In this insightful interview, we delve into the world of open water swimming and the unique perspective of Fermin Egido, the CEO of OCEANMAN. With the spotlight on the upcoming OCEANMAN race in Madeira, we shed light on what makes this event extraordinary and the underlying philosophy that sets OCEANMAN apart.
First of all because it’s a unique island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and the nature that you can find there is amazing. Also, we are swimming from one point to another, so that creates a unique experience. That will get the swimmers from one small village to the finish line at a different town, and we are going to pass alongside some amazing cliffs. And Madeira is not just a place to swim, it’s a place that you can enjoy nature, you can do extra activities like trekking in the middle of the island. You can hire a car and do a travel where you can discover the island. Also, the gastronomy is incredible. You can be delighted with the fresh fish and seafood and all that is related with the experience that goes beyond the swimming, it’s going to be an amazing experience.
We designed OCEANMAN with a different distance for everyone. So, there are like three main challenges. First, we have the sprint. It’s the first challenge. So, it depends on how much you were swimming. It’s a challenge to complete two kilometers if you’ve never swam in your life. But if you are a sprinter, it’s your distance.
5 km is the next step, and 10 km is close to the ultimate goal, because the final goal and the longest distance is 21 km. Everyone has to measure the challenge. Like I mentioned, for one person, 2 km could be a challenge, and for others, 10 km would be the regular things that you can do because you are training a lot. I can talk in my experience for me, for example, that I don’t have too much time to train… my next challenge is going to be to finalize OCENAMAN Lago d’Orta next year.
It’s something I will have during this year in mind. I heard many times, people say, when you are preparing for a challenge, like one year, and you want to swim these 10 kilometers, when you achieve it, it’s like a metaphor: One person enters the water, and one new person is revealed after the swim because of all this time swimming alone like 3-4 hours gives you an experience, in turn dialogue with yourself, like you face the challenge, you are going to achieve it but also you can give these extra things and make you better.
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- Also in Madeira this year, there is the ULTRAOCEANMAN (30 Km). What do you expect the swimmers to experience in this race?
ULTRAOCEANMAN is the biggest challenge that we have at OCEANMAN. it’s something that’s not for everyone. For that reason, we wanted to create this special event where everyone is a star, everyone is the winner, because the goal is not to win, it’s to finalize. It’s a long swim that will drive around like 8 hours, 10 hours probably. It’s a long distance. And like I said, we try to make it extremely special for everyone. Everyone will be escorted by a boat. Everyone will have their own feeder in the boat and of course like we did in the other distance, it’s from one point to another point, so we will depart from one point and we will arrive to another point. And yes, it’s a marvelous experience, combine this with a fantastic location in Madeira, probably could be one of the best experiences of the lives of the swimmers.
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- Can you share more about the OCEANMAN philosophy and the vision of the company?
When we decided to create OCEANMAN, we designed it in the way that we really wanted to live our lives. So, for the organizers that we were founding the company, we tried to create something that would be like our idealistic job: travel the world, discover new places, and share this with the people that we will meet in the way. That philosophy that we created for ourselves is the best that we can offer to others because we created our dream and now we wanted to share it with the world. There is a competition, there is a sport, but there is also a way to discover the world. For that reason, all the locations that we choose, we choose because we found something special in it. Or because the water is amazing, because the country, the culture, or whatever. We try to standardize all the events, what we want is people trusting us, we choose it because it has something extremely special and we will try to provide, like I mentioned, with the ULTRAOCEANMAN, one of the best experiences of their lives for the swimmers.
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- Apart from the opportunity to swim in a unique natural environment, what other activities can the swimmers or the people that come with the swimmers do in Madeira?
Well, Madeira is a paradise for tourists and there is a lot of wild nature. So I highly recommend to rent a car if it is possible to make a tour to the island. Get lost with the car, try to find any corner, try to discover all the small beaches that are all around the island. If you have time, you can do a trek crossing the middle of the island, because they have like super nice tracks and very beautiful nature. And also you can combine it with the gastronomy and wines. There are some places where they have their own vineyards and you can go and do some activities in the vineyards and also taste the local food. This combination between the traditional food and wine is one of the best things that you can try.
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- What does it mean to be part of OCEANMAN family?
OCEANMAN family it’s a way of life. Because one thing that is fantastic in the OCEANMAN community is that it doesn’t matter from which place you are, from what kind of part of the society you belong, everyone is the same inside the water. We are the same, we are with swimsuits, with the hat and the goggles and there is no distinction. So this connection that we make inside the water gives us the unique opportunity to connect different nationalities. In most of the races we have, like 20, 30, 40 different nationalities, we all are in the same place and we connect at all levels. A lot of our swimmers repeat 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 races in different places during all the year. And we create this global community that travels around the world. Some of the swimmers that also travel alone, they met with other swimmers and year after year what we create is this concept that is the OCEANMAN family. We are a global family united by water and united by a sport that we really love. Not just a sport, at OCEANMAN we love to travel, we love to discover new places and cultures, and we love to connect with other people.
