5 minute read
How does the idea of swimming the English Channel make you feel?
Does your mind go into overdrive about logistics and the amount of required training? What about the cold water temperature? How do you mentally and physically prepare for such a grueling challenge?
Now imagine swimming the equivalent of the English Channel every day for 100 days, but make the water a shocking 1°C/ 33.8°F in temperature.
And let’s change the location to the entire coastline of Iceland, home to some of the world’s most powerful apex predators, 130-foot waves, and 100mph winds.
It’s a pretty unfathomable concept…Unless you’re ultra-marathon sea swimmer Ross Edgley.
Ross’s accomplishments are out of this world. In 2018, he was the first and currently remains the only person to swim 1,780 miles around Great Britain, breaking records along the way.
In 2024, he completed the world’s longest non-stop river swim, covering 510 km down Canada’s Yukon River.
Previous to this, he’s taken on other extreme challenges out of the water, such as completing a marathon while pulling a 1.4 tonne car around Silverstone Race Circuit, climbing a 20m rope repeatedly to climb the equivalent height of Everest (8,848m), and then finishing an Olympic-distance triathlon carrying a 100lbs tree.
Now, Ross has the potential to make history as the first person to swim the 1,000-mile-plus (1,610 km) coastline of Iceland.
Titled The Great Icelandic Swim, this incredible challenge is expected to take around three months, swimming over 30 km daily.
As if that mammoth exertion isn’t enough, the water will be, as you can imagine Icelandic water to be, painfully and detrimentally freezing cold.
Conditions are going to be treacherous. And on top of the extreme temperatures, winds, and waves, he’ll swim in the home of killer whales and other wildlife.
If you’re wondering, “But why?” Ross eloquently explains in the Our Ocean Podcast hosted by our inspiring ambassador, ocean advocate, and world-record-breaking stand-up paddleboarder Cal Major, that aside from being the logical place to swim (you need to listen to the podcast for his surprising explanation on this!), there is a vital research motivation behind this particular challenge.
‘(The Great British Swim) It was quite ego-driven; I just wanted to do it for records, legacy, whatever that term sort of means. And then as the years have gone by, I’m still so incredibly proud of that and the stories, the people I met - present company included. It was amazing, but I needed a bit more of a reason to do another swim. And long story short, I got speaking to a few scientists out in Iceland - shoutout to the University of Iceland.
And they were saying, “Look, what would be incredible is if we had someone stupid or stubborn enough to swim around Iceland because doing it at that speed so slow compared to a boat, what we’ll be able to do is collect these environmental DNA samples to pick up cues on bio diversity to actually plot a map, a comprehensive map, to see what is going on in our oceans around Iceland.”
I heard that I was like, “ I know a guy, hold my beer!” So that’s kind of how it all came around.‘
In a unique collaboration between leading researchers from the University of Iceland and the University of Victoria in Canada, Ross will collect water samples to analyse and map the distribution of microplastics in the waters around Iceland.
In addition, Ross has partnered with the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute of Iceland and #BioProtect. Together, they’ll map biodiversity and identify marine creatures present in Iceland’s water through daily eDNA1 samples.
The presence of sea creatures won’t just be marveled at during his time in the water. To support citizen science, every Humpback whale and Orca sighted will be photographed to support a unique study tracking cetacean movements and numbers around Iceland for the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute.
Inspired by Iceland’s amazing history of sailing and adventure, as well as his Grandad’s incredible stories of great explorers navigating the island of fire and ice in the late 9th century, Ross shares his hopes regarding the challenge on a more personal level with Cal:
‘At the end, a world record will obviously still be nice. It will be really nice to tick off another country to swim around. And I can’t wait to see Iceland as well. I think doing it in your wetsuit and your goggles is such a unique way of seeing it.
They’re all my personal reasons, but also, conveying science to millions at the end, that will really make me happy. That’s what success looks like.’
We're incredibly proud to support Ross Edgley during The Great Icelandic Swim, including providing branded Dryrobe® Advance change robes for him and his dedicated support team. We're also delighted to support his podcast episode with Cal Major.
Bonded through their love of the ocean, Ross’s and Cal’s Our Ocean Podcast episode shares the fascinating motivations and entertaining stories from Ross’ adventures and how he’s preparing for his newest challenge. Dive into it now.
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Ross wears the Black Camo Black Dryrobe® Advance
#dryrobeterritory
Published on May 15, 2025