A buddy of mine who does triathlons with me is going to swim the English channel, late this summer. I thought he was joking but he does strange things like this. Its all he talks about. He’s been dreaming about doing it for years.
He started explaining that people who swim the English Channel have to comply with a long list of rules by the British “Channel Association,” an outfit which regulates the officiality of your attempt. The “Association” has all kinds of rules on how you are supposed to swim the channel. I think it ends up being a 23 mile swim, taking you what? 8-12 hours or more? You can’t wear a body suit, and the big deal is that you have to find a “boater” or “channel guide,” to assist you, and so he’s got to pick one of them out. The boat guiders have their own website, so he has to hire one of them. I guess they feed you by sticking a tube or something out to you.
Even though you can’t wear a body suit, you can slap on a bunch of grease.
They have to deal with the currents, so swimmers swim an S shape, which usually results in swimming around 30 miles total. Swimming the channel would be very cool, although I don’t know if I could handle the cold. Read “Swimming to Antarctica”, by Lynne Cox. It came out recently and is an account of her various swimming feats. If you are like me, when you finish all you’ll want to do is go swim across a lake.
If anybody reading this knows any of the “official boat guiders,” give me the name of the craziest, dumbest one, who goes off course the most, and has to give the money back, the most, and I’ll email my friend and tell him, this is the guy everybody on the internet thinks is the best.
Open water swims are fun. I totally understand why does your friend want to do it.
I got beaten to Lake Ontario mention. Around 55 km (52 straight line, gotta round a bit because of currents), from Niagara-On-The-Lake to Toronto. It’s on my list of things to do, and as I get older I want to do it more and more.
I’ve paddled a two man outrigger canoe across Lake Ontario, but that wasn’t really hard. Swimming it would be really tough.
I can remember going to an Indiana U. swim camp way back when and getting to watch Doc Councilman’s home movies of his English Channel swim. It’s kind of stuck with me over the years, and given unlimited time and financial resources, I’d pick a Channel swim attempt over Kona.
Best of luck to your friend! It sounds like he’s planning on an incredible journey.
Yep, I was just reading an article in local publication here the other day. As you said, since you cannot touch any person directly or any boat the entire way–they give you food/drink out on a pole. Thought that was interesting.
I can’t imagine that any mid-pack or better triathlete would have enough fat on him/her to do it. When I talked to a very successful, multi-crossing channel swimmer about my thought of doing it (I do a fair amount of longer open water races) it he said, no way, unless you want to put on 30 lbs. you’d freeze before you got 1/4 way across.
It always impresses me that the open water swimmers have so much bulk!
Aside from the physical difficulty, is it financially more difficult to scale Everest than swim the channel ? I suspect that swimming the channel is financially easier. Doing Everest seems to start out at $30K even for the on the shoe string cheap/high risk expidition…unless you are the guy from Sweden (Goran Kropp ???), who biked from Stockholm across two continents to base camp then did Everest and biked home ! What a stud. He should have thrown in a Channel Swim detour, and he would have done the world’s toughest tri !
Booth, good luck to your buddy. 30 miles of swimming actually sound more achievable than climbing to 29000 ft. I’ve actually been altitude sick as low as 11,000 ft !
Hey Booth, you are absolutely right the Channel swimmers association is incredibly restrictive in it’s regulations. You HAVE to employ one of the (two I think) pilots and their boats for the crossing, part of the reason for this is that the stretch between Dover and Calais is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Also, you have to book a slot, if the weather is too bad for your slot: too bad, you miss your attempt, no refund and the next team are up for their attempt. Its harsh but business is business. Last I heard it wa about $1900 USD for the pilot and boat per attempt! A couple of my friends who have swum The Channel have great photos of them and their little pilot boats dwarfed by supertankers etc. One of the restrictions that amazes me applies to relay teams, you must have a team of 6 no other number is allowed. If you start in a certain order then you must continue in that order. If, for example after the second swimmer has finished their hour, and the third were throwing up and fourth could not enter the water and swim their hour to get the third swimmer recovery time. Also, they must all do an hour not 55 and the next 1:05, one hour each!
Still, it is a very hard and arduous feat. One mad friend of mine that swam Lake Geneva last summer. Had yo be pulled out of the water in her attempt in 2003 as she missed the tide turning after 24 miles, 2 miles to go and in sight of land. She swam against the current for another 6 miles but they would have missed the headlead completely and been swimming across the Bay of Biscay! She is now training for her second attempt this summer, crazy!
I can remember going to an Indiana U. swim camp way back when and getting to watch Doc Councilman’s home movies of his English Channel swim.
I went to Doc’s camp before he swam the Channel. We got to see his home movies (not videos) of the IU swim team dropping water mellons onto the pool deck from the 10 meter platform. I have wanted to try that myself ever since. Can’t say the channel movies would have had the same effect.
Two women who swim at my YMCA (I swim with them on occasion) both completed the Channel swim last summer. One had to go at night the last day of her slot week, due to poor weather all week. Each of them put on a bunch of weight prior to the attempt. They would jump in the Atlantic (off New Jersey) regularly all winter (below 40 or so?). Brrr…
I did a 500 free at a swim meet last year; my lane was right between the two of them (one I beat, the other pulled away from me in the last 50).
A know a couple of people from our tri club who have swam the channel - One without a wetsuit and one with a wetsuit. This was part of the Arch to Arch triathlon - Run from Marble Arch in London to Dover, Swim the Channel, ride from Calis to Paris. They are a bit made as I hear roomers of a posible jurning across Europe Running, Swimming and Cyling from the Ural Mountains to the Atlantic.
Evidently more people have been in space than swam the channel.
Our club has also done a number of channel relays - again one was part of a London to Paris race this time as a relay.
I think there is at least one more relay team crossing planed for this year from our club (it helps that all our openwater training is in the Channel) - Me I think they are all mad 1500meter is too far!!
Friend of mine did the relay, with two other swimmers. He said the hardest bit was the cold, with no wetsuit etc. I think it took them 12 hrs and they had to crank at the end because the tide was on the turn. He mentioned the hardest bit was getting back into the water for your hour when you were already cold and tired.
Still, swim the channel, and boast for the rest of your life!
Marcia Cleveland, who lives in my town, swam the channel and wrote a book about her experience (and all the training leading up to it). I believe it’s called Dover Sole…anyone interested in an attempt would find it very helpful. I have no intensions of ever swimming the channel, but I found the book to be fascinating and motivating. Betcha can find it on Amazon.com.
I can brag that I’ve swam the English Channel - a few hundred feet off shore but not across it. It was mid August and the water was shrinkage cold.
You have to pick your days. Sometimes the water is calm and other times not.
Lot’s of foggy days at certain times of the year. Reminds me of the classical British weather report headline I saw in a Bournmouth newspaper - “Fog Over English Channel - Europe Isolated”.