In just 14 days time 6 swimmers from Sutton Coldfield are taking on the ultimate open water swimming challenge –
The 6 plan to swim across the most ionic stretch of open water in the world . The English Channel.
But that’s not all – as well as swimming all the way to France, they will then turn around and swim all the way back England ! The team are Paul Bates, Ross Emery, Stuart Fuller, Rob Small, Claire Thorn and Charlie Wheadon – collectively known as Big Rick’s Swim Team – and they will be raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support, which is a charity close to their heart.
Just Few TASTY details about the English channel
More people have successfully climbed Mount Everest than have swum the English Channel. It is considered one of the world’s hardest swims, not least because it:
– Has an average water temperature of 14-16C
– Has a variety of jellyfish which sting
– Contains some of the most difficult tides in the world
– Is 21 miles across at its shortest point, but the team will swim a lot further each way
– Takes most swimmers 10-20 hours just to complete a single crossing
And to make matters worse, there are strict rules in place which mean that wetsuits are not allowed, so it’s trunks or swimming costumes all the way! And off course with this being a two swim we will have to swim throughout the night to complete it.
The team has spent the last two years preparing for this challenge, taking part in a number of open water swimming and endurance events (including getting into lakes with sub 10 degree water temperatures at 7am on a Saturday morning!).
Our Double Channel window is from 27th July to 31st July..we have to be ready and waiting in Dover, waiting for the call from our channel pilot Lance Oram to go…we can start almost at any time night or day…the swim itself can take anywhere from 20hrs to 30hrs …all depends on the weather in the channel ..
(with this link you can live track our swim when we go , our boat for the trip is Sea satin http://cspf.co.uk/tracking )
Should you wish to sponsor Big Rick’s Swim Team on this extremely tough challenge, please visit their sponsorship page and donate what you can: https://www.justgiving.com/teams/bigricks
To see Pictures & Videos of just how hard we have been training check our team blog page https://bigrickchannelswimteam.blogspot.co.uk/
Kind regards
Paul Bates
Big Ricks Swim Team