Pam Dickson in training for the double crossing of Cook Strait. Photo / Ben Fraser
Pam Dickson in training for the double crossing of Cook Strait. Photo / Ben Fraser
She's rowed across it, she's swum across it - now Rotorua's Pam Dickson has set her sights on a new way of tackling the formidable Cook Strait.
Not content with her previous record conquests over the strait's choppy seas, the 61-year-old is hoping to be the first person to make a double crossing on a stand-up paddleboard.
Mere mortals take the ferry.
Dickson became the oldest woman to swim across Cook Strait in 2009, at the age of 55. Five years later, she chalked up a record by rowing both ways across.
Now the strait has called her back for this latest challenge.
"It's an interesting and tricky piece of water," she said. "All around the world, people know how tough it is."
Pam Dickson in training for the double crossing of Cook Strait. Photo / Ben Fraser
She is hoping to complete the 54km double crossing in 10 to 12 hours, paddleboarding from Ohau Point near Wellington to Perano Head and back.
The idea came to Dickson at the time of her rowing attempt last year, when she heard that two-time world champion Annabel Anderson had become the first woman to cross the strait on a stand-up paddleboard, from south to north.
"I guess you could say she [Anderson] inspired me," Dickson said. "I thought, well, she's just done it one way - I want to do it two ways."
Dickson started training on the paddleboard last July, squeezing training sessions on the lakes into her busy schedule as a massage therapist.
"The days I have off I just get up early and paddle all day," she said.
She's now a convert to paddleboarding - although her descriptions of the sport's rigours are unlikely to feature in any advertising campaign.
"I liken it to shovelling dirt all day while trying to balance on something," she said.
"It's really tiring on the legs.You are standing up on the board for hours and hours.
"The arms do get a bit tired [as well] because it is all upper body work."
But she did concede that paddleboarding could be different things to different people.
"You can get quite a lot out of it: the serenity, or you can pick something more challenging."
Dickson has opted for the latter - weather permitting. From today, she will be waiting on the call from Philip Rush, the famed long-distance swimmer and coach, telling her conditions are right and to get in the car and drive to Wellington .
