The World's Last

OPEN WATER HEROES The world’S LAST SUPERHERO It’s been four years since Slovenian endurance swimmer Martin Strel became the first person to swim the length of the Amazon. Sarah Warwick caught up with the hard-drinking, hard-swimming legend as he attempts what could be his biggest challenge yet… Is Martin Strel super human? There are many moments in the film Big River Man, made about his epic, 66-day journey down the length of the Amazon, that make you think he must be. The very idea of his 3,272 mile swim is terrifying: a man takes on one of the longest and widest rivers in the world, a place known for its lethal sharks, snakes and man-eating fish. Despite suffering dizziness, nausea, diarrhea and sunstroke – and 22 members of his 25-strong support team ending up in hospital – he completes it, by swimming 52 miles a day every day for two months. Aside from the pain, what those who’ve seen the film of his 2007 journey will remember is the extraordinary tenacity and fortitude of Martin Strel – qualities that lead one member of his team to refer to him on camera as "the world’s last super hero". People will also remember the suggestion of madness that runs through the film: Martin’s obsessional consumption of wine and horse burgers; burgeoning paranoia and fear of local Amazonian villagers; defiance of health professionals who tell him he could die at any point; and an insanity born of mental exhaustion that culminates in Martin trying to electrocute his own head with what looks like a car battery. With this in mind, it came as some surprise when interviewing him to find that Martin, 56, was – far from being a nutcase – calm, thoughtful and modest, and far more interested in talking about the practicalities of planning, preparation and nutrition than more glamorous, over-hyped aspects of his big swims. He does admit, however, in his deep, eastern European accent and gently muddled syntax, that the experience of swimming the Amazon has changed him forever. “It a little destroyed my mind,” he says quietly. “When you know that bull shark is 20 The world’S LAST SUPERHERO Martin risked sharks, piranhas and all kinds of creatures during his Amazon swim everywhere, small fish give electric shock, other animals... You think every stroke might be your last. This swim was very, very MARTin’S GUIDE TO ACHIEVING THE IMPOSSIBLE special. I am not the same again.” ○ You need to know exactly what you want to achieve This from a man who swam the whole lengths of the Yangtze before you start training for something. Be very clear and (in 2005), Mississippi (2002) and Danube (2000) and who holds a have a focused goal in mind. In Martin’s case he needs to record for the world’s longest continuous swim (312 miles in 84 visualise a clear start and finish before he jumps in the water. hours and 10 minutes in 2001). Was the Amazon so different? ○ Training sessions for a challenge must be 100 percent “I almost died under a barge swimming the Danube, and the completed, regardless of how tired you are and what goes Yangtze high pollution made me very sick. The Mississippi has 43 wrong during the process. logging dams, and you must be a good swimmer to finish that one. ○ Remain self-confident, determined and have positive "But the Amazon... to finish the Amazon you have to be a genius, thinking all the way and learn how to control/fight the pain. ○ Have the best team around you, including at least a few a scientist: this is not just swimming, it’s fighting. You have to people that know you very well. understand animals, tropical diseases, indigenous tribes, and even ○ Have a good diet; watch what and when you eat and drink, fire. Everything is against you and it’s too much everything.” follow the nutrition plan that works best for you. And yet he’s still going. When I caught up with Martin, he and his son, manager and companion Borut Strel, were in America, getting ready for his next challenge, this time a swim in the Colorado River. His latest project, the Colorado River, is threatened by drought Although he will only be swimming parts of the river for a new TV – a worrying state of affairs for the people of western United programme called Superhuman, Martin will still be risking his life States. “About 20-30 million people use this river for drinking as the river, which runs through the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam, water, especially in Arizona, Nevada, Utah, California and is famously dangerous: fast-flowing and cold. Colorado. This is a very famous river because it runs through the The website for the local search and rescue service advises Grand Canyon but people should be worried because Lake Mead against swimming it under any circumstance, “Though deceptively [America’s biggest reservoir, fed by the river] runs lower and lower calm in places, the river's dangerous currents can quickly overcome every year and scientists still don’t know what’s going on. I hope the even the strongest swimmer,” i read. swim will cause people to ask what is going on with this river.” This, added to that the fact that he’s still haunted by nightmares Martin wants to make it clear that, despite the perception from the Amazon swim, meant I just had to ask: why does he do of him as some kind of ‘swimming nutter’, he takes safety very it to himself, what drives him that makes him feel the need to swim all seriously and won’t be taking unnecessary risks. “When [the TV these dangerous rivers? crew] asked me about the Colorado River, I hesitated – it is very “I don’t know,” he muses. “Maybe it’s that I was born along the river, dangerous – but then I decided to say yes, but I’m just doing and I grew up alongside the river. Water is a big part of my life. Even some of the easier parts,” he explains. “I don’t like to take too though it’s crazy, you’re tired, nature gets to you sometimes, many risks – the river is very, very cold and it’s very high water. I thought myself many times, that’s my last swim, but still I carry on.” Last year, one guy died and that’s not good publicity for me! He reminds me that all his river swims are inspired by ecological I’m taking it steady.” issues. “Part of why I do it is to tell people how important it is to have The swim is being filmed for a TV programme, to be screened in the clean water.” When he swam the Yangtze, in China, he did so to raise autumn in the UK, part of a series on ‘super humans’ whose feats of awareness of the extreme pollution levels in the river (proved by the bravery, strength or endurance mark them out from us average Joes. fact he became desperately ill). The Amazon swim helped to raise In addition to swimming the Colorado, Martin will be undergoing the profile of logging in the rainforest, while those of the Danube and a three-day barrage of tests at a medical facility in Arizona in an Mississippi hoped to show the problems of oil and chemicals in rivers. attempt to show why he is able to swim so effectively. 21 OPEN WATER HEROES Martin digs deep to finish his 5,000km Amazon swim Photos © Martin Strel/ Amazonswimming,.com While Borut tells me that Martin’s shoulder muscles and immune key to maintaining health is to gain weight beforehand, “Fat is power, system have already been medically proven to be stronger fat is power, fat is power,” he repeats like a mantra. than those of other swimmers, the man himself puts his talents Does that explain his consumption of two bottles of wine a day for endurance down to his immaculate planning and training. while on the Amazon swim? “Everything is pretty close to truth in “Preparation is the key for good success,” he says. “I swim ten times [Big River Man] because we spent months living [with the director]. a week, twice a day, plus cross-country skiing or hiking: six to eight But people are confused that I am a heavy drinker. I do drink two hours a day you have to train.” There’s no let up. “If you’re sick you bottles a day on the swims but it’s not so strong.” have to swim, if you’re tired you have to swim, every morning you I don’t blame him for needing a little something to get him through. have to get in the water and swim.” His story is extraordinary. Will he ever give up, I wonder out loud. “This is for me a little difficult to say,” he replies. “I can swim still very well, I can swim still very fast. You must have a smile on your face TO FINISH THE AMAZON YOU and... you can go for years. You can keep going – age is not a problem.” “I am always trying to find something different that is difficult to HAVE TO BE A GENIUS, A reach. Next year I will try to swim to the Farallon Islands from San SCIENtist: THIS IS NOT JUst Francisco [about 27mi off the coast], even though I know you can see a lot of sharks, waves, wind, extremely cold water – it’s like the swimmiNG, IT’S FIGHTING English Channel ‘plus’." He’s going to be busy then, as he also helps Borut with the family Then, as a big swim gets closer, he tries to learn everything about business, organising swimming tours around Slovenia and Croatia, the place he’s swimming, “I knew almost everything about the with Strel Swim Adventure Holidays, and he gives motivational Amazon,” he says.

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