Welcome to Effortless Swimming, the podcast for swimmers, triathletes and coaches. Join Australian swim coach, Brenton Ford, as he reveals the latest techniques and information to improve your swimming. Let’s dive right in. Welcome to another episode of the Effortless Swimming podcast. My guest today is Aaron Davis from Venture. And the way Aaron and I met was, well through email we’ve been in contact just about some swimming related things. But Aaron runs an adventure travel company. And he’s the one who’s running the behind the scenes stuff for the upcoming Great Ocean Road trip in February 2014. And the reason why I want to get Aaron on the podcast, but also the reason why I’m running this trip with Aaron, is because I want to be able to focus on the coaching aspect of things with the swimming holidays that we’re starting to run this year. And running these trips with Aaron allows me to focus just on the people who come to the trips and the coaching aspect of it.

So Aaron, welcome to the podcast. Thanks. Thanks for having me, Brenton. What I want to talk about today is just a little bit about your background with adventure travel. But also I want to talk a bit about the swim tours that we’ll be running and just some of the really cool things that come from going on a swimming holiday. I’ve been on one myself a couple of years ago over in Turkey. And it was one of the best holidays I’ve been on because comparing it to your resort holiday where you go somewhere, sit in the sun for seven days and you put on weight and all that sort of stuff. Swimming holidays allow you to get the sun, but also the fitness as well. What’s your sort of background with adventure travel? Yeah, no good question. Nice to hear your feedback about the beach and flock trips as opposed to active rest trips that we really focus on and really love. And we’re glad there’s a chance to work with people on those sort of trips.

And yes, I know I’m more of a bit of a generalist, really the swimming sort of a passion of mine, but really I was involved in like hiking, cycling, trail running, multi-activity trips and sort of various parts of the world. And it’s good to see swimming coming into that sort of adventure travel field as well recently. Yeah, well I’ve got a lot of the swimmers that I coach here in Melbourne. They take annual holidays, but they just take swimming holidays because it’s a way for them to explore different parts of Australia overseas, but they also get to keep fit and do what they love, which is swimming. So I think it’s a really good way to integrate the two in travel and in fitness. So that’s why I wanted to start running swimming holidays through Effortless Swimming is to meet clients and to be able to really have some one-on-one hands-on coaching and to do it in places that are really nice to swim, where you’re away from everyday life

from work, kids, family, where you can just really focus on your swimming. You can relax and you can just have a good time while you do it. Yeah, no, it’s a good point and that’s what we’re sort of set up to do as a logistics business also with a passion for these sort of hobbies that people are now travelling solely. The main reason for going to a different country or a different part of their home country is to do their hobby that they would do every day in their regular life at home. So we’ve sort of set things up so that we can take the ease out of your transfer accommodation and meals for the clients, but then work with a specialist coast or an elite level person who can actually focus on improving that hobby for the clients who have come along rather than people having to worry about all the different aspects that are involved in an international trip or an interstate trip and maybe not much energy left

to focus on doing the actual activity that they went on the holiday for in the first place. Yeah, that’s it. That’s why I want to be able to say, this is what I want to do on the swimming holidays. I want to be able to do some underwater filming. I want to be able to swim at these different locations and I want to be able to be in the water with the swimmers who are on there and running that with you allows me to do it because, so for example, on this Great Ocean road trip, there’ll be two kayakers in the water. They’ll be me in the water. So everyone’s sort of looked after, but I can really just spend a lot of time with everyone who’s on there. And I guess the difference between your standard swimming tour, swimming holiday and what we’ll be running is that it’s a lot more hands-on coaching. So you will get the, you know, you do get some beautiful locations. You do get to move around, but you really do get the hands-on coaching

so you can improve your swimming and improve your times and get that personal feedback because just being a coach for the last seven, eight years, I find that just getting that individual feedback on your stroke and having someone with experience look at what you’re doing and make suggestions and recommendations from there. That’s really where the improvement, the significant improvement comes from. Yeah, there’s a lot to be said, I think, for short bursts of intensive focus, like rather than, you know, the mindset of going along and improving over a period of time, certainly having a coach look at your stroke and then you’re thinking about it even, you know, for several hours after the session and after, you know, witnessing the feedback of the footage and then that night talking about it with other people and their issues or problems or targets or goals and then the next morning you’re up again having another go at improving that

and maybe some more filming and some more footage to see sort of post-feedback assessment and film as well. Like, there’s a lot to be said for it, it’s a good way to learn. Yeah, definitely. And every year, myself and a couple of friends, we go up to Cannes and we just do a training camp up there for about a week and because you haven’t got the distractions of everyday life and the focus is really just on the swimming and the getting fit, it allows you just to learn. Well, I find that I learn new things about my stroke and my swimming and different ways to approach training up there. So, yeah, it’s just a really good way to break out of the norm of your regular training where things can become sometimes a bit monotonous and that’s when you can sort of get stuck in a rut but if those trips away are where you can sort of break out of that and, you know, figure out some new things with your stroke and make those breakthroughs and have those light bulb moments.

Yeah, we find it a lot like with, you know, trail running and cycling training camps that we do as well that just that change of scenery, change of location and just being around like-minded people that you can bounce off, not just the coach but, you know, other recreational athletes still achieving pretty good results and training quite hard and doing very well but, yeah, breaking out of that regular training in the same pool or on the same trail or on the same road just opens the mind and body up to being a little bit more creative, a little bit more open, a little bit more, you know, adaptive to change and new ideas and, you know, a lot of improvement comes from trial and error but if you don’t put that intense focus into it, it’s quite hard to sort of do that when you’ve got to get out of the pool to, you know, make some work calls or, you know, try and beat the traffic or something like that. Yeah, I know after I get out from a session

the first thing I’m doing is checking emails, seeing what work I’ve got to do and, you know, if you can get away from that it just makes it so much easier and you also mentioned swimming with or meeting like-minded people the swimming trip that I went on two or three years ago over in Turkey actually met a lady who’s a wedding celebrant and she’s my celebrant for my wedding in two months’ time so it goes to show that you do get to, you know, meet really good people who you probably have something in common with. Yeah, no, it’s great. I mean, yeah, we’re really lucky to have such a beautiful sort of coastline to do something close to Melbourne but most of 95% of our business is, you know, trips abroad not just for Australians but Europeans going to Asia or, you know, people living in Asia going to Europe and the lifelong relationships that we’ve seen from trips you know, we’re still included on photos of weddings

of people that met on a trip that got married and had kids the best presents my kids get are people I had on trips rather than from our own family. Yeah, I can totally understand that my sister who was also on this trip that we went on she’s in contact with some of the ladies from the UK who are on this trip and, you know, still in contact with them every couple of months and they’re coming to Australia soon and going to catch up and all that sort of stuff so, you know, I think swimmers and athletes know that when you meet people who do the same sport it’s as easy as you when it comes to, you know, early morning trainings or, you know, you’d rather go swimming than, you know, sit in front of the TV at night when you meet people like that you can usually find something that you get on really well and it’s like you’ve known each other for years because you’ve got the same crazy little habits, I guess, you call it.

Yeah, no, it’s a good point and spending that intense time, you know just on the, you know, experience domestically or internationally around the hobby just puts you in that environment where you’re talking, thinking, listening and people’s space all the time so you’re almost fast tracker relationship, you know that gets sketched to a point really quickly and if you connect with someone, you know, you even, you know exponentially become, you know, great friends and wondered how you dealt without sort of people so, and then you know it’s all based on that hobby and that, you know, looking at a dossier and seeing that it looked a bit different to what else is out there and, you know, the people that are joining it you’re meeting them and they’ve got a, you know a little bit of a different approach to their active rest or wanting to improve this sport rather than, you know hum along at the pace they’re at kind of thing

so it, you know, a lot doesn’t get said but it’s sort of implied with these relationships that you can have with people who, yeah, you leave them and actually, you know, it’s a very sad occasion to finish the trip and not be able to see them when they go back to their home country or their, you know, their home state. Yeah, and I think it’s the shared experiences as well especially if it’s like a training camp or something like the Great Ocean Road Trip where you the swims aren’t intended to be difficult the more just enjoyable but, you know swimming for an hour down at Lawn together and taking the same course together and, you know so, oh, did you see that, you know, did you see that dolphin there did you, you know, feel the waves pushing you in that last 100 metres just, you know, those shared experiences are how you sort of fast track your relationship and that’s what I really enjoy about these, you know

swimming holidays rather than the, what did you call it the flopping… Yeah, beach and flop, beach and flop It’s good also on the active rest side of things you know, the body, you know the body just hums after, you know, really, you know great session or great swim or great run or great ride and it just opens, you know, your mind and body and sort of emotions up to like, you know, talking about things with people that have just done the same thing with you that, you know, you just don’t necessarily sort of get in that state when you’re at work or, you know, with family at functions or events or things like that so at Sombra is another element to it that, you know, just the benefits of exercise in general, you know, to your mind, body and soul are quite well known and this is sort of okay, you’ve done this great thing together and now we’ll sit down and have a look at the video and have some nice food and be in a stunning setting

and you know, we really enjoy it, you know I’ve put myself in this situation deliberately you know, just for that kind of thing you know, it is great like-minded people who have a lot in common getting together and you can just stand back and watch the relationships and discussion and, you know, mutual respect and appreciation really flow, you know just all based around something like, you know, swimming swimming Completely, Graham, for the last couple of years of every August, September of being overseas to Bali just for a surf trip with some friends and you know, if there’s a day where we’re not doing something, whether it’s surfing or yoga you just feel yourself- I feel myself getting anxious and sort of built up tension where I just need to get out there and do something and you know, where it’s- sight-seeing is good, you know, I really like seeing some of the beautiful you know, parts of the coast and beaches and oceans but

at the physical element there I don’t find it as exciting so that’s why I find mixing sport, physical activity with the travel side of things just so it makes for such a better holiday Yeah, well it’s a good trend for us because you know, we you know, this was quite a niche you know, 10-12 years ago when we started and now, you know, many people just give that same assessment you’ve just given them that they really like that feeling and shouldn’t have to go their hobby when they go and see a different culture or place or location so it’s really good for us because you know, that’s what we would do when, you know, us as you know, group operators and tour operators would do when we want to go on holiday you know, we don’t just go and jump in a bus and drive around a big city you know, we go for a run before we sort of get into the day or we go for a swim or we find the best route to sort of combine a few different activities

before we get out and see the place just because we know it releases a lot of stuff that makes you feel good and really open to the stuff you’re going to see in the afternoon and you know, you never know, you might see someone in the trail, you have a chat too who lives nearby who tells you where to have a good meal or where to run the next day or where to swim, you know, later on that evening or something like that so it’s a nice little sort of active rest community that’s not about sort of, you know, head down bum up, you know, flat out you know, too exhausted to think much less talk and breathe and more like, you know, enjoy what you’re doing push hard when you need to to improve but just being that mindset of, you know, I’m being really active I’m outdoors, I’m enjoying something I really love you know, in a stunning area that you know, is really different to what I sort of, my scenery sort of, you know, on a week to week

basis. Yeah, and I find that when I travel, I mean, and I think it’s the same for a lot of people is that food is a big part of travel just going to nice restaurants eating new foods and just enjoying the food side of things and it’s hard to do with that at the physical activity but you know, and all swimmers and triathletes will know that after you get out of the pool the one thing you want to do is sit down and eat when I get home from coaching at night like I would have trained beforehand I would have coached for an hour and a half and then I’ll get home at, you know, maybe nine o’clock and I just, I can’t function without being straight away because I’m just, you can’t talk to me, I’m just searching for food so yeah, that’s, you know, that’s one of the things I’m really looking forward to in this great ocean road trip is, you know, going for the swims and then just being able to sit out in the sun, eat a good meal

chat with people and just, you know, really relax that way. Yeah, great. Now it is an important part of it together it’s a great social lubricant nice food in a nice setting, hey and post-exercise makes it even more so. Yeah, definitely and I’ll be, my, if you want to say kills me every time but whenever we go on a holiday the first thing I’m looking for is the closest pool or the closest beach where I can swim so I’ve always got my speedos, my funky trunks packed and a pair of goggles because I’ll go nuts without without going for a swim so and I look at that when I travel is how close is how close is the nearest pool to this hotel or accommodation that I’m staying at so it’s, and I think a lot of customers are probably in the same boat too they go a bit nutty without being in the water for a few days. Yeah, well it’s again it’s another good thing for our industry that people are, you know, happy for someone to take that

like stress or hassle out of out of, you know, their holiday or their trip, you know, so we we can happily design up trial running trips and cycling trips and kayaking trips and swimming trips knowing that, you know, it’s a great trip but the people, you know, shouldn’t, as they did for many, many years, like just forwent their actual daily hobby when they went on a trip because it sort of, you know, it wasn’t wasn’t considered easy or you have to do extra research and there wasn’t the resources like the apps and things like that that they have now where it’s very easy to see the location whereas back in the day if you were a runner every morning, you know you went somewhere, you know like China or somewhere where we started it was hard to get people to go and have a jog in the morning for fear of getting lost or not reading signs or just being uncomfortable in an environment where they weren’t sure of the traffic, whereas

we can do a running trip in China and just, you know, the leaders there in the morning take that, you know, they get that hour run and throw in some amazing things that you just normally run past that actually we can explain and show and include on a run that it’s sort of educational and knowledge based but it’s also, you know, taking that box of, you know, I’m a runner, I love running I love seeing new things and I’m doing this first thing in the morning that will set me up for a great day. Yeah, definitely and I want to talk a little bit about the Great Ocean Road trip coming up on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of Feb 2014 and if you listen to this podcast after that date go to effortlessmean.com and we’ll have the list of the next upcoming road trips on the website but yeah this Great Ocean Road trip so the Great Ocean Road is one of my favourite drives along the coast here in Australia, it’s about an hour and a quarter, an hour and a half

from Melbourne and what we’re doing on the Friday is we’re leaving it around lunchtime we’re going to then head to Torquay which is one of my favourite sort of beaches down there it’s got a really nice little township, it’s got a great little surf beach and we’re going to go around to the back beach there and go for approximately a 60 minute swim just to get rid of that tension from the bus trip and we’re just going to have an easy swim and just get going for the trip and then after that there’ll be an extra sort of stretching mobility session then we’ll do a bit of an activity dinner and a movie that night and that’s going to be the how we start and you’re going to be on this trip as well Yeah, that’s right we’ll be providing the support for you to do the swims and all the logistics of the transport, the accommodation the meals and the extra activities there’ll be again with our active rest there’s a bit of free time to enjoy

some people might just want to wander around take a book, have a read, spend time on the beach have a bit of a longer swim or something like that but we’ll be providing the support to let any number of things happen in that free time where it is having the free time yourself wanting to explore a walking trail or rent a bike for a ride or some more extensive stretching and mobility and yoga at certain times we’ll be supporting you in that trip with the clients in mind for them having fun it’s certainly swimming related but certainly getting away and doing something a bit different as well Another thing to mention is that a lot of the meals are provided on the trip as well so you don’t need to worry about bringing money with you for all this food you’ll probably want some extra snacks like some of those do but a lot of the main meals are provided and like you mentioned with free time I find that there’s generally two kinds of people

there’s those that like to spend a bit of time on their own away from people and those that get energy from being around people if you are one of those people who want to have some free time to explore and do all that sort of stuff then there’s going to be free time for you to do that as well as the people who want to be around others and chat and socialize then you can do that too so it’s a very relaxed trip and there’s free time for you to explore these different places like Torquay we’re at Anglesey the next day on the Saturday I stayed in Anglesey two weeks ago just before the Pewter pub and it’s a really nice town on the way to Lawn and there’s a really nice back beach there down near Point Road night is near where we’re swimming is that right? Yeah that’s correct, yeah we’ll swim across there to the ramp yeah good little spot around there and then that night we’re off to Lawn which is a really sort of famous little town

along the Great Ocean Road and that’s where the Pewter pub is held which is a 5000 person swimming race which was held two weeks ago and we’re going to have a really good swim the next day at Lawn as well heading out to the pier and back and doing some stuff so it’s going to be really good fun I’m really looking forward to it and we’re not far off now No, no and it’s a good point catering to different people walking away from work with different things in their head and we’ve always really been very strict about making sure there is free time and any itineraries because it’s quite condescending to people to make them just do the same thing all the time together so there is the chance of people that really want to just take a break from everything outside of the swimming and your instruction and the meals and the accommodation to really do whatever they want however they want really and then there’ll be other people that

we can get them together and do more analysis or swimming we’ll bring a few swimming movies with us so people can watch those of an evening or an afternoon or something like that while they’re thinking about swimming but it’s important for us as a designer of an itinerary to really respect that some people are wanting to get their own time and outflow and meeting other people and chatting and finding life stories and different people from different walks of life so yeah we do cater for that yeah it’s going to be a really good trip so if you want to book you can go to effortlesswimming.com click on the coaching tab up the top and then there’ll be a little drop down that says swimming holidays and you can read up on the itinerary for that trip and my phone number is also on that page there so you can give me a call if you’ve got any questions about whatever about the food accommodation about the underwater filming just you can get in touch directly with me

and ask any questions so we’re about how long are we about a month away so not long now and we’re really looking forward to it so Aaron thanks so much for joining me on the call and you’ll be on the trip as well so people can meet you as well and it’s going to be good fun yeah and just one last thing from me just like the free time and the meeting people also the different levels of swimming are totally catered like people are in Utah open water swimming or people are at quite a high level trying to save a few seconds of some events that are sort of run this summer we’ll have a few people there supporting so there’ll be no no problem with sort of breaking off and I know your instruction will be fantastic for beginners right through to elite and so we’re happy to support that and so I don’t think you need to be at a certain level to come and do it like really for us giving you the chance to come and experience an open water swimming training camp

you know it’s something that maybe you know you feel you’re not ready for but might be in a year or two you know don’t hesitate to come like it’s it’s not going to be exclusive or or you know not going to make sure that people are a certain level just to be able to get through the front door we really you know love this sport it’s a really great atmosphere and we all started somewhere in it so you know don’t be shy yeah it’s a good point and that’s a lot of people have asked me that as well about the trip is what level do I need to be at in order to join the trip and like you said the answer is really any level as long as you can swim competently that’s that’s fine and we’ve already got some people booked in who are you know at the faster end of the field and those that are in the more beginner end of the field like it’s it doesn’t matter where you’re at the other thing is that you know if you find that if you don’t think you’ll last

60 minutes you can also wear fins for the open water swims there’s no problem with that at all and it can allow you to get through the swim and enjoy it more without being too fatigued towards the end if if that’s what you’re worried about so there’s yeah any any level of swimming that you’re at the coaching and the guidance will be catered for you and also when we’re doing the ocean swims you know there’s different kayakers and myself in the water so you don’t need to worry about being left behind so that’s yeah that’s a good point thanks for bringing it up no no problem no problem looking forward to it awesome thanks Aaron well I’ll see you in about a month’s time make sure you go to the website read read up on this great ocean road trip and I’ll hopefully see you on it thanks for joining us on the effortless swimming podcast to get transcriptions bonus videos and to be the first to hear about new episodes go to swimmingpodcast.com