Steve Landells - Channel Swimmer

Steve swam the English Channel on 2nd July 2006 in 21hours 15 minutes. Here is his story in his own words:

First thoughts from a first timer

I will get round to writing a full report when the 'phone stops ringing and the room stops rocking, but here are a few thoughts from my swim last Saturday that may or may not be useful to those of you fellow first timers as the season gets into full swing - I know what it's like to be an information sponge!

1. IT'S A LONG WAY. It is, but not when you break it down into manageable segments; you're not swimming to France, you're just swimming to the next feed.

2. IT'S COLD. The Channel seems to lag Dover harbour by about a week, so if you've coped with long swims recently then the temperature won't be a problem. It also gets warmer as you approach the French coast.

3. ONLY HAVE POSITIVE THOUGHTS. You will hit down patches when it's easy to let negative thoughts creep in. I kept on thinking about what I would tell my 4 year old son, Sam, if I didn't get across.This was a conversation that I didn't want to have so instead I thought about his reaction when I told him that I had made it. Always find something good to think about. For example, when I was on the beach in France every bit of my body ached. I eventually found that the big toe on my right foot actually felt fine...right up until the moment that I kicked a crab (accidently)as I returned to the inflatable. The crab took offence and sunk its pincers into my big toe. Had I been quicker I would have taken great pleasure in using said crab as my source of post-exercise protein, but unfortunately it legged it.

4. CROSSING TIME. If you set yourself targets, you set youself limits. I was hoping for 13 1/2 hours but having analysed some of the swims last year, I realised that I had to plan on a 20 hour swim. What are you going to do when you get to your hoped for crossing time and you can't even see France? At 20 hours I just stopped swimming; I didn't know why and it took a bit of effort to get myself to move again. It helped that I could see the lights of Calais, but that might not be the case for you.

5. PILOT. As first timers we don't really know what to look for in a pilot & his boat and crew. If they are all as good as Chris Osmund, together with Tony & Simon, then I don't think that we swimmers have much to complain about! If you have any queries or requests, don't hesitate to ask - everyone is there to get YOU across.

6. RECEPTION COMMITTEE. Whilst the reception that I received in France was slightly painful, it was more than made up for by you guys who came down to the marina when we returned; thank you, it was really appreciated.

7. COMMS It's worth having someone on dry land to co-ordinate information; it can get a bit busy on the boat so one person who can disseminate updates to all interestd parties is the way ahead. My thanks to Julian Critchlow for that.

8. SUPPORT TEAM. I don't feel that I can say too much about this for two reasons. Firstly I very selfishly "stole" Freda from the beach when other swimmers were reaching critical ponints in their training (soz) and took her to a place that she didn't really want to go to (soz again). I also took Ric away from training for his own swim. The fact that they both came without a thought says far more about their incredibly generous natures than I could ever put into words. Secondly, in Ric I had a man who has the ability to motivate and encourage anyone to do anything. I really looked forward to the feeds (there were 38 of them all told) because I knew I would get a big smile and a real motivational boost (and 8 strengh Maxim towards the end!)In Freda I had someone to whom I could delegate all safety related issues; I knew she would pull me out if it all went pear shaped and I wasn't thinking properly. She was right there when I was flagging with her own version of encouragement (!) and, in any case, whose going to get out early with Freda only a couple of feet away! You both have my eternal gratitude and I really don't know what would have happened if you hadn't been there.

I hope that some of this may be of some interest; these are just my thoughts and some of it may not be relevant to you or might be wrong for your swim Please feel free to contact me if you think I can help.Have a good one & I promise that all the effort is very, very, worthwhile.

Thanks

Steve Landells