New Zealand Listener - May 26, 2018

MAY 26 2018 LISTENER 27

open-water marathon swimming?

I’m an all-or-nothing person, for

better or worse. There were guys at

the pool and they dared me to swim

in the bay and I was like okay, right

on. They were kind of cute. I showed

up and I was just hooked from the

time I got in the water. I didn’t go that

far. I was a pretty terrible swimmer.

But it just really ignited something in

me that I had not known existed.

In Kim Swims, you seem to have a

metaphysical connection to the water and

nature, as well as to the Farallon Islands.

I think it really is. I feel like [the ocean]

was a place I had visited somewhere in

another time. I grew up on a farm and I

love animals. I am not age-appropriate

when it comes to my interactions with

dogs on land and dog mermaids, as I

call them, in the water. The seals and sea

lions come up to me and I talk to them

and people are like, “Are you nuts?”

Night Train Swimmers were attempt-

ing to swim out to the islands and I

was invited along on this adventure.

It’s such a tricky stretch of water to be

able to successfully complete a swim.

The stars have to align. It is the toughest

swim in the world. When you are in

that water, you really are rolling the dice

with your life. I know that sounds like

Being an all-or-nothing

person, marathon

swimmer Kim Chambers

frequently ends up in

hospital after a swim.

I’m a daredevil but it is a calculated risk

in many ways, because you’re trying to

do it when the sharks are elsewhere. They

typically show up around August or Sep-

tember and stay until February or March,

but we don’t really have insight into their

calendars.

Given how far you push yourself, it must

sometimes feel like you’re a swimming

science experiment.

Well, you can ask the dozens of hospitals

I’ve visited along the way. Most of the

time I end up in hospital after a swim, but

I have great health insurance. My body

has taken a bit of a beating. I almost died

from pulmonary oedema when I swam

from Northern Ireland to Scotland – I’m

the only New Zealander to have done that

• when I was stung hundreds of times by
  jellyfish. But I’ve learnt along the way that
  the mind is really the most powerful force
  in all of this. If you set your mind and
  your body to a goal, you really can achieve

If you set your mind to

it, you can achieve far

more than you think.

And if you tell yourself

you can’t, you can’t.

far more than you think you can. And if

you tell yourself you can’t, you can’t.

Is that what you want people to take away

from the ilm?

I feel really lucky that [first-time director

Kate Webber] understood me as someone

who fell into this journey through trauma

and rallied myself with people who

believed in me. But it’s also about under-

standing that it’s human nature to recoil

from things that make us uncomfortable

and that we’re fearful of.

You’ve said that you’re a feminist. Is that

important to you when you’re swimming?

I think it’s important in this day and age

for young girls to see that you can still be

feminine, but you can reach as far as a

man can reach and prove yourself against

them as worthy and equal.

What’s next for you?

I am working on something. I’m a very

proud Kiwi. I wear my New Zealand flag

on my cap and my flag has travelled with

me around the world. I am embarking on

some new adventures that I hope to share

later this year, but it’s something that

nobody’s ever done before. l

Kim Swims plays in Auckland on May 29 and

June 3.