As she gears up for her 11th Cole Classic, 76-year-old Sue Wiles says she plans to keep doing the annual Manly to Shelley ocean swim "until I drop off the twig".
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"I don't plan to stop, it's just something I want to keep on doing," the Wentworth Falls resident said.
She is keen to get back in the ocean as the weather warms up, but in colder months Ms Wiles can be found at her local pool at least three times a week.
She started swimming regularly "for my neck" in 2005, the same year someone suggested she do the Cole Classic.
"I didn't even know ocean swimming existed," Ms Wiles said. "I discovered it not long after I moved to the Blue Mountains, so now I have to keep going to the other side of Sydney.
"The first year I did the one-kilometre [Cole Classic] swim. I thought it'd be hard but it wasn't, it was great."
She has since signed up for the two-kilometre race every year.
"I can't catch waves, so if there's big breaks, I get petrified," Ms Wiles said.
"But once you get going everything fades away, it's just perfect.
"It feels like home being in the water, especially in the ocean."
A keen swimmer, Ms Wiles is an official at masters swimming competitions and also swims at meets.
She is the oldest person in her local swimming group, and one of the oldest Cole Classic participants.
"Everyone's gotten used to it in the group," she said.
"[At Manly], nobody takes notice of you really.
"A couple of people give me a nod and say 'good on you'. I feel comfortable doing it."
Her advice to anyone thinking about signing up: "It's not as hard as you think it is."
"There's lots of people around so safety isn't an issue," she said.
When she isn't in the water, Ms Wiles, who has a PhD in Chinese studies and speaks Mandarin, works as an associate editor of the Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia.
She also co-authored the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women, which she worked on for about 20 years before it was published in 2007.
She lived in China for 18 months in the the late 1970s soon after the death of former Chinese dictator Mao Zedong, and has been watching Australia's relationship with the country gradually evolve over the decades.
However, she currently has no plans to return and is "happy to stay in Australia".
"I'm looking forward to an ocean swim this weekend around Cockatoo Island," Ms Wiles said.
