Lewis Pugh - Swim Quotes

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I have been haunted by that swim through the whale graveyard and haven't been able to get the image of the bones out of my head. Man hunted whales almost to the point of extinction, not seeming to care that we would lose one of the wonders of the sea world forever. It is the coldness of the water in Antarctica that preserves the bones and makes it look like they were left there yesterday but I like to think they are there as a reminder of man's potential for folly.

Lewis Pugh
This wasn't some kind of stunt. This was a symbolic swim, and I needed to be courageous. [...] Swimming in a wetsuit or drysuit just wouldn't send the right signal.

Lewis Pugh
A thought came across my mind: if things go pear-shaped on this swim, how long will it take for my frozen body to sink the four and a half kilometers to the bottom of the ocean?

Lewis Pugh
I could not believe what I was seeing: everywhere there were whale bones. Thousands of them stacked on top of each other. They rose from the seabed almost to the surface of the water. There were big bones. I could make out many of them: rib bones, jaw bones, vertebrae. In some places they were piled so high that, when I took a stroke, my hands touched them. I thought of all the beautiful whales I'd seen around the coast of South Africa and Norway that add so much to the area. How many whales were hunted and brought to this island before having their carcasses burned for oil and their bones dumped in this way? It disgusted me to such an extent that I considered stopping the swim to move it elsewhere, but I decided I had to press on.

Lewis Pugh
Being the first to undertake a swim is exponentially harder than going second. You don't know what will happen. The fear can be crippling. It's much easier to go second. You know it's possible. But the world is divided into pioneers and followers. You are one or the other. I prefer to be a pioneer.

Lewis Pugh
You must not dither - swim like you're running through a minefield.

Lewis Pugh
... when you swim from England to France you've got to leave your doubt on the beach at Dover.

Lewis Pugh
I resolved to follow my dream. I wanted to push every boundary. I wanted to swim further than anyone else. I wanted to cross seas and round capes that no one had dreamed of swimming before. And I wanted to swim in waters that were so cold no one thought it was possible to survive in them. And though it promised to make me poor and would take away the security provided by a career in law, that didn't worry me.

Lewis Pugh
A massive turquoise glacier feeds into Magdalenefjord, with chunks of ice as big as buildings breaking off and landing in the water to float away as icebergs. As I swam past them, with my head in the water, I heard a tantalising sound: a snap-crackle-pop, just like Rice Krispies in milk. It was the sound of tiny air bubbles being released from the ice – air that had been trapped there as much as 3,000 years ago. To swim through this sound, I thought, is to swim in history.

Lewis Pugh
When people say to me, you must have a very strong mind to swim across the North Pole, or off Antarctica or on Mount Everest, I tell them that endurance swimming builds good mental strength.

Lewis Pugh
My mind has to be ready. My body also has to be ready. But even more important, my heart has to be ready. What I mean by that is for the swims I do, I must have a burning reason.

Lewis Pugh
I look for swims where I can carry a powerful message. No message, no swim. I don't get wet now unless it's for a reason.

Lewis Pugh
I've been swimming for 25 years, and I don't think there is one swim that I have done where someone didn't say beforehand, 'I don't think it's possible' or 'You'll never make it'. If someone tells you that you can't achieve your dream, don't waste good time arguing. Walk away and do it.

Lewis Pugh
I knew now that I had to stand up and start speaking about protecting our environment. From that moment on, every swim should have the aim of inspiring people to protect and preserve the world's oceans and all that live in them.

Lewis Pugh