Man vs Ocean One Man's Journey to Swim the Seven Seas

In 2007, Adam, then a toaster salesman, watched a film about a man attempting to change his life by swimming the English Channel, and was inspired to try to emulate the feat. After a year of rigorous training without a coach, he achieved his goal in 11 hours 35 minutes, despite a ruptured bicep tendon leading to medical advice to give up long-distance swimming. In 2011, after two operations, he became the first Briton to achieve a two-way crossing from Spain to Morocco and back. In the process, he broke the British record one way. Shortly afterwards, the Ocean’s Seven challenge was born, a grueling equivalent to the Seven Summits mountaineering challenge. At first it seemed that injury would prevent Adam from participating but, ignoring medical advice, he developed an innovative technique—the Ocean Walker stroke—that would enable him to continue with the ultimate aim of completing this seemingly impossible feat. Always intriguing, sometimes terrifying, and occasionally very funny, Adam’s story is about sport in its truest form: rather than competitions between teams and individuals, it is about man against nature—and against his own failings and demons. In that, it is truly inspirational.

Adam Walker is an endurance and long-distance swimmer.