I got the reference, but didn’t bite!
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I know a couple of people who’ve done decas.
One (early adopter) told me proudly that fewer people had done a deca than been in space … that would have been about 2004 I think. He more or less gave up multi-sport after that.
The other has done more than one deca, quins, multiple IM … legend
Once the Chester Tri Christmas bash had a superhero theme so lots of people came as him!
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It looks like he’s at it again, this time a SBR around Wales. Swimming from Prestatyn to Llandudno, cyling to Chepstow & running back up to Prestatyn.
I enjoyed my day cycling with him & shall follow this but having tried to read his book about swimming the length of Britain his apparent lack of planning & training leaves me scratching my head.
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Sean is a bit one dimensional isn’t he.
I’d say he was playing to his strengths, but…
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It’s like he’s trying to avoid…life 
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You’ve got to admire people who can make a living out of their adventures or sports, but the boring bit of me questions whether they’re going to make enough in the long term to keep them in their old age 
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He managed 5km of swimming yesterday - Prestayn to Rhyl - broken into 2 chunks.
Apparently the tides & way the waves crashed against the breakwater surprised him…he lives about 10miles from there 
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As someone who climbed very seriously in my 20s, I knew a lot of people who were (mostly) very talented and who had no real interest in leading a ‘normal’ life. Climbing provided enough structure, you just needed enough money to get somewhere you could climb, so long as you had a tent or camper van.
Often these people would work at some kind of contract job for long enough to buy a plane ticket to somewhere with climbing that was cheap. Back in the 90s, that would have been somewhere like Smith Rocks in Oregon or Laem Phra Nang in Thailand.
With good rope skills and a head for heights, a lot of the best work was in the (then) emerging skyscraper rope access industry.
I guess a there are similar categories of people with different outlooks; hippies, people living off grid, spiritualists … etc
So, avoiding life? … maybe.
Often though, just living a different life with different principles or ‘success criteria’.
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Which is great and I know plenty of ‘not quite ‘ surfers who were immensely talented and chased that dream but who pays for their choices later in life?
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Fair point but there’s no rule to say everyone has to abide by the same set of ethics.
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All true, and it’s his own life and he’s not hurting anyone else. But apart from the noise he creates around himself through promotion (I bet your twentysomething mates didn’t do that) what is he really achieving or contributing? Just looks looks like the cult of Sean to me.
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Well it was the 90s so self promotion was a lot more difficult.
The climbers making a living from the sport were typically working for equipment manufacturers (and hence got their photos in magazines more frequently). The other way of getting well known was to have a friend who was a decent photographer!
I don’t personally sense that Conway is self promoting that much, it all seems pretty low key to me.
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I completely agree with Cobbie here. His twenty something mates would have absolutely self promoted had it been a thing at the time, and why not? Life is way, way, too short, so live it how you want. That seems to be a problem only for those not living life how they themselves would like.
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I agree - but I kinda think climbing is different to an endurance bloke just jobbying around this island
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He’s just an endurance bloke living his life how he chooses. 10/10 from me.
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This. The problems seem to come when someone lives their life a bit differently from the social norm. Life is too short. Its not like he’s on here pestering for money. Is he much different from someone like Angus Young, apart from Angus being more successful?
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There is a spectrum of social norm… and I suspect that a lot of us here are closer to Sean on that spectrum than we are to the social norm. At least I think that I am. To me doing a Tri around Wales sounds like a perfectly good idea
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I’m trying to actually distil my POV.
Basically, as someone who’s done a lot of stuff in their life, and taken a lot of risks along the way, I find much of what Sean & Iron Cowboy do, utterly dull and lacking in inspiration (and utterly self absorbed in IC’s case as he has 5 kids). It’s literally the endurance version of 9-5.
But that’s just me, I have a slanted view of the world!
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The lives of half the population would bore me to death. The lives of the other half would scare me to death. Fortunately, I’ve managed to find the perfect middle ground 
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