A Clearance Diver in the Australian Navy, in 2009 Paul de Gelder was working in Sydney Harbour when he was attacked by a bull shark (the first attack inside the Harbour in 60 years).
Paul lost his right hand in the attack and his right leg was amputated a week later.
What’s remarkable about Paul is not that he was attacked.
What’s remarkable is what he’s done since then.
Not only has he returned to the open water, but he also confronted his fear and dived with bull sharks and even learnt to feed them by hand.
He’s also become an advocate for the protection of sharks and has hosted documentaries for the Discovery Channel during Shark Week.
In this conversation, we discuss his troubled childhood, what he gained when he joined the Army, his decision to become a Clearance Diver despite a “massive” fear of sharks and how he was able to overcome his fear to get back in the water.
Get the full show notes for the episode here.
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Follow Paul on Instagram: @PauldeGelder
Kemi Nekvapil is, quite simply, a force of nature.
You know one of those people that when you talk to them, you know they are fully ‘in’ the conversation. That’s Kemi.
Kemi has worked in the wellness industry for over 20 years.
First as a pioneer in the raw food movement in Australia and now as an accredited executive and personal coach, she is committed to helping women like you and I change how we feel about ourselves and how we express ourselves, so we can set boundaries and pursue what we want from life, without guilt or apology.
How good does that sound?
Kemi is the author of two books, Raw Beauty and the Gift of Asking.
She’s also a powerful speaker which is why I choose her to both open and close Sparta Chicks Unleashed, the conference we held in 2018.
Plus she’s a runner - a trail and ultra-marathon runner, Kemi has completed 11 x marathon distances races and two ultras of 100km or more. So she ‘gets’ us.
Kemi was my ‘secret weapon’ during 2018 when she was my coach for 6 months so I know what a powerhouse she is.
Get the full show notes for the episode here.
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Visit the Sparta Chicks Radio website here
Follow Sparta Chicks Radio on Facebook: facebook.com/SpartaChicks
Follow Kemi on Instagram: @keminekvapil
Dianne Whelan is the first to admit she is not an ‘extreme’ or endurance athlete. She describes herself as “just an artist from Vancouver”.
But there is no doubt the project she’s currently undertaking is pretty extreme.
In 2015, she set out to travel the length of the Great Trail (or the Trans Canada Trail) which stretches from one side of Canada to the other and is the longest trail in the world.
It’s a 24,000km / 15,000mi journey across Canada - including 7,000km of water - that she is travelling by foot, bike, canoe and snowshoe.
Dianne initially thought it would take her about 500 days and so she named the project, and the documentary film she is simultaneously making in the process, ‘500 Days in the Wild’.
5 years later, she is about 3,000km from finishing her epic journey.
And when she does so, she’ll become the first person to complete this epic traverse of Canada.
What makes Dianne’s perspective unique (at least to this podcast) is that this journey is not about the challenge or the athletic achievement.
Instead, she describes as an ecological pilgrimage to honour both the land and to pay respects to the First Nations people of Canada, to learn their stories and share their lessons.
Get the full show notes for the episode here.
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Visit the Sparta Chicks Radio website here
Follow Sparta Chicks Radio on Facebook: facebook.com/SpartaChicks
Follow Dianne on Instagram @diannewhelanphotos & @500DaysintheWild
Jamie Moreno is a Latina woman on a mission to empower girls and women to get involved in motorsports and to follow their dreams regardless of age, race or gender.
Jamie grew up with a passion for cars after spending hours with her dad as a child in the garage working on cars.
However, she didn’t start racing until she was 25 because she didn’t realise it was an avenue that was open to her (sadly, another example of the effect of ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’).
It was also her love of motor racing that led Jamie to investigate health problems she had since childhood that left her with anxiety and depression for most of her life.
In fact, she credits motor racing with saving her life.
In this conversation, we discuss:
- her childhood, the time she spent hanging out with her dad in the garage working with cars,
- one of her favourite memories from childhood that involves wanting to go fast on a ride at Disneyland (but being stuck being a slow older man!),
- the pressures of growing up in a Latino family and the expectation to conform,
- her experience as a woman, and a woman of colour, in a male-dominated sport,
- why it’s important to her to be a role model for young girls,
- how she regained her confidence after it was shattered after a particularly bad crash, and
- the 4 lessons she’s learnt from racing and how those lessons are equally relevant in endurance sports.
Get the full show notes for the episode here.
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Visit the Sparta Chicks Radio website here
Follow Sparta Chicks Radio on Facebook: facebook.com/SpartaChicks
Follow Jamie on Instagram: @theracingchica