He said the swim took around 30 minutes but admitted he felt “knackered” half way across, but knew he had to make it to the other side as he could feel the water pulling him towards the dam.
“I was sucked towards the wall and had to swim hard. At the other side I was exhausted. Then I heard police shout,” he told The Sun.
He was handcuffed and arrested by Nevada police after making it across the water in front of the 726ft structure, and fined $330 (£250) for “jumping, diving, swimming from dam’s spillways or other structures”.
The forklift driver is only thought to have survived as nine of the dam’s 10 turbines were switched off at the time.
“One officer said, ‘In my whole lifetime I’ve never seen or heard of anyone doing it’,” Mr Hughes told MailOnline, while admitting his decision to go for a swim had been “fuelled by drink”.
Some 275 people have reportedly died at the site in the last 10 years.
“I don’t have any regrets,” Mr Hughes told the BBC. “I even have a tattoo saying ‘no regrets,’ that’s the type of person I am.”
