Deep,

MARATHON swimming champion Tammy Van Wisse casts her mind back to one of her toughest feats.
In 1996, the Beaconsfield resident swam from King Island to Apollo Bay, crossing 97.4kms of Bass Strait in 17 hours.
One of the most treacherous stretches of water in the world, Tammy still holds the record as the only person to have swum it.
Chatting to the yacht racers from the most recent Sydney to Hobart race – and fishermen who work in the Strait – and it was no surprise that most of them thought she was batty for even contemplating that kind of swim.
Bass Strait is notoriously rough because of its limited depth – 240 kilometres wide, 50 metres deep – and notoriously known as a breeding ground for Great White sharks. But for 43-year old Tammy, it was a challenge she couldn’t pass up.
“A fisherman friend of mine took me out on the water one day and when we stopped for lunch he took out a map,” Tammy, a motivational speaker, said. “He then pointed between King Island and Apollo Bay and said ‘Now why don’t you try to swim that’ as a joke, but I took him seriously.”
After preparing herself for that swim, the time had come. She braved 100 knot winds and waited for a week on King Island for the right weather. With only enough sponsorship for seven days, it was down to the wire. Finally, at 6.15pm on the last day, her fisherman trawler escort gave her a call and said: “You have a small window of opportunity – get down there and let’s go.”
Off she went into the pitch black frigid waters of Bass Strait, swimming and being tossed around in her shark cage from the three to four metre swells.
“Going into the darkness wasn’t fantastic in terms of motivation because the water was very chilly and you lose the warmth of the sun on your back,” she said. “I couldn’t see the support crew and generally you can’t see faces, so I felt very alone.”
Tammy finished the gargantuan journey and admitted she “was pretty happy to see Victoria.”
It is just one of many boundless achievements she has accomplished. These include record times and wins swimming Loch Ness in Scotland, New Zealand’s Cook Strait, the English Channel and the Manhattan Island swim in New York, winning Lorne’s Pier to Pub three times and 17 successive Victorian Royal Lifesaving ironwoman titles.
“You do these crazy challenges and you always have people question what you are doing and wonder if you have the physical and mental capabilities to be able to do it – and that’s what I love about the sport,” she said.
Tammy was enthralled by Graham Middleton’s conquest to be the first person to swim the Murray River in 1991, in 138 days.
She started cutting out newspaper clippings and articles and thought “wow, wouldn’t that be a fantastic thing to do.” Ten years later, not only did she complete the swim, but broke the Middleton record by 35 days – a record she still holds. From the Alps to the ocean, starting from Corryong in Victoria’s high country, it took Tammy 106 days to reach the Murray mouth in South Australia. She covered 2438 kilometres.
The Olympic swimmer recalls her switch from being a successful pool swimmer to an open water marathon champion, stemming from her days as a 13-year-old at the Black Rock Lifesaving Club.
“The ocean wasn’t a stagnant body of water like a pool; I was always up against Mother Nature,” she said. “That meant you had to be prepared for anything and be mentally ready for anything.”
But her hard-nosed approach to training and swimming marathons and longing for the next challenge, took time to develop.
As a child, Tammy was overweight and loathed any type of sport.
It was the purchase of a Clark Rubber family pool that sparked her parents into action – and she started to learn how to swim. After years of persevering with the sport, she was invited into a local swimming squad, which transcended into early morning starts and participating in Victorian representative teams all through her teenage years.
But it was her lifesaving years that became the impetus to tackle marathon swimming.
“When you are taken out of your comfort zone where the elements are changing and you are worried by big fish with teeth that are lurking, it just really knocks you for a six,” she concedes. “But lifesaving really gave me the confidence to swim out in the ocean.”
Once Tammy completed more than a handful of swimming marathons, she would frequently train in Port Phillip for her next challenge.
“Being a marathon swimmer you are in the water for long periods of time and you can’t help but ingest small amounts of water and swallow some,” she said, citing ear infections as the most common sight affect. “I felt Victorians were turning their back on the bay and didn’t appreciate what a beautiful thing we have on our back doorstep, so I teamed up with the EPA for a promotional swim, with the message, things you do on land, end up in our bay.”
It was during her first marathon in 1986, a 20km swim from Beaumaris to Frankston, that solidified she was a natural long distance swimmer. Tammy was the first female to cross the line and finished third overall, knocking off the Australian women’s marathon swimmer champ in the process.
“After that race, I was approached and a coach said you can represent your country and travel overseas, so I started to look at the sport as a career,” she said. “There were stages in the 20km where I thought I wasn’t going to be able to push through. Just being able to finish that proved to me I have a lot more inner strength than I realised.”
After more than 20 years swimming extreme distances in the ocean and battling unkind conditions, the mother of one is spending her time enjoying watching her two and a half year old girl, Rebecca, grow up.
“She keeps me pretty busy, but I still try to get down to Casey Arc or the Pakenham pools three times a week,” she said. “You have to change your lifestyle, these early years are special and I don’t want to miss them.”
And when asked about a return to marathon swimming, she replied: “I’d like to down the track.”
“I really enjoy that mental challenge: when you think you can’t go any further, you still have more to give and you can find a bit more.”