THE CHANNEL SWIM

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 60, 8 September 1934, Page 14

THE CHANNEL SWIM

HOW IT IS ACHIEVED CONFESSIONS OF TEMME ARDUOUS TRAINING

,1 announced my intention recently of going into training for a swim this summer from Dover to" France. Since then I have become aware that there are people who intimate politely that I must be crazy—and others who are not £0 polite, writes E. 11. Temme, holder of the records for the Fiance to England and England-France swim, in the "Daily Mail." I suppose I am crazy. So would you be, every one of you, if you were my age (29), my weight (lCst), and if you could endure the hours and hours of continuous swimming that 1 can endure now after years of experience. To you, maybe, swimming the Channel seems such a waste of time and energy when you can fly over it in twenty minutes or so. To mc, it is an achievement much to be desired. Nothing more. I am an amateur. There is no money prize: nothing beyond a gold cup offered by the Dover Corporation for the best swimming time of the year from Dover to France—if swum at all! For the England-to-France swim is far more difficult than the France-to-Eng-land journey. May I put this to those who sneer at Channel swimming: What is the value to the human race, or to this nation, of any form of athletics? Surely, that it promotes interest and emulation, so that the younger generation may bo physically better, ;f possible, than the men and women of today. The performances of our track champions, our weight-putters, and our Test cricketers —these are the acme of perfection, not to be reached by the multitude, but as an example, as the height of ambition, a demonstration of what is humanly possible. STAMINA NEEDED. : I am not suggesting that Sve', should become a race of long-distance swimmers, cluttering up the Channel every fine weekend. What I do say, emphatically is that stamina, grit, and endurance as demanded by the cold sea in a long swim are as essential to man-building as the fleetness of the track or the courage to stand up to Larwood. - Channel-swimming is an example of what can be done. Does it not demonstrate to the boy, who can master, so far, just one width of the bath at the shallow end, that by perseverance he can get the length? You think it must be terribly boring—like treesquatting? It is not. My Channel swim, when it comes, will be a long, arduous, thirsty, but exhilarating struggle. And what a happy release! Release, I said. Release from the minor tortures I am at present suffering. I am now in the midst of three' months' training. As an amateur,'l train, only during mornings, evenings, and weekends, working up gradually to long practice swims. The real swim is not boring. It is a fight! But to stick out twelve hours on a training swim in cold water with a mind totally vacant except for one's natural reaction to an unexpected gulp of salt water is quite easily the worst part of the whole business. It is the longest, possible way ever devised of spending a. day. Each ten minutes drags like an hour, and five solid hours are a lifetime. Between ourselves, I recommend it to those who are ambitious to have the opportunity, of quenching a real thirst. I THE COST. There are discomforts in Channelswimming. Cold, of course.' Exhaustion and weariness. The limbs have an excruciating ache afterwards. Mouth and gums are swollen and sore. I loso weight. By the time I have been fourteen hours in the water I am losing a pound an hour. But within a few days I am normal again. The expense of the swim, which is under the auspices of the Cornhill Swimming Club and Lloyds Swimming Club, to both of which I belong, is between £l5O and £250. The cost of the tug is usually £6O. I find, too, that about £ls has to be spent on food, special outfit, and hire of the pilot. All the rest goes in the cost of training. I am now having two training swims a week, and I have to go down to the coast for that purpose. For every training swim I hire a boat and a really first-class, ■ experienced boatman who understands the business in hand. This, I have discovered, arouses some amusement among those who have not had the pleasure of. making a lifelong study of the gentle art of longdistance swimming. "Why a boat, for a man who can swim twelve or fifteen hours?" they ask. "Surely you've swimming this Channel; not vowing it?" , The sea seldom gives a second chance. An attack of stomach cramp with no boat at hand would end for ever the aspirations of any Channel swimmer. He would sink like the lead weight on your desk. It is also possible in rough seas to bo suddenly clouted by a heavy piece of driftwood flung at vour head'by a good-sized wave, or. to bo half paralysed by stinging jellyfish. FOOD IN THE WATER. Even with a boat the swimmer .is often a hundred yards or more from his only chance of rescue. He may be swimming with the tide and the boat battling against a strong wind. Last week my boatman insisted on my coming aboard when a young gale, which made it impossible for him to keep mo in sight, sprang up. These little things add to the fun of it, if you like that sort of fun. Taking food during the swim brings a little subtle humour into the business. I have found the only means of drinking is with a huge mug, capable of holding a pint and a half, which is only a quarter full. I drink something, either milk or a sip of chicken broth, every hour. Incidentally, th,e night before the swim four chickens will go into the stew-pot and will emerge, so far as I am concerned, as one quart of highly concentrated broth. I eat when T feel like it, and never from gluttonous instincts. The sea spoils my meals as a rule, for one generally ships a mouthful of water while chewing—and people who eat too much should try this method of curing an appetite. The best performance on record from Dover to Calais is Captain Webb's swim in 1875. He took 21J hours. I am quite positive that sixteen hours is the minimum in which it could be accomplished by anv human being, given the best of conditions and the correct striking of the tides. FOR TWENTY HOURS. Of course, I must be prepared to stick it for twenty hours or, more, though no man can say, as he enters the water in his uniform of thick grease how soon he will have to be hauled out again. No matter how well trained he is he may have to give up after four or five hours. It has often happened. One more difficulty. From France to England you can swim, weather permitting, at almost any time. But

owing to the set of Ihe tides you can only attempt the Englnnd-to-Francc swim three days in n fortnight, mid thei-o arc rarely more than five possible fortnights in the year. In the Channel the Gulf Stream 'and the Arctic Drift, meet —henee the cross currents and different changes of temperature. I do not "dope." To my mind "doping" can never bo consistent with the word "sport." It. is mo v. the English Channel. What other people think about my effort doesn't bother me at all. I get my 'fun out of i,t. Let me tell you this, just to show how crazy a long-distance swimmer can be: If possible I shall also attempt to swim the length of Lake Windermere—twelve miles of pcrishingly cold water. People tell me that Lake Windermere is the coldest water in the_ world. I am proposing to train for it by sleeping nightly on a block of ice and eating frost for hot drink. But, believe me, it is quite possible that I shall enjoy that swim, too.

Tcmme won the England-France re. cord on August IS, swimming the Channel in 15 hours 54 minutes.