Cold water specialist Nuala Moore: 'The greatest danger was to live a mediocre life'

While some may deem her swimming challenges as dangerous, Nuala Moore would rather take them on than ‘live a mediocre life’, writes Afric McGlinchey

Tue, 16 Jan, 2024 - 07:45

Afric McGlinchey

Are you trying to be more adventurous for 2024? Maybe you got a Dryrobe for Christmas and are planning to get more sea swims into your routine. One lady who can inspire us all is cold water specialist, Nuala Moore.

Born in Dingle, Co Kerry, Moore felt at home in the sea from a very young age. For a Sunday treat, her father, a fisherman, would take Nuala, her siblings and their friends out into the harbour in his boat. From there, they would jump into the water and swim to shore. By the age of nine, determined not to be left behind, Moore was swimming around the headland after her older brother and his friends.

“My family all carry that same drive and fearlessness, that tuathalach,” she laughs.

It was that family grit, willpower, and discipline that enabled her to step up to a bigger challenge: In 2006, she took part in a six-member relay team around the island of Ireland, something that had never before been attempted.

“I’ve been scuba diving for decades, and that involves a high level of control — control of a situation and control in a situation. The Round Ireland swim was something else. How do you relinquish control? You are used to being a lone swimmer and now you’re a team. That’s a whole new role.”

Cold water specialist, Nuala Moore, with her book Limitless

It took the swimmers 56 days to swim over 1,300km. But coming home after that unprecedented achievement was not what Nuala expected. “There was no recognition. No applause. I had to learn that the world isn’t always watching. So, you have to be OK with the pain it took. To remind yourself why you undertook the challenge. I wanted to feel strong, to feel powerful. To be the best version of myself. And I had to get to the point where I didn’t need other people to know what I had achieved. As long as I knew it.”

Undaunted, she took on an even more extreme challenge. In 2013, in Murmansk, Russia, she became the first Irish swimmer and the third woman in the world to achieve a 1,000m swim at 0C. Men had to cut through ice with a chainsaw to create swimming channels. “The beautiful thing about extremes is that first you analyse the risks. I’m more afraid of being afraid,” says Moore.

“So, you learn about management. How will the cold shock affect you? How will you manage the panic? Education is important. You know that if you can’t breathe, you can’t swim. So, you put your face into the ice water and adapt.”

In the same year, she also took part in a relay swim across the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska. One key aspect in Moore’s book, Limitless, is the credit she gives to her support teams.

“Our swim teams have their own skills — logistics, piloting, being calm in a crisis. We couldn’t do without them. The collective keeps the individual strong. I’ve had frostbite, I’ve been stung by jellyfish. And I’ve learned that you need people who can support you in a matter-of-fact way. My family too — not once did they say, ‘Wasn’t that risky? Weren’t you afraid?’”

Nuala Moore with the Tricolour in the Lighthouse at Cape Horn

Her biggest challenge was a mile-long swim through the treacherous Drake Passage, also known as Sailors’ Grave, where the Atlantic and Pacific tides meet and clash between South America’s Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. When asked about the dangers, she pauses. “I measured the risks and decided that the greatest danger was to live a mediocre life. To drift backwards. Imagine becoming a ghost in your own world?”

The exhaustive training and extreme swims must have come at a personal cost. But Moore keeps her personal life private.

With five ice swimming championships worldwide, two Guinness World Records to her name, and multiple other awards, she certainly has recognition now.

She also pays tribute to her older sister. “Before she died suddenly, Mary was my go-to person. She always cleared my perimeter so I could see forward. Before taking on any swim challenge, I had to know that everything in my life was sorted, and she would be the one to sort it.”

One of Moore’s personal commitments was caring for her father. “It wasn’t a burden in any way. I was just looking after my dad. I wasn’t interested in swimming four to six hours a day anymore. In the same way, covid had an impact on me. That time when everybody stopped. It gave me the chance to breathe. I realised there was my own life too, and I needed to look at it. Writing this memoir has been another kind of challenge. I wanted it to be my legacy for my nephews and nieces.

"I would love for people to realise that you can train to beat your own weaknesses, your own fears.”

Along with vivid descriptions of the training, the journeys, the bonds formed, the conflicts and ultimate successes, Limitless conveys the emotional and physical force of will required for extreme open water expeditions. It also peels back the layers of the question: Why do it at all?

“If we can walk out of this life knowing that we’ve done some good, and we empowered others, we can feel it was a life worth living. That’s what Limitless is about. And honouring the life. Honouring life.”