swim from Matapouri to the Poor Knights<\/a> Islands and back in 2022. <\/p>\nHe completed the 45km feat off the Tutuk\u0101k\u0101 coast in 13 hours and 20 minutes. <\/p>\n
Ridler came up with the latest idea in 2023, inspired by international staged swims, such as Lewis Pugh who swam the length of the English Channel in 2018. <\/p>\n
If successful, Ridler\u2019s swim will be the longest unassisted staged swim in history. <\/p>\n
![\"Jono]()
Jono Ridler is best known for his 99km swim from Great Barrier to Auckland in 2023 – the longest ever in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
He said he was also inspired to get New Zealand to transition away from bottom trawling on seamounts and other vital marine ecosystems. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to do something similar, not just a swimming challenge, but use that as a platform to do something meaningful, and get people interested in the story around the ocean and bottom trawling.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bottom trawling is a destructive fishing method where heavy, weighted nets are dragged across the ocean floor, damaging habitats like coral reefs and seamounts. <\/p>\n
Ridler will be swimming around the clock, coming ashore only to rest and refuel. <\/p>\n
His team of six helpers include four people in two boats focussed on safety and two people in two vehicles on land. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy Hauraki Gulf swim showed me how endurance sport can bring real attention to ocean issues, and that people care,\u201d Ridler said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis next mission will push me to my limits. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be incredibly challenging, but I feel strongly that we can and must do better to care for the ocean. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat purpose will get me through the tough moments.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ridler is partnering with Live Ocean, the marine conservation charity founded by champion sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. <\/p>\n
![\"Jono]()
Jono Ridler and Blair Tuke are both passionate about keeping the ocean healthy. Photo \/ Gareth Cooke.<\/p>\n
Burling said it was time to find solutions that support our fishers to transition to practices that protect the seabed. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe back ourselves as leaders and innovators here in New Zealand,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to make bottom trawling part of our history, not our future.\u201d <\/p>\n
Tuke said New Zealanders had a special connection to the moana and a responsibility to look after it. <\/p>\n
\u201cSport can be an amazing unifier, and Jono is putting himself on the line here. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe want Kiwis to come around Swim4TheOcean and show their support for a healthy ocean.\u201d <\/p>\n
More than 120 rest stops (between swim shifts), and six community stopovers are planned along the route, giving coastal towns the chance to welcome Ridler ashore and show their support. <\/p>\n
Follow his mission at Swim4TheOcean.org and on Live Ocean\u2019s channels @itsliveocean. <\/p>\n
Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s a huge undertaking. \u201cThe last couple of weeks it\u2019s been a pretty emotional journey, mentally preparing myself…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[130345,23485,13651,115961,8127,71,91003,134,111656,6804,111,139,529,69,11599,2171,111657,21410,213,110848,54978,61,19636,6640,19347,52],"class_list":["post-215763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-1600km","tag-bottom","tag-cape","tag-destructive","tag-end","tag-from","tag-gearing","tag-health","tag-jono","tag-light","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-ocean","tag-plans","tag-ridler","tag-shine","tag-sports","tag-swim","tag-swimmer","tag-to","tag-trawling","tag-ultramarathon","tag-unprecedented","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}