Rock Bottom to Deep Water: How Solo Ultra-Endurance Swimming Found Me

110km of Swimming on the Wrong Side of the Shark Nets!

It was late April 2018 and I was lying in a hospital bed, feeling like a failure. My marriage was collapsing, and I was staring down the barrel of divorce. That night, my wife brought our two young sons in to visit me. We chatted about the dog and the surf, curious about the drip in my arm. But my wife didn’t say a word to me—her disdain was loud in silence. When they left, I was alone, swimming in thoughts darker than the room itself.

There was no blame to cling to. I was beating myself up, feeling stupid and worthless, lamenting all the possible things I'd done or could have done better to avoid the inevitable pain about to unfold for all of us.

Ten years earlier, I’d started swimming the Island Charity Swim, a 10km ocean swim supporting local special schools on the Sunshine Coast. The 2018 event was just two weeks away—but I was broken, uncertain, and emotionally wrecked. And yet, from that place of pain came a simple, urgent need: to do something good for others. Something bigger than myself. Something to show my sons that even when life unravels, you can still put love and purpose back into the world.

So I decided I wouldn’t just swim the Island Charity Swim once that year—I’d swim it ten times in ten days.

In August, with only 15 training sessions under my belt, I began. Just me, a jetski driven by my old mate Troy, and a mission. Day 1 humbled me fast—a relentless current, barely making progress, and the Island still at my back after nearly an hour. I thought I was done. But then I remembered why I started: those incredible kids and families I was swimming for. I dug deep.

From that day on, something incredible unfolded. Rossco paddled out to join. People came to the beach to celebrate. Parents brought morning tea. The community rallied. Whales surfaced beside me. Storms tested me. On Day 9, with wild winds and huge swell, I pushed through conditions that would have stopped the old me. Day 10—perfect glassy water—my boys came out on boats, and the beach was packed.

I never found the black hole I thought I needed to crawl into. Instead, I found strength, connection, and a new sense of purpose.

That swim changed me. It taught me that when you set out to lift others, you lift yourself too. That we are all more capable than we think. And that meaning lives in service, in challenge, in showing up when it’s hard.

Since then, I’ve created more solo ultra-endurance challenges—bigger, harder, scarier. But they’re never about ego. They’re about purpose. They're about seeing more, doing more, being more—for others. And I still haven't found that black hole!