E2. Lewis Pugh - Swimming the Arctic & Antarctic - Finding Courage, Overcoming Doubt and Diving In

William Laitinen  00:10

There's always a moment when you hear the call to a life that will make a difference. Maybe you hear it for the first time, or maybe you've been hearing it all your life. There is one thing that these invitations require of you. They require action and when you answer your calling with action, you have the power to build a better world and in a world that can sometimes feel broken, there is still so much good to be built. I'm William Laitinen and this is Built For Good stories of real people who are changing the world. Episode Two, Lewis Pugh endurance swimmer and ocean advocate. Amongst the towering icebergs, and frozen winds of the North Pole, a lone figure stares into the dark icy water, preparing to swim in nothing but trunks and cap poised to pull icy handfuls of water in a race against hypothermia, he must complete the one kilometre distance in less than 20 minutes. If he fails, his body will succumb to the effects of the minus 1.7 degrees seawater. During this swim, one part of his body will reach a limit the cells of his hands swelling, and then freezing. As a result, these cells will burst leaving his hands numb for three months. It's a swim, where many things can go wrong. A swim that could change his life forever.

Lewis Pugh  02:07

It’s really dark there at the North Pole, I mean, the Russians call it the Russians call the Arctic Ocean, the black ocean and I remember standing and looking into the water and the water is pitch black. And the depth of that water is four and a half kilometres to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. And as I was about to dive in, I had this thought and it was just the most crippling thought you could ever have and I just thought, if things go horribly wrong now how long will it take for my frozen corpse to sink all the way to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.

William Laitinen  02:54

To be swimming near naked in the shadow of an atomic icebreaker frigid winds of minus 20 whipping across the surface of the frozen water. It had taken Lewis five long years of cold water training and a lifetime of kindling a belief in his ability to overcome self-doubt, and dive in. Lewis's early life began in the ocean city of Plymouth, England, his parents serving within the British Navy, his life was steeped in stories of great ocean adventurers and pioneers. At a young age, his family made a new home on the tip of South Africa, where he found himself on the edge of one of the wildest oceans in the world, and where his calling to a life of purpose and adventure began.

Lewis Pugh  03:53

Suddenly, there I am where three oceans meet the Atlantic, the Indian and the Southern Ocean meet in some of the greatest places to swim you could ever imagine and rough waters, they call the Cape of Good Hope, the Cape of storms. For good reason.

William Laitinen  04:07

Lewis recalls sitting in a history class, his gaze drawn to Robben Island, a three hour swim off the south coast of Cape Town, infamous for being the prison of Nelson Mandela for 18 years, that island would forever be a symbol of determined courage in the face of overwhelming adversity.

Lewis Pugh  04:28

I was 17 years old had had no formal swimming lessons and I just one day I just kept on looking at that Island. I thought to myself, I want to swim from Robben Island back to Cape Town. And there were a few people at school that said Ah Lewis will never make it he’ll never make it.

William Laitinen  04:47

when you ignore the doubts of others, and answer your calling with action, you realise the only person who has the power to change your life is you

Lewis Pugh  05:04

Three hours after I left Robben Island I finally put my feet down on the sand. I swam for 36 years swam in some amazing places, but nothing has brought the same amount of joy sheer unbridled joy as putting my feet down on that sand and walking out.

William Laitinen  05:31

In successfully completing this challenging swim, Lewis found a new momentum. In 2004 on the desk of the pioneering cold water sports scientist, Professor Tim Noakes, the phone rings the voice on the end of the line was softly spoken, Lewis Pugh.

Prof Tim Noakes  05:52

And he says prof I want to swim around the Cape Peninsula. And he asked me can he do it? Is it possible because every other single swimmer, or ocean swimmer in Cape Town that he'd asked had said, no, you can't do it. It's impossible.

William Laitinen  06:06

The answer Prof Noakes gave would be all Lewis needed to believe in his dream.

Prof Tim Noakes  06:11

I said, Sure, you can.

William Laitinen  06:16

Little did Prof Noakes realise the impact that that small amount of encouragement would have for Lewis

Prof Tim Noakes  06:23

And then when he arrived at the beach, having completed the swim he phoned me from the beach, and he said, Prof I couldn't have done it without you. And I said but Lewis, that's ridiculous I did nothing. So he said, no, he said, no you believed in me. You're the only person, I just needed one person to believe me that I could do it and I would do it. And there was one part of the swim, where it goes past, this very big, surfing break and there are great white sharks and he said that was the moment when he was right out there quite a long way off the shore. And he started getting negative thoughts. And then he said no. Prof. Noakes believes in me, I can do this and that allowed him to continue.

William Laitinen  07:15

But the great Arctic and Antarctic had been calling to Lewis all his life.

07:23

Ever since I was a five year old boy I've dreamt of going to Antarctica.

07:34

where he used to sit at the dinner table, my father would talk to me about the Adventures of Captain Scott or the adventures of Lord Nelson as a young sailor up in Spitsberg being chased by polar bears. They left an indelible mark on me, they left a mark on me and a great desire that one day, I would go to the polls and try and do something special there.

William Laitinen  08:05

It was in a world of relentless cold, perpetual darkness, and the magnificent polar bear that Lewis arrived in 2007 upon the deck of an atomic icebreaker, to swim near naked in the frozen waters of the North Pole,

Lewis Pugh  08:22

Five years of training to get to the North Pole. And the conditions were, I mean you can do as much training as you want, as much planning and preparation as you want but you don't know what it's going to be like until you dive in. Because nobody else has been there before.

William Laitinen  08:42

This was a swim into the unknown, the possibility of a frozen death, a very real outcome. Now, more than ever, Lewis would need to overcome his fear inside. Professor Noakes vividly recalls the moment they arrived.

Prof Tim Noakes  09:01

Once you get cloud and it's dark, and the water is dark, it takes on a whole different vibe. And that's what happened. When we went to the North Pole, that was really frightening, I've never been so scared in my life that I can tell you. What happens to his brain because his brain is not protected. The skull temperature must drop quite dramatically and so he could freeze his brain.

William Laitinen  09:31

Standing on a frozen ice shelf near naked, the faces of his team a mix of emotions. The dark waters were a black mirror to the fears that played in Lewis's mind. Yet Lewis had come this far and every step taken to reach this point was proof he had the courage and the ability to say yes.

Lewis Pugh  09:53

And then I play a song. And the reason why I play the song is because at the end that's the starting gun and then I have to commit and dive in. I dive into the water my goggles often mist up, my skin is on fire, I can't hear people because I’ve got water and earplugs in. I'm tasting saltwater everything's on fire.

William Laitinen  10:18

Lewis pulls icy handfuls of water for 18 minutes and 50 seconds, stroke after stroke, a dedication to the life he wants each turn of the arms a commitment to tell the story of a wild place in grave danger.

Lewis Pugh  10:40

I think I went into the swim as one person I came out another person, a different person with a renewed sense that this would be what I would do for my life.

William Laitinen  11:03

To reach this point, Lewis had ignored the negative voices of those who doubted he had found courage, dedication and commitment to undertake swim after swim to realise his lifelong dream of a North Pole adventure.

William Laitinen  11:50

In the 12 years between Lewis's visits to the Arctic, he witnessed significant transformations in our fragile environment, his first encounter in 2005, the water was a chilling three degrees centigrade.

Lewis Pugh  12:09

I went back there 12 years later, same time of year, the waters no longer three, now 10 degrees centigrade. So it went from three to 10, in just 12 years. And you know, when I'm swimming in that water, even one degree temperature rise, I can feel it. So it's the speed of this change, which is so astounding. No, it doesn't have to be this way. But you get the environment which you pay for and what I mean by that is unless we invest heavily now, in protecting the environment, consequences will be very, very dire for all of us. I've done swims in front of glaciers, which have literally disappeared, disappeared. It's now a situation where the glaciers are now actually moving quicker than world leaders are.

William Laitinen  13:11

It was these catastrophic changes that forced Lewis to realise that he must become more than an extreme swimmer. He has become a diplomat, a voice for the oceans, using his stories of cold water swimming, to change the minds of world leaders.

Lewis Pugh  13:29

It became very, very obvious to me what I was seeing in the Arctic was going to impact every single person on this planet, every single future generation and the whole of the animal kingdom. And I was absolutely determined to carry this message, whatever the cost and so my message to world leaders is every single fraction of a degree matters. And so we have to stand up we have to talk about it, we have to fight these battles, and they're not going to be comfortable, because we're going to have to change entire systems.

William Laitinen  14:13

Since the 2007 North Pole swim Lewis has been on a remarkable journey. In 2010, he swam the world's highest lake on Mount Everest, highlighting global warming. In 2015, he returned to Antarctica, swimming the Ross Sea at minus 1.7 degrees, with a windchill of minus 37, leading Russia to agree to a massive ocean protection zone. His South Georgia swim in 2017 helped convince the British government to extend its marine protection zone from 2% to 23%. And in 2018, he became the world's first person to swim the length of the English Channel, some 528 kilometres in just 49 days, influencing a major ocean protection agreement. We join Lewis as he recalls his daring swim in 2020, through an ice tunnel in East Antarctica to illuminate the urgent threat of melting polar ice in our climate emergency.

Lewis Pugh  15:26

What's happening now is on top of the ice sheet, pools of melted water are beginning to appear now because of the climate crisis, making the ice sheet unstable.

William Laitinen  15:37

Lewis went to Antarctica to observe the crisis firsthand and plan a swim that the world could not ignore.

Lewis Pugh  15:45

And so we went there and we saw 1000s and 1000s, of these meltwater pools. And then there was a tunnel and we could see that the tunnel went underneath the ice and came out into another part. And so I thought to myself, Okay, do a swim down there. It is just the most surreal place to do a swim down a tunnel. It's a very high consequence environment. And the reason for that is ice falls and if an ice drops on top of your head, that’s it or if ice drops in front of you, and blocks the tunnel, then that's it.

William Laitinen  16:21

But falling ice was not his only concern. Lewis explains why this, as he would share with me was the most frightening swim of his life.

Lewis Pugh  16:31

So what can happen is sometimes, you know, these cracks can appear spontaneously, and water just goes shunting down these, these cracks all the way to the bedrock. So you got to be super careful that when you're doing the swim, suddenly, you don't go down a crack in the ice. Because obviously, you go down a crack in the ice, you're not coming back.

William Laitinen  17:01

Lewis knew the world needed to hear the message of these melting ice sheets. But this swim would again push him to a limit.

Lewis Pugh  17:11

It’s the air temperature that was so cold, because that wind is just funnelling down a tunnel and the noise of it coming down the tunnel as well. So every time you put your hand out the water you're taking it from zero into, I don't know, minus 10 minus 20 because it's so cold it was really cold down that tunnel.

William Laitinen  17:32

While the dangers were real, the beauty of the ice tunnel was even more memorable.

Lewis Pugh  17:37

It was the colours that there were so astounding the light blue, the dark blue, the indigo, the violet, and then when you get to the middle of the tunnel, it is completely black, completely black. The tunnel was very narrow in places and what really worried us were all the stalactites so there with these very very sharp stalactites coming from the ceiling. When the tunnel fills up and you come around a corner and you take a stroke well if you put your hand into a stalactite you could really slice yourself up. You realise that if things do go wrong, they will go seriously wrong and very very quickly. As I was going through the tunnel I heard this most almighty crack because the ice is moving it sounds like it like a thunderclap and I just put my head down and I just swam as fast as I could.

William Laitinen  18:55

Lewis’ amazing swims are captured, for the whole world to see by his highly skilled and diverse team. They play a critical role in sharing the urgent message that our planet needs help, these creative people working with Lewis can be an example for all of us, that there are many ways we can join the fight to protect our environment. Lewis recalls a moment with his world class cameraman.

Lewis Pugh  19:27

Kelvin was there at the at the front of the tunnel as I came past and he took this most astonishing shot. And this is the thing about Kelvin, the lengths to which he will go to get a shot is just out of this world. He could see that the tunnel was very, very narrow, and he had to be in front of me and as I came past, he took his ice pick and he rammed it up into the roof of this tunnel, pulls himself up with one arm. And as I came underneath him he took the shot and then I was gone.

William Laitinen  20:09

So he was in the water,

Lewis Pugh  obviously with a dry suit.

William Laitinen  He should have been in the speedos, Come on. Why was he not in there too

Lewis Pugh  20:13

He’s soft he’s really soft.

William Laitinen  20:26

Deep in the southern Atlantic Ocean lies a rugged mountainous Island, the gateway to the Antarctic, and the final resting place of the heroic British explorer, Ernest Shackleton. The untamed beauty and vibrant wilderness Lewis observed will stay with him forever becoming the fuel for his future environmental battles.

Lewis Pugh  20:53

I did a swim a couple of years ago, down in South Georgia, which is one of the sub Antarctic Islands very close to Antarctica. And, you know, you've got everything in the water there, you’ve got whales, you’ve got leopard seals, you’ve got these enormous great elephant seals, just huge you’ve got king penguins. I remember coming ashore on a beach in South Georgia, and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of King Penguins coming in from the Southern Ocean. And they're so beautiful and they fly past you and then up onto the beach, they stand up and then they waddle up the beach and they got the white chest and their gold bow ties and their black backs. And then you’ve got enormous great elephant seals fighting on the beach and you know fighting for mates and the noise as they clash. You know, the males banging up against each other, you get out the water there and you look around and you think this is what it was meant to be like. If I had just one last day on this earth, where would it be South Georgia may be the place.

William Laitinen  22:10

As Lewis followed his most authentic life, observing deeply profound environments, those connections kindled the courage to follow a horizon that would lead to his life's calling.

Lewis Pugh  22:22

My mother, she knew that in me when I was swimming and I was campaigning for the oceans, she could see in me that it lit up something deep down inside me and made me feel that this was what I was meant to do in my life this is why I was put on this earth. She just said Lewis, if you want to do it, you must do it. And I thank her every day for that. Because so many times in life, we're held back by other people's limiting beliefs.

William Laitinen  23:09

100 miles off the coast of New York in the blue Atlantic Ocean rain clouds embark upon a windswept journey they travel inland, reaching high into the Adirondack Mountains, where they fill Lake Tear of the Clouds with torrents of life giving rain creating the source of the mighty Hudson River. These pure waters flow hundreds of miles, nourishing crops and communities weaving a tapestry of interconnected existence. There in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty these waters reunite with the powerful salty tides of the Atlantic Ocean, completing a cycle as old as time itself. When I interviewed Lewis in August 2023, at his home in Plymouth, he was preparing for a new challenge, a 315 mile swim from the source of the Hudson River to New York City. He would bring to the world's leaders there at the UN headquarters, an urgent plea of help to protect our world's rivers and oceans in the truly unique way that Lewis Pugh knows.

Lewis Pugh  24:27

I’ve done sort of three swims in rivers in 36 years I've never done a swim in a river where I didn't get seriously sick never once, it’s because of the pollution levels in water. The source of the Hudson they say is Lake Tear in the Clouds. It's a great name. She really really is a beautiful river. And when you go up to the source in the Adirondack Mountains and you see the beauty there, thick, thick, dense forests, and so much wildlife there. And then finally you come around the corner and wow, there is Manhattan and you're in one of the greatest cities on this earth. And if you want to carry a message, I found it's easier to swim to the media than to get the media to come to you

William Laitinen  25:23

When Lewis plunges into the currents of the Hudson River, and navigates the icy embrace of the North Atlantic, each stroke is more than a physical effort, it's a manifestation of a supportive and diverse community. Lewis's journey is a reminder that building a life for good isn't a solitary endeavour, whether dreaming big or feeling overwhelmed the necessity of surrounding oneself with supportive people is universal.

Lewis Pugh  25:54

And some of the people don't even know that they helped me. So the ferryman who races me every single day from Devon across to Cornwall, his name's Billy, Billy doesn't even know what I'm training for but when I start high up in the Adirondack Mountains, in Lake Tear of the Clouds, I'm there because Billy helped me get there.

William Laitinen  26:20

You've heard Lewis's extraordinary story, how he took a simple dream and turned it into a global mission. It all started when he was a child, your dreams, no matter how big or small, can be the seeds of something remarkable. Maybe you want to clean a stream, or even clean an ocean. And Lewis's courageous journeys, and heartfelt advice, teach us that any dream can grow into something amazing. It's not about the size of the dream, but the willingness to take action. So whether it's fighting for the climate, or building a life filled with good your actions can take you there.

Lewis Pugh  27:06

You know, if you've got talent, and ambition and, and a drive, wow, that's a really powerful combination but you have to learn how to get stuff done. Because when you finish something in life, it releases a power of energy and you think to yourself, wow, we did that, we could probably do something a little bit tougher, a little bit harder next time.

William Laitinen  27:28

Lewis's message is simple.

Lewis Pugh  27:30

I'm asking people to wake up every single morning and ask themselves the simple question and that is, what can I do today to help solve this crisis, which is a defining issue of our generation, and then I urge them to dive in and to take that action.

William Laitinen  27:57

Lewis has shown me the power of following a calling with courage and action and that when you ignore the limiting beliefs of others, and choose a path of optimistic creation, you have the power to build a truly remarkable life. This show is dedicated to Lewis Pugh, and the rivers and oceans he loves. To find out more about Lewis and his work, visit lewispugh.com that's lewispugh.com. Built for Good is made by many I would like to say a massive thank you to Fiona, Aaron, Charlotte, Carmen, and Jimena. The production of Built for Good is made possible by the individuals we've been fortunate to assist in their career journey, placing them in some of the world's most remarkable organisations. It's been through the backing of our clients and the professionals that we've placed that we've been able to bring this show to life so a big thank you to all of the clients of Exige. To discover more about Exige and our mission, visit, exigeinternational.com. Be well, my friends, and remember, you too, can build a life for good.