But while the jellyfish have been stinging, Ridler has had other encounters with marine life that many could only dream of.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some recency bias in this, but the most enjoyable part of the most recent part of our trip has definitely been the dolphins,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just been amazing to be able to have those experiences, to be able to have them come right up and be very, very curious about what I\u2019m doing and they\u2019re jumping and they\u2019ve got a lot of energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s interesting, like people always mention their encounters with dolphins, there\u2019s just something to it. It\u2019s a connection with a very intelligent animal and you can sense their intelligence as you\u2019re around them. They\u2019re very special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now more than 1100km into his world record-setting swim, Ridler has been on his journey for more than two months, hoping to bring the commercial fishing practice of bottom trawling into the spotlight and encourage the conversation on what more environmentally friendly alternatives could be explored.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been demanding both mentally and physically and Ridler says he tries to take things as they come and, while in the water, spends a lot of time counting or singing to himself \u2013 Jack Johnson\u2019s Banana Pancakes was a regular on the recent rotation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy physical state definitely plays a lot into how my mindset is on any given day, for better or for worse. But you know, things like fatigue, the jellyfish stings that I\u2019ve encountered, sometimes the lack of sleep and recovery, the muscle soreness, all of that, it kind of compounds and makes things more difficult to manage from a mental perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so for me, working through that, I\u2019m trying to accept all of that, and of course the cold, I\u2019m trying to accept all of those as factors that I can\u2019t really control too much and focusing in on them isn\u2019t actually helpful, and to instead just do what we need to do to keep moving forward and remind myself that whatever I\u2019m going through in that moment, that it will pass, whatever kind of mental or physical anguish there may be in that moment, that it will end.\u201d<\/p>\n
The journey will end in the coming weeks in Wellington, with plans to deliver that message and a petition to Parliament. That petition currently has over 33,000 signatures.<\/p>\n
Recently, Ridler\u2019s efforts caught the attention of 11-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater, who shared it on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did [see that]. Very cool. I messaged him as well and he was kind enough to message back and said it was an unbelievable effort and to watch out for the big toothy guys,\u201d Ridler says of the American great.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s cool, and hopefully we just get more of that international exposure as we get closer towards the end. I\u2019ve always thought that there would be a big kind of build-up of interest in the final week or final two weeks. So I\u2019m really curious to see how that pans out and then also how that obviously translates into, importantly, the signatures on the petition.<\/p>\n
\u201cAttention is fine, but if nothing comes of it then it\u2019s kind of worthless at the end of the day. So it\u2019s about channeling that towards one of our targets, which is really around getting as many voices as we can added to the petition. Having somebody high-profile like Kelly Slater and when we hit the 1000-kilometre mark, there were some really cool messages from people like Dan Carter and the like, they\u2019re sharing it too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely helping to get the word out and I think we will see some people jump on the bandwagon over the next week and a half, two weeks as we come to land this thing.\u201d <\/p>\n