Podcast: Ridzwan Rahim On Swimming The Distance

Producer: June Ramli Editor: Fazleena Aziz Swimming The Distance Welcome to another 30 minutes with the DailyStraits.com podcast series, today we would like to feature a story on the tenacity of Ridzwan Rahim who fought against the odds to realise his dream of swimming through the Perhentian Island channel during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. After completing the swim last month, Ridzwan is believed to be the first person to have swam solo non-stop and unassisted from Perhentian Island to Besut in Terengganu, Malaysia. According to Ridzwan, no one has swum the route before making him the first to complete such a feat. According to Google Earth, the straight line distance between the two stops is 17 km. However, swimmers rarely register a straight line when swimming in open water due to chops, currents and other elements of nature, the former New Straits Times (NST) journalist said in a statement. For his swim, Ridzwan covered a distance of 19.087km in 8hours 56min 30secs. The swim was done per the US-based Marathon Swimmers Federation’s (MSF) rules of marathon swimming. Ridzwan was assisted by a crew consisting of Abdul Razak Abdul Aziz (team leader and observer), Mohd Hafizuddin Amlin (kayaker), Damien Ong-Yeoh (crew member), Tsuyoshi Amzar Sawada (observer), Ariff Budiman Abdul Halim (photographer), Mohd Fahmi Zainal Aripin (drone videographer) and boat pilots, Wan Nor Hisham Wan Razak and Azrol Mohd Yusof. He said his team was in the process of submitting the documentation of the swim to the MSF for ratification. If successful, Ridzwan’s swim will be the first-ever ratified swim from Malaysia. The avid scuba diver has also written about his feat extensively in an NST article available here, but for now, let’s listen to his no holds barred interview.