Swimming the English Channel

A personal perspective

Welcome to my Channel Swimming site. It is under construction (as you will clearly see!).

When it is finished, it aims to provide support and resources/information for those thinking of swimming the "mere ditch that shall be crossed", some information on my swim and background on the charities that the swim was for.

The resources will be on the left hand side. For instance, try out the panoramic viewer for Dover beach (warning: takes a good while to load at 13MB!). Or use the swim plotting tool (just load the spreadsheet file, enter the GPS readings and save, then the powerpoint file and hit the "publish" button on the Channel Swim toolbar to get a JPEG plot - set macros security to medium!). Or look at the Frequently Asked Questions section for some of the more regular questions. But please note that all resources are used entirely at your own risk - I give no undertaking as to their accuracy!

On the right hand side, are details of my swim. It happened on 4^th September 2004 and took 14 hours 8 minutes. But in fact, most of 2004 was spent preparing and decompressing from the swim. And it would not have been possible without the support of so many people.

First my family – Sarah, Daniel, Megan, Robert and Phoebe Kate “Dory” Critchlow – who allowed me to pursue this crazy dream. Second my support team - Tracey & Liz - who were literally “sick” of me by the end. Next Freda Streeter, my trainer, who was the only reason I made it out of the harbour and Alison Streeter, the inspiration for so many swimmers including me. Then there were all my fellow trainees (or the "2004 Newbees") – Astrid, Emma, Katie, Katherine, Leonard, Mandy, Mike, Nic, Peter, Rick, Steve, Tim (and Matt, surrogate “2004 Newbee”!) who kept me going in the cold, long training swims. And, of course, the Channel_Swimmers Smartgroups community who provide invaluable information and encouragement.

Finally a really big "thank you " to all my sponsors. Their generosity has contributed around £18,000 to Diabetes UK and £4,000 to the Ide Hill School Governors Appeal. Thank you, thank you.

Don't forget the immortal words of Dory..."Just keep swimming...just keep swimming" and my personal motto..."Built for comfort, not for speed-o"