong can spiral very quickly and you have to know that and you have to be able to mitigate that.
“ A tool that I use is allowing myself to feel the feeling. This is very important to me … I am not a grin and just bear it person with a push-it-out-of-yourmind-and-harden-up kind of attitude or mindset. I acknowledge the feeling I’ m feeling. I allow the emotion to release. I understand it. This all happens in my own head, and I work through it that way rather than try and pretend it wasn’ t there.”
Also pulling him along was a mental image of a particular car tyre embedded in the Jamestown harbour wall that he noticed when he had set off.
“ I fantasised about that tyre for nearly 17 hours,” he said, knowing that once his circumnavigation was complete, he’ d see that tyre again – and touch it to mark the finish.
Only this time, there was a crowd of 50 or 60 people waiting for him to finish and cheering him on.
“ This was the first swim I ' ve ever finished where there has been a crowd waiting for me and applauding. So it was a really great feeling.”
After a medical check, Stramrood thanked the crowd and was handed a well-earned beer.“ Not generally the preferred drink post a 17-hour swim,” but a nice thirst-quencher nevertheless.
“ I was in a lot of pain and my throat was on fire.”
After an ordeal like that, you’ d have to always come back to the question of why? Why put yourself through something so extreme?
“ My motivation to take on swims of this scale lies, I suppose, in my strong desire to find growth within. I’ ve realised long ago in my swimming journey that if you don’ t set goals beyond a point you know you can achieve, you’ re not going to grow.
“ So I push myself and I look for goals where I say I don’ t actually know if I can swim that distance or in that temperature or whatever the case may be.
“ Then I do the research, the training, and I try and get it done.”
That philosophy, and all the adventures it’ s led him to attempt, is something Stramrood now shares around the world as an inspirational speaker.
So what comes next? There’ s no set to-do list.
“ Believe it or not, I do not have a list of swims that I am waiting to do. I keep myself fit, I try enjoy my swimming in between until another challenge pops up that I catch wind of or I come up with that really presses the right triggers for me, the right buttons inside my head.”
And what a remarkable headspace that is.
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