From A to Sea – The Southern Star Sea Swimming Podcast · The Southern Star

Nuala Moore on swimming in the world's most dangerous waters

·31 min·2 clips

In Siberia, Nuala Moore wanted 1,000 meters at zero degrees and stopped after 150 meters.

1. From A to Sea – The Southern Star Sea Swimming Podcast features Nuala Moore on swimming in the world’s most dangerous waters. 2. Siobhan Cronin interviews Nuala Moore, a Dingle swimmer, author of Limitless, and sea-safety advocate whose life is tied to fishing, diving, and long-distance swimming. 3. The episode asks how Moore moved from the sea as a childhood way of life to marathon swimming, ice swimming, and a memoir about sacrifice. 4. Moore says she grew up in a fishing family in Dingle, waiting for her father to return and jumping off boats and piers with her brothers. 5. She recalls learning through Irish Water Safety courses at Slodin Beach when she was about six to ten years old. 6. Moore describes early distance swims such as Coon Pier to Ventry Pier and a swim from Sloughdean Beach to Beanbourne Beach around the lighthouse. 7. She says scuba diving in 1990 and becoming a PADI professional in 1994 made deep water feel normal before her marathon-swimming years. 8. Moore explains that she did not think in competitive terms and preferred events where everyone could finish together. 9. She recounts setting up a triathlon in Ventry with 28 friends, Coast Guard support, marshals, and no attention to finishing times. 10. She says the Seven Frogs Triathlon and other swims were built around making sure the last finisher was clapped across the line. 11. Moore describes her view that a tide, wind, or current can invalidate a planned distance, even when a swimmer is strong and prepared. 12. She uses the Bering Strait and the Blasket Sound to show how countercurrents can turn two kilometres into six hours for 27 swimmers. 13. Moore says the Round Ireland swim involved four to six hours in the water every day, 16 hours a day on Zodiacs, and no toilets, coffee shop, physio, or sandwiches. 14. She says the accumulation of cold, pressure, and fatigue left the team emotionally broken but still committed. 15. Moore argues that team sacrifice changed her, and she felt proud of who she was inside that group. 16. She says she moved to ice swimming because marathon swimming had stopped feeling connected to her, while a 25- to 40-minute swim still left time to go home. 17. Moore describes her first Siberia attempt as a shock response in zero-degree water and minus 33-degree air, after which she studied what stopped her breathing. 18. She says she trained by swimming for set times in Peddler’s Lake and the Connor Pass, using the rule to plan the swim and swim the plan. 19. The interview is conversational and detailed, with Siobhan Cronin prompting Moore to unpack technique, motivation, costs, and the current interest in cold-water swimming. 20. Listeners who like endurance sport, sea stories, and practical cold-water experience will get the most from it, while listeners wanting a brief lifestyle chat may skip it.

As heard by us

A sea-swimming story where endurance, family, and tide logic all matter.

Nuala Moore's story lands where swimming, sea knowledge, and family history meet: a daughter of a fishing family in Dingle, an athlete who has crossed some of the coldest and most remote waters in the world, and a woman who kept finding her way back to the ocean after marathon…

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Why you'd press play

Cold-water grit, tidal detail, and a life shaped by the sea.

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