Former professional ocean racer Lia Ditton has 17 years of sailing experience and 150,000 nautical miles under her belt, but in 2000, on four days’ notice and with no specific training, she completed a different type of ocean crossing: rowing across the Atlantic. Fast-forward to today and Lia is gearing up for her attempt next year to become the first person to successfully row 5,500 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean, land to land, without being towed.

As part of her training last year, the 38-year-old rowed 350 miles in 12.5 days off the California coast, during which time she encountered the most harrowing conditions of her 17 years at sea. Her experience is the subject of a film, Perseverance, by Find it Film, which is being screened at this month’s Four Seasons Film Festival in London. I grabbed a Skype chat with Lia to talk about all this and more.

‘Perseverance – California Coast Row’ is being screened at London’s Four Seasons Film Festival as part of a triple bill on Wednesday 20 March. Lia will be attending the event and holding a post-screening Q&A. Tickets here.

Photo: Anthony Ball

When 37-year-old Kiko Matthews set out to break the solo speed record for rowing the Atlantic in January, she’d already faced death at least twice in the form of two brain surgeries and time in intensive care whilst deeply ill with Cushing’s disease. Her experience inspired a quest to raise money for King’s College Hospital who treated her, and fostered a positive mindset that meant that even the 80ft waves she encountered during her record breaking 49-day row didn’t faze her.

In fact, Kiko completed the 3280-mile Atlantic row without any dramatic tales; she didn’t missed anyone or anything, liked her own company and genuinely enjoyed the experience. Truth be told, I was expecting tales of hallucinations, naked rowing and life-changing moments of facing fears, loneliness and total exhaustion, but Kiko’s positive approach to life meant that, save the brief low moment, she literally sailed through it. As she said to me, “You don’t have to do a big challenge in order to find yourself or to be happy – for me, these revelations have come from everyday life, from all the experiences I’ve had, good and bad.”

Enjoy the rest of our chat.

In 2018 adventure-loving rower Claire Hughes set a new Atlantic rowing world record in the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic challenge, as the only woman in the four-person team, Team Tyne Innovation. Overcoming exhaustion and 40ft waves, the team rowed 2-hours on and 2-hours off for 42 days to break the mixed fours team record by 14 days.

Now, two years later, Claire is preparing for a new row which, if successful, will see her and her expedition teammates claim a world first. Described as ‘the last great first’, the Northwest Passage is a 2000-mile Arctic route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. With extreme Arctic conditions, unpredictable ice and polar bears, only three attempts have been made this century to row it, all of which have been unsuccessful.

To find out more about this incredible expedition (due to begin next year) and how she’s preparing for it, I put some questions to Claire about the demands and dangers of attempting the Northwest Passage row.

© Channel 4

In January, 40-year-old Vicki Anstey hit our TV screens as one of Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins recruits. We saw the Barreworks founder undertake a version of the SAS’s gruelling selection process: eleven days of physical and mental stress, that included enduring physical beastings, ice hole submersions, facing her fear of water and heights and, finally, the mental and physical pressures of interrogation and stress positions.

The selection process took place in the freezing Chilean Andes, where temperatures regularly dropped below zero. Now back in sunny London, Vicki took time out of her schedule to share her SAS experience with me.

The list of brutal events that Amie ‘live wire’ Spade has to her name makes for impressive reading and includes Death Races, Survival Runs, a 277-mile multi-stage race and a team podium at the freezing 24-hour Spartan Ultra Beast World Championship in Iceland. All of which will stand her in good stead for her next big challenge: to run Ireland’s 1553-mile Wild Atlantic Way and set a fastest known time.

Amie is running to raise money for Nerve Tumours UK, a charity which supports sufferers of the genetic disorder, Neurofibromatosis, which causes tumours to form on nerve tissue. The cause is particularly close to her heart as her partner, Adam, has Type 1 Neurofibromatosis.

Here, I quiz the 39-year-old dryrobe ambassador (who is secretly very shy!) on her toughest challenges, her mental grit and how she’s training for her biggest run yet.

Obstacle course racer turned endurance athlete, Laura Try, was part of a team of four who rowed 1800 miles around Great Britain in June. Here, the 35-year-old talks about her rowing experience, her training, and the logistics of living on a boat measuring 8.6m x 1.6m for 56 days.