Fabio Iskandarian of Hero Swimrun

Welcome to episode sixty-one of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!We’re super stoked about this week’s guest! We are headed to South America for the first time to check out the Swimrun scene in Brazil with Fabio Iskandarian. He’s the founder of Hero Swimrun and chief Swimrun Evangelist in the Rio de Janeiro area. It was great to interview him for the show and it really reaffirmed our theory that Swimrun is just a special sport that draws great people from all over the world to it. Fabio’s passion is a testament to that!More on this interview later in the show but first...Obrigado a todos do Brasil por ouvirem este podcast.ShoutoutsThis week we’ve got dual shoutouts to our two latest Patrons on Patreon: Caleb Baity from North Carolina and Jason Hodgetts from the U.K. We really appreciate your support of the show and helping us fund our outsized international sticker mailing budget.Adventure Time/Training UpdatesThe unstructured training continues...except in the pool. We are both officially being coached in the pool by Tower26 and really can’t speak highly enough about Gerry, Jim, Megan, and the rest of the crew over there. We decided that we wanted to really work on our swim fitness going into this year’s race season and well, we’re certainly doing that. Make sure to check out our two episodes with Tower26 coaches (Episode 32 with Gerry Rodrigues and Emma-Kate Lidbury and Episode 42 with Megan Meelgard and Jim Lubinski) to glean some swimming wisdom from them.Feats of EnduranceThis week’s winner is Bart Czarnecki from Poland. He’s been posting 3-minute ice bath swims and adding a photo with a smile. Not sure if the smile is frozen on or not but keep it up!Make sure to join us on Strava and cheer on your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)We have a couple of updates to share this week.Ödyssey Swimrun Mackinac Island, located in northern Michigan, is open for registration. Sign up for either the short or long course to check out this small island on Lake Huron. The race date is Sunday, August 29, 2021, and registration is limited to 250 teams total so you know what to do if you want to experience this race.Speaking of Ödyssey Swimrun, today (March 4th, 7 pm, EST) they are hosting a Zoom call talk about their 2021 race season. We will be on the panel of speakers so we hope that Ödyssey won’t regret that decision! The link to the call can be found on the Ödyssey website.In other news, Breca Swimrun has announced that they have opened all of their 2021 U.K. races for registration. They have only opened Sprint and Solo Sprint distances at the moment and plan on opening up the long course distances once the U.K. eases their COVID restrictions. Their confirmed 2021 races are Coniston on July 10th, Gower on July 31st, Loch Lomond on August 7th, and Jersey on September 4th. Head over to their website for all the latest details.That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.UpdatesOur new “Super Stoked on Swimrun” stickers are being mailed out at a steady clip. Drop us a message on IG or send us an email with your mailing address and we’ll mail you a free sticker to anywhere in the world that accepts mail. The new Low Tide Boyz hats should arrive at HQ in the next few weeks. Now that their arrival is imminent, we’re taking pre-orders in our shop for those who want to be the first to rock one.This Week’s InterviewThis week’s interview is a special one. We were stoked to chat with Fabio Iskandarian of Hero Swimrun a few weeks ago and we were humbled about how stoked he was to chat with us! A stoke fest all around for sure.We chatted with Fabio about all kinds of stuff from his athletic background, to his role in the Rio Olympics and the ITU circuit, to his entrepreneurial spirit, and ultimately, to how he found Swimrun. Fabio also talked to us about how influential (and helpful) Michael Lemmel and Mats Skott of ÖTILLÖ were in helping him create his first race and have it be the first merit race in South America. (Side note: It was so friggin cool of them to take the time to help Fabio!) (Second side note: The Swedish Consulate in Brazil also supported Fabio’s efforts to grow the sport!) Finally, we talked about the journey of Hero Swimrun as a race and how Fabio is almost single-handedly growing a vibrant Swimrun community in Rio, and his plans to keep elevating the sport.Obviously, Hero Swimrun is on our bucket list and will definitely accept Fabrizio’s  invitation to come to race his event at some point. We encourage everyone to check out Hero Swimrun on their website or on Instagram.That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star review. 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