Last year my brothers and I became the first people to complete the 8km point-to-point swim across the Moskstraumen (world’s largest maelstrom), starting at the pointed island of Mosken and ending at Vaeroy. This was the culmination of years spent training, acclimatising to the cold conditions and chugging up and down lakes, lidos, rivers and coastal waters. On top of the physical training, we also had to prepare ourselves mentally, which transpired to be a process of packaging each fear using cold, hard logic. Here’s a list of the five top dangers that haunted my preparation.

Little Brother JACK (25) is the youngest of the Hudson brothers. He is an author represented by London literary agency Curtis Brown, having written a book about the Wild Swimming Brothers, which is scheduled to be published soon. 

Jack also graduated from Northumbria Uni' with a degree in English Lit..  

WEAKNESS: Anything edible. 

STRENGTH: Paddle-sized hands.

FAVOURITE SWIM SPOT: Manta Point, Bali.

LIFE DREAM: Living on a desert island, surrounded by monkeys.

MEET JACK, CALUM AND ROBBIE HUDSON, three brothers born and raised in an English pie-eating county called Yorkshire. Growing up, they loved nothing more than inventing games together and exploring the wild outdoors, whether it was kayaking with seals and porpoises in Scottish lochs or paddling with their inflatable crocodile, Snappy, off the beaches of Devon. Then their lives changed when they moved up to Cumbria and found the idyllic Lake District within cycling distance. Slowly they learned the simple joy of whiling away their summers jumping off stacks and wild swimming with friends. It was a fun way of staying healthy, whilst also relishing this ancient playground we have waiting for us outside. 

Eventually, as they grew older, the brothers started to notice that folk, including themselves, were growing increasingly more and more detached from the natural world. Working in cities, they began to feel the weight of life in the urban grind - the common monotony of a nine-to-five, during which the only wildlife we see is the occasional drab pigeon or seagull. At the same time they noticed a sad cycle of anxiety, fatigue and desperation. It seemed like everything they'd done as kids was fading behind the tinted glass of nostalgia. So, they decided to get together and change their course. 

Suddenly the Wild Swimming Brothers was born.