Swimming the Channel - questions

promethius

Something I’ve always been interested in is the swimming of the English Channel.
I’d be interested to hear if anyone’s done it or knows someone who has. I once knew a guy (not that well has to be said) that swam it maybe 7/8 years ago.
He wasn’t by any means quick and I never rated his stroke and then someone told me he’d done it. He would have been in his mid thirties at the time and pretty stocky with fair bit of body fat.
I don’t compete any more (besides an occasional triathlon) but swim to stay in shape and really enjoy it, I surf and weight train regularly so overall not too bad shape.
Used to beach life guard so well used to being in open water. I’m just wondering what it takes to do it? What it would take me to get to that level.
I’d be concerned about the conditions to be honest, I’ve low body fat and believe that your swim isn’t certified if a suit is worn, can you get a permit to swim it with one?
Furthest i've swum in the sea so far was in a half iron man triathlon which i realise is not even a warm up for the channel

Killgore Trout

Yeah, no wetsuits allowed - It's a hardcore swim.

I read this a while back abut a chap called Ned Denison who did the swim - was a pretty informative read.

http://swimming.about.com/od/openwaterswims/a/channelswim.htm

If you want to try out shorter distance swims without a wetsuit there's plenty of places to try.

If you're based in the east there is a season of open water swims from 1000m-5000m, mainly around Dublin:

Also the Irish Long Distance Association run races all over the county - distances go from 500M to 60 Miles, according to the website.

promethius

Excellent article KT.
Not for the faint hearted.

hunnymonster

Ned is a great friend of mine and a super guy. He gives so much encouragement to people and knows almost everything there is to know about OW swimming.

The channel isn't necessarily about the best stroke or the fastest race times, it's about being able to stay in the water for 12-16-24 hours. to feed, to swim in the dark, to not injest the fuel from passing ships, to swim for hours when you can see the coast and it's not getting any closer. It's tough but doable. My partner is training for a crossing this summer. He is in the pool for over 40 km a week, in the sea once a week and come april will move to the sea full time.

The rules for an accredited swim are quite strict, no wetsuit, no touching the boat, got to clear the water line in France (not trivial if you land on rocks after 20 hours swimming).......

Rented Mule

I went looking to see if I could find any information on a friend of mine who has swam the Channel twice and was surprised to find a website.

http://www.connecttothejourney.com/about-nial.htm

Absolutley one of the nicest human beings that I have ever met. I have known Nial for around thirty years and have swam and worked with him.

padraig_f

Killgore Trout wrote: »

I read this a while back abut a chap called Ned Denison who did the swim - was a pretty informative read.

http://swimming.about.com/od/openwaterswims/a/channelswim.htm

Great read!

secman

List of people that i know and that have swam the channel:

Mike Kelly
Ann McAdam
Eoin gaffney- twice
Pat Manning
Shay Dillon
Feilim O'Maolain
Ciaran Cassidy

There is a long distance swimming assoc. and if you contact them ,they will give you all the info required.

There is also relay swims, again it might be a good idea to participate in one of these as part of your build up.


Secman

hunnymonster

Eoin G is another person I rate very highly in terms of the encouragement he give newbies. Well worth contacting him if you're Dublin based and looking for advice.

Balmed Out

Friends doing it in september 09. she started training about 6 months ago and is expecting it to cost 5000 and take 16 hours.

hunnymonster

sounds about right. The running joke in our house is that I'm taking Mr Hunnymonster to the Cote d'Azur (Ironman France) and Disneyland (Ironman Florida) this year and for the same price he is taking me for a week in a caravan in Dover!

Killgore Trout

Do you get to sit on the boat and watch? (If you want to watch)

hunnymonster wrote: »

sounds about right. The running joke in our house is that I'm taking Mr Hunnymonster to the Cote d'Azur (Ironman France) and Disneyland (Ironman Florida) this year and for the same price he is taking me for a week in a caravan in Dover!

AngryHippie

only if you've got a lifejacket