Greg's English Channel Swim 2014

In the first week of September this year I will be attempting to realise a long-held dream of swimming the English Channel. The Channel is 34km at its narrowest from the White Cliffs of Dover at Shakespeare Beach, England to Cap Gris-Nez in France, and is the global standard for marathon swimming. The distance, cold water (15-17 degrees), unpredictable currents and shifting tides all make for a tough challenge. A nice summary of Channel swimming can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/l9dhxnn


I’ve been training for this swim for nearly 2 years, swimming with the Vladswim crew at Andrew ‘Boy’ Charlton pool and Victoria Park pool under coaches Vlad and Charm. Living out at Nepean Hospital during the week, I’m also doing lots of sessions by myself at the local Penrith pool. On top of that, each Saturday for the last few months I’ve been completing long, cold water ocean swims (3-8 hours) at beaches around Sydney and Melbourne to build up my endurance and tolerance of the cold. In all, I’m averaging about 35-45km per week. Part of my preparation for the cold water has also involved putting on 7kg of ‘channel chunk’ with the help of a calorie-rich diet by dietician and channel-swimmer Tara Diversi. Given the official rules that allow for only speedos to be worn, it'll provide some helpful layers of insulation against the cold.

Pilot Reg Brickell from the Channel Swimming Assoc. will guide me across the Channel in his boat the ‘Viking Princess’. The strong currents and fickle tides mean it’s likely that I’ll swim a longer, but more hopefully more efficient ‘s’-shaped course across the Channel. On board the Viking Princess I’ll be lucky to have the support of my old man, my cousins Brent and Jason and Tim Denyer (one of my coaches).

I’m swimming for two great organisations of personal significance:

The Shepherd Centre
www.shepherdcentre.org.au ; and

Rainbow Club Australia.
http://rainbowclubaust.com.au


Much of my childhood and teens was characterised by ear troubles. Between the ages of 3 and 15 I had 5 operations on my right ear to treat a cholesteatoma and recurrent ear problems. Prof Paul Fagan from St Vincent’s has looked after me right from the beginning and I’ve been seeing him for over 20 years now. The great care, support and encouragement I’ve received over the years from the Prof has allowed me to keep swimming and doing what I love, despite my dodgy right ear.

The Shepherd Centre is a national organisation that provides early intervention auditory-verbal therapy to develop the spoken language skills of children who are hearing-impaired or deaf, so that they can reach their full potential. Remarkably, 90% of children who graduate from The Shepherd Centre enter mainstream schooling. My own ear issues pale in significance to those of the children that the Shepherd Centre assists, but have allowed me to appreciate the importance of providing quality and accessible therapy to children with hearing difficulties.

The other organisation I will be fundraising for is Rainbow Club Australia, which has a network of clubs around NSW and Victoria, that provide swimming lessons for children with a disability, taught by specialised swimming instructors. Rainbow Club Australia gives these children the opportunity to feel safe and comfortable in the water and develop their skills as they learn to swim. I got involved with Rainbow Club in 2012 as a swimming instructor at their Bondi club, and then continued teaching at their Orange club in 2013, and it has been great fun. Through its structured lessons, Rainbow Club fosters a great sense of joy and achievement in the children as they gradually develop their confidence in water, learn safety skills and swimming technique.

All donations are tax deductible and will be shared 50/50 between these two great organisations.

Your support is greatly appreciated

Greg