IWD Sea Swim Mini Series Ep 2 - Amanda Fitzgerald

Amanda Fitzgerald is an award-winning PR and media training expert whose clients have featured in publications including Forbes,  Psychologies and Grazia. She is also a passionate open water swimmer and triathlete. In 2023 she completed the 4km Hever Castle swim raising over £2500 for the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association.
Amanda is delighted to be providing PR support for the IWD Brighton Sea Swim.

In this episode we explore how she got started with open water swimming and triathlon, the benefits it has brought her and her advice for anyone wanting to get started with their own adventures.

This episode is part of a 6 part mini series in collaboration with PinkNicky Blog in support of the IWD Sea Swim 2024. Each episode is approximately 15 minutes long and shines a light on one of the women supporting the event, their reasons for being involved and the benefits they have personally experienced from living life  adventurously.

To find out more about Amanda visit:

https://amandapr.com/

To find out more about PinkNicky Blog and register for the IWD Sea Swim, please click here

Check out PinkNicky's Blog - A Blog for Empty Nesters and those ready to write a new life chapter: It's time to create your story One Adventure At a Time!

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Transcript

In the Everyday Adventure Podcast, host Nicki Bass interviews Amanda Fitzgerald, a dedicated sea swimmer and PR for an International Women's Day sea swimming event. Amanda shares her journey into sea swimming, which began after an injury forced her to find a new sport. She initially started with triathlons, which led to her love for open water swimming. Amanda discusses the mental health benefits of sea swimming, the sense of community it fosters, and how it has helped her raise money for charity. She advises those interested in open water swimming to take safety lessons and to be mindful of the time spent in the water depending on the temperature.

Nicki (00:00):

Hello and welcome to the Everyday Adventure Podcast. My name is Nicki Bass and I'll be bringing you thoughts, ideas, and stories from some incredible guests to hopefully inspire you to live more adventurously in your everyday lives. So continuing our series for International Women's Day and the sea swimming event that I spoke to Nicky Chisholm about last week. I'm really delighted today to welcome Amanda Fitzgerald to the show. So Amanda is supporting with the PR for the event, but she's also, and probably more interestingly for you listening to this today, a dedicated and committed sea swimmer. And so that is what we are going to be digging into a little bit further on this mini episode today. So Amanda, welcome to the show. It's such a pleasure to have you here.

Amanda (00:55):

Thank you so much for the invite. It's lovely to meet you.

Nicki (00:58):

So I guess We'll Dive right in for one of a better pun. I dunno what's going on with me today. Sorry. So we'll get started. I would love for you just to share about, I suppose your relationship with sea swimming. How did you get started? Why have you continued? Especially as we sit here sort of in January, and I know people are still getting out in the sea and for a lot of people that seems utterly mad.

Amanda (01:23):

I dodged a bullet at the weekend because I was meant to have gone sea swimming and my friend had a hangover, so I didn't need to go.

Nicki (01:31):

I mean a shame. Yeah,

Amanda (01:33):

Terrible. But the thing is, this year I'm trying to actually go in skins, which for people who don't do dipping skins just means suits is wetsuits and skins are literally just going in a swimming cosy. So this year I'm trying to just do swimming costume only, so it's quite challenging, but very refreshing and exhilarating when you get out of it. But my relationship with water really started, I used to play quite serious lacrosse and sustained the good old injury, the ACL anterior cruciate ligament that went pop back in 1989. I'm 53 so you can do the math. So ages ago. So I had to find another sport, which one, which doesn't involve dodging and running and all that kind of stuff. So I took up rowing, that was great. Then I left Oxford Poly where I was and I couldn't continue with that, so I took up triathlon.

(02:25):

So that is where my first ever wetsuit was purchased because I started doing sprint triathlons. So everything is just in one plane. You don't need to do any dodging. You literally swim, you get out, you ride on a bike and then you run for 5K because I started doing sprint ones. And so that was who I first fell in love with, swimming, open water, swimming. And you say I've got a passion for sea. I would say love. I dunno whether I love more swimming in a river. I feel like a fish gliding along. I just love it. And going under the water as well. My friends think crazy, I just go under and I swim like the man from Atlantis. So yeah, I'm passionate about swimming.

Nicki (03:05):

That's amazing. I was just thinking that thing about the difference between sea swimming and river stream. I always find river swimming sort of, I dunno, there's something about the murky water that I just find a little bit less inviting than I'd much rather jump in the ways. But also I've seen so many, I mean I don't do much over swimming myself, but having seen lots of pictures of people who do go and even breaking the ice and that side of things, and there is something, I guess probably more tranquil in some ways it seems a little bit more still than perhaps the sea, which I guess is constantly changing. Yeah, sun,

Amanda (03:42):

You've got the waves you need to be battling against in a river. You can flow up the current or down the current and also going down to the bottom and in the mud in your feet. Some people think that's disgusting, but I think it's lovely because it's all warm and squidgy.

Nicki (03:58):

Yeah, maybe it's a mud for me that does it. I'm like, I'm not sure I touched the sand,

(04:03):

But so interesting. I was just wondering how you make that. So having done a little bit of swimming as part of triathlons, Alex, it's got a very different feel because mainly you're being kicked in the face or trying to avoid it. Bridging between that type of swimming. And then I suppose what I guess many people consider to be a more mindful activity around the water swimming, sort of cold water swimming and also that transition as you said, from being in a wetsuit, it being a sporting activity that you need to be most efficient in to being just in your swimming costume. How did you make that sort of transition?

Amanda (04:42):

Well, it all came about with lockdown because we couldn't go to swimming pools anymore. I used to always swim in the outside pool at David Lloyd, so that got shut down. So my 50th birthday, my brother and his girlfriend gave me, they're both very sporty. She's a triathlete, GB triathlete. They gave me a wetsuit, so that literally gave me my wings, my swimming fins or whatever you call it. And so I was literally going in rivers and what a mindful exercise it is. I mean, I remember going all the way through lockdown with a swimming friend and swimming in a river and then my prize at six o'clock in the morning, whatever, was seeing a jumping fish. You are just so close to nature when you're in the sea or in a river or in a lake. I mean, it stuns me every time. And my brother's actually got a pond in his garden in Sussex. So when I go to see him, I go and dip in the pond and now he's got his feel, which has got a bit of a forest in it. He's dug out or trenched out a pond and it's like a nice big place where he henan goes down and has hiss dip. Oh wow. I joined him over Christmas and it was like, oh my God, okay. It's fantastic. So it was like going to a retreat whenever I go to his house.

Nicki (05:55):

That's amazing. So

Amanda (05:56):

I'd say I've seen lots of people with

Nicki (05:57):

Those pods in the back garden or I've got a friend who jumps in and out of a barrel, but in front such a good, that's so cool. So what is it that I suppose that swimming open water, cold water, swimming, whatever you want to call it, what is it that you get from it? What makes you keep coming back? Even though like said it might be freezing or a bit murky or whatever, all the things that people typically go, actually, why would you want to do that? What is it for you that is I guess, the biggest attraction or that keeps you connected with it?

Amanda (06:27):

Yeah, I was going through divorce in lockdown, but many people said it's brilliant for the mental health and I run my own business and it's brilliant for the mental health. If you could do something so challenging as going swimming in freezing cold water or battle against the waves, I think pretty much you can do anything. So I get out of my comfort zone every time I go swimming unless it's lovely warm weather. So it's just really important just to keep on going. I also love the comradery, so I've got some really great friends, which I've made as a result of going swimming and one day I'm going to be moving city or moving town to a place near the sea. Hello Brighton, watch out. I'm going to be coming there. So I know that I'll instantly have a massive network of people I can hang out with meet and all the rest of it. So it's brilliant in terms of meeting new people as well.

Nicki (07:19):

Amazing. I love that point. Like you said, sort of the connectedness with people around you and how I know many people I've speak to talks about being part of that community that no matter where you go in the UK or even around the world, there's always a sea swimming or a water swim, open water swimming community that you are instantly part of. And I think that point you made, which really connects to I guess the foundations of the Everyday Adventure podcast about that thing, about how taking yourself out of your comfort zone, really, that's the thing that pushes you to grow or feels that you can cope with things that may also be difficult elsewhere in your life. And you think, actually I've managed to do this despite all the challenges. Exactly that. What else can I do? It expands your comfort zone, I guess, in so many ways.

Amanda (08:11):

No, it's so true.

Nicki (08:13):

So if somebody's listening to this and they're either thinking, you know what, I'd love to get started with open water, cold water swimming, or I'm intrigued by this idea of stepping out of my comfort zone a little bit more, but I don't know how, or I'm scared to get started even, I mean, what one piece of advice would you give them?

Amanda (08:33):

I would say number one, go for it. But number two, a hundred percent, go and get some swimming outdoors safety lessons just so you know you're doing the right things and you're not going to be making mistakes. For example, the other day when I went swimming, I went in for too long, my friends, they swam on and on and on. I thought, oh my God, I need to get out. I'm freezing. But I thought otherwise I'm going to have to sit on the side freezing while they come out. Anyway. So I got really out of to my comfort zone and I could have just thought, do you know what? I'm just going to wait until the summer, but no, I'm going to get back on that horse and carry on. So yeah, so make sure that you go in for the right time depending upon the temperature, and you just need to know some basics around open water swimming.

(09:15):

But I just wanted to say, as a result of doing all of this open water swimming, this my addiction since 2020, I've managed to raise money for a charity in Afghanistan. It's the Afghan Central Asian Association. And I twice, and I said never again. And I've said, this year I'm going to do it again. Swam round, Heva Lake, Heva castle, they've got a lake. You have to do two laps of that, so you have to swim 3.8 k. So I did that once and I said, yes, I'm never going to do it again, but I raised money for it. I've raised about three and a half grand in total for them. Oh, incredible. And then this year, sorry, last year I did it and I said, no way am I going to ever raise money for them again because just too embarrassing. What else the people want all my friends and family.

(09:59):

So I literally set up a fundraising page the day before the event that I managed to raise a thousand pounds for them or whatever, and they were just so pleased. And I went to see them just before Christmas because the charity founder had just got an MBE from the king. And seeing him and hearing how much 50 pounds goes towards people in Afghanistan for a family to feed them for a whole week, I just thought it's going to be crazy if I don't do a charity raise event. So if anybody's got any bright ideas of which event this year to do, I'm all ears. So please let me know.

Nicki (10:30):

Oh, amazing. Wow. I think there's something about that, like you said, actually, the motivation coming from something. One of the things that I often talk about the podcast is that idea of that sense of purpose or the additional reason that keeps you going even when it feels really hard and difficult to do. And yeah, and I think there's something really true about that whole point around fundraising as well. I know that people can feel, actually, no, I've asked for this before. I feel uncomfortable just keeping on going back to the same thing. I've certainly experienced something like that and being able to push through that and also combine it with something that you love and that motivates you as well. Definitely. We'll pop all of those links in the show notes so people can go and find if people want to follow you or find out more about either the work that you do or the charity and the fundraising that you're involved in, where can they go? Where can they find you? Yeah,

Amanda (11:29):

Just go straight to my website. It's amanda pr.com. I've even got a swim page, so it's amanda pr.com/swim. So you can see my video, my fundraising videos, and I need to set up a new page. So maybe I need to set up now and hopefully I might get a few 50 quis by the time it actually comes that it was so bad.

Nicki (11:49):

Definitely. So yeah, like I said, all those links will link. We'll pop into the show notes so people can go and find it and follow you and find out more about what you're doing. It sounds incredible. Thank you, Amanda. Thank you so much for your time today. It's been such a pleasure to learn more about you, more about your water, open water swimming journey. And yes, look forward to seeing you on the event on the 9th of March. I can't wait. Thank you very much for the interview. Such a pleasure. Speak to you soon. Take care. Thank you. Bye.