Former Dunedin swimmer Philip Rush, New Zealand's greatest ocean swimmer, was inducted into the NZ Sports Hall of Fame. He talks with sports writer Alistair McMurran about his deeds in the ocean.
"I remember it vividly," Rush told the Otago Daily Times.
"They were having a shark-fishing contest around the back of the island. When we got back there I saw three sharks hanging close to where we had been swimming. There were a few things that would make your hair curl."
The memory of that race did not stop Rush continuing his long-distance ocean swimming. It was a life that took him to all parts of the world.
His international career lasted from 1979 to 1988. He is still the world record-holder for the fastest two (16hr 10min) and three-way (28hr 21min) swims of the English Channel which he completed in 1987.
Only two other swimmers have completed a three way-swim of the channel: Jon Erikson in 1981 and Alison Streeter in 1990.
Rush swam the English Channel 10 times and Cook Strait on eight occasions. He completed a double crossing of Cook Strait in 1984 and 1988 with a best time of 16hr 16min. Only one other swimmer has completed the double crossing.
Sharks were always on his mind but he had confidence in the safety measures that had been put in place.
"Sharks are funny," Rush said. "They will circle first before they attack. They can't come up from underneath because of the way their mouth is sitting."
But it is a bit frightening when swimming Cook Strait in the middle of the night.
"It's pitch black," Rush explained. "You have a big boat in front of you and two small IRBs beside you. You can't see anything."
There are no dangers from sharks in the English Channel. "It is too dirty for sharks to live there," Rush said.
Rush found jellyfish a bigger problem than shark attacks.
"When we swam at Cabo-San Lucas out of Mexico I was stung by jellyfish while training. It paralysed my whole side," Rush said. "That was my worst experience."
Rush also swam into containers in the English Channel and split two fingers.
"It's quite common," Rush said. "They fall off in rough seas and sit just under the water. I tried to claim salvage but it was a long way to tow it back to land."
When Rush first ventured into ocean swimming he covered his body with oil fat and lanolin.
"It used to take hours to get off in the showers afterwards," he said.
But the best solution he found to stop chafing was industrial petroleum jelly.
"It stopped the jellyfish from sticking," he said. "They just slid off the jelly."
Rush grew up in Dunedin and training off Dunedin beaches got him used to swimming in colder waters.
"I carried a bit of excess fat and could swim at a speed that generated enough heat to keep warm as long as the water temperature didn't drop below 7degC," he said.
Conquering cold water was just a matter of mind over matter.
"But eventually the cold will get you," Rush said. "It will slowly chip away and get inside."
Rush was beaten by cold conditions only once - when attempting a triple crossing of Cook Strait. He was dragged out of the water unconscious after 20 hours in Cook Strait.
"It was the only time I've been pulled out of the water with hypothermia," he said. "I didn't know where I was for hours afterwards."
It was a swim of disasters.
They started 30 minutes late when a rope got stuck around the prop of the launch. It put him 30 minutes behind the tide and meant an extra 3km swim on the first crossing to Wellington.
He got further and further behind the time schedule and swam into the cold current on the third crossing when the water temperature dropped 10deg from 16degC near the South Island.
"Hypothermia was building up all the time," he said. "I got halfway across the channel toward Wellington. That's all I can tell you. I can't remember the rest."
His coldest swim was across the lake at New Brunswick in Canada against the world's top 10 ocean swimmers.
"We started in a gale and the Americans, as usual, pulled out first and were rushed to hospital," Rush recalled. "They couldn't handle the cold water."
There were just three swimmers left in the race - an Egyptian, Argentinian and Rush.
"They wanted to cut a deal so we would all hop out of the water together and split the prize money," Rush said. "We were spread apart and couldn't come to a deal over the support boat radios."
The other two swimmers ended up in hospital and Rush carried on swimming for another 2hr 30min until race organisers called it off because of rough the water was too rough and the temperatures too cold. Rush was declared the winner and collected the prize money.
Other swimmers on the circuit knew that Rush excelled in cold temperatures and when the water was rough.
Rush's tough mental approach was a key factor in his success.
"Marathon swimming is a funny sport," he said. "It is not like marathon running where you can chat to the runner beside you.
"In marathon swimming the more you talk the further back you go.
There is only one way to go - head down and [bum] up.
"It is not the first hour that matters, or the second. You may hit the wall after three hours.
Then every half hour after that you get hit with a hammer blow on your shoulders.
"It is your mind telling you that you don't want to be here and put yourself through hell.
You just have to put this out of your mind and move on to the next stage. All this goes on in your head."
The sense of time also becomes erratic.
"You think it must be half an hour when you last talked to your coach. It turns out to be just two or three minutes. It is your mind playing tricks.
"Initially it was hard to learn this because you have these highs and lows.
But in the end it became very easy."
In the early days Rush ate chocolate, fish and chips and drank Coke during swims.
"I'd get great sugar rushes and then all of a sudden I'd feel like crap," he said.
"I was having these great highs and then I'd crash down. It was just ugly. It was horrible.
With the help of his Wellington-based coach Tony Keenan, Rush got advice from sports science.
"We had to take the tops off the hills and make it more even in the race," Rush said.
"I still had lows but they weren't as bad."
The chocolate, Coke, Sustagen and some milk products were chucked out.
"We changed to a high carbohydrate food, a lot of fluid and drank a lot more plain water," he said.
It was a learning curve for Rush. He took enough carbohydrates to last three hours but then had to keep topping up with good energy food every 30 minutes.
Philip Rush
Age: 48.
Occupation: Fireman.
Sport: Ocean swimming.
International career: 1979-1988.
Coaches: Duncan Laing, Tony Keenan.
Record: World record-holder for the fastest two (16hr 10min) and three- way (28hr 21min) swims of the English Channel in 1987; swam the English Channel 10 times and Cook Strait on eight occasions; record for double crossing of Cook Strait in 1984 and 1988 (16hr 16min).
