Introducing Ross Edgley – Endurance Swimmer, Adventurer, Record Breaker.
It’s safe to say that Ross is a bit of a legend in the world of endurance swimming. His 2018 swim, circumnavigating Great Britain – a cool 1,780 miles in 157 days, cemented his place in the record books making him the only human to undertake such an arduous adventure.
The GB challenge was a staged sea swim, Ross would swim in 6-hour chunks, he’d then rest for six hours on board his support boat, he’d sleep, refuel and launch back into the sea from where he got out of the water. Rinse and repeat for 157 days, never coming into port. It’s hard to imagine. The swim took its toll on his body, disintegrating his tongue for one, let’s not even start to talk about the chaffing he suffered from wearing his wetsuit for so many hours!
Not content with swimming the GB coastline, in the following years Ross strived for bigger challenges and longer swims. In 2022, in the cold (5 C) deep waters of Loch Ness, he took on swimming the length of the loch in one go. After 52 hours and 39 minutes, Ross was forced to end the swim early due to hypothermia and cellulitis. Although this may not have been the intended outcome, he still holds the record for being the only person to survive swimming for over 52 hours in the loch in just a wetsuit, showing just how vicious the swim is.
2023 saw Ross take on a different lake swim, this time in Italy and in an extreme heatwave where temps exceeded 45 C, heating the lake to around 35 C. FINA (Federation Internationale De Natation – swimming’s international body) stops open water competitions at 31 C, not that something like that would deter Ross from taking on the challenge in front of him. 32 hours into the swim, he was pulled from the water with heat stroke.
2024 saw Ross back in the water, this time in Canada and more specifically the Yukon River. Standing on the shore of Whitehorse, a 510km non-stop swim was before him. To claim the record, he wasn’t allowed to stop, sleep or touch his support boat and he would have to navigate rapids, bears and 8 C water. Ross completed the swim in 72 hours, bagging another World Record and putting behind him Loch Ness and Italy. If you’ve not watched his documentary on the Yukon Swim – it’s a great watch.
We’re thrilled to announce that Ross will be taking Elliot Brown on his next epic adventure and in between the training and piling on the weight he needs to be at before the start, we got to ask the serious questions you’ve always wanted to know:
Best day of the week?
Sunday because of my mum's roast dinners and homemade cheesecake
Marvel or DC?
Marvel
Bond or Bourne?
Bourne (Matt's a friend of mine and a sporting specimen in real life too)
First music gig you went to?
Sounds so bad, never been to one
Beer or whisky?
Whisky (Talisker)
Favourite Book?
An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean - Antarctic Survivor
Personal Hero?
Captain Webb (first to swim the English Channel)
3 Guests at a Dinner Party?
Roger Bannister (first sub 4 minute mile)
Roal Amundsen (first to the South Pole)
Shackleton
Guilty Pleasure Film?
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (1 AND 2)
First single you bought?
My Girl The Temptations, not sure if I bought it or my dad gave it to me
Sand or snow?
Both (in Iceland you can be on the beach, with snow-covered volcanoes, haha)
Budgie smugglers or board shorts?
Smugglers
Go to karaoke song?
Ain't no mountain high enough
Why Elliot Brown?
EB has a long and proud history supporting incredible adventurers around the world and is renowned for producing watches that display incredible durability even in some of the planet's most hostile environments. Which is exactly why I'm so grateful to be partnering with them, since we needed a watch that could withstand 100 days at sea in arctic waters, just above freezing temperature AND look great doing it. Which is why every swim and every tide will be meticulously timed, paced and calculated all thanks to the genius of the team at EB.
