North Channel Double Relay Attempt July 2015

I can finally announce that I have been invited to represent South Africa as a member of an elite 6-person team who will be making the world first attempt to succeed in a TWO-WAY NORTH CHANNEL RELAY CROSSING. The team will swim from Ireland to Scotland and back to Ireland.

Dates: 24th – 29th July 2015

As a founding member of the International Ice Swimming Association (IISA), being one of the worlds top endurance, cold water and ice water swimmers, I will join the International team to bring significant “all condition” swimming experience for the difficult challenge as well as strong relay experience. I was also a member of the world first successful Bering Strait relay relay in 2013.

The total distance as the crow flies is approx 70km, with water temperature expected to be around 13 Celsius. All going well, the expected time for the challenge will be between 20-26hrs.

Each swimmer will be expected to swim as hard and fast as possible for 60 minutes at a time and each is expected to have 4 sessions in the water, swimming through the night.

The countries represented in the 6-person team are Ireland; South Africa; Sweden; Estonia, Czech Republic and Finland.

One must never underestimate just how difficult and challenging it is to be in such cold water for an hour at a time, pushing as hard as possible – then only having a few hours to recoup before re-entering the water for the next session. The North Channel is a notoriously difficult body of water to swim across with poor weather, strong currents and dangerous jelly fish being prolific.

My ultimate goal is to help the world first challenge succeed, to represent South Africa well and to also gain great experience in the North Channel as preparation for a solo North Channel swim attempt in the not too distant future.