Back in the Channel

This week, if the good old English weather allows, I will be taking part in a relay of the English Channel.    So far the weather isn’t looking great!  As I am writing this, it is very dark, wet and miserable at 9am on the morning of the first day of our window.  I suspect the coaches from LA are not impressed with England today!!!

Our relay team is made up of 6 TI coaches, hence the name TI 6.  I am from the UK and all the other coaches are from America.  The relay is being arranged by one of the TI coaches, David Cameron, who is very experienced in the Channel. Dave has already completed two solos of the Channel and many relays, he is our guru.   I met the other coaches whilst at an open water camp, workshops or doing training myself in America and part of the opportunity for me, as well as the swimming of course, is to spend time with a group of people I really like and who know lots and lots about swimming.

Amongst my friends and students it is no secret that I plan to swim the Channel solo over the next couple of years and so some people are probably wondering why a relay at this point in time……

For me this trip will be a very personal journey as last year I was with my friend Susan Taylor when she lost her life trying to swim the channel for charity.  Susan had been a successful swimmer for the local club as a youngster and I met her when we were teenagers lifeguarding at the local pool.  After lifeguarding she had gone off to qualify as an accountant and I met up with her again when she increased her swimming as part of a challenge for charity.  Although I wasn’t Susan’s coach, as she was working with a lovely guy who used to be her swim club coach, she and I would often chat over her technique in the pool and I would help her when I had some spare time in between sessions.  We’d chat about the challenge and often spoke about me possibly doing the same swim at some point.  She asked me to go along on the boat to be her support swimmer as she wanted someone to swim with her some of the way.  Susan swam really well and was really close to the shores of France when she suddenly passed away.  Instinct naturally cut in when I dived in for Susan fully clothed but I had never been in that position before and definitely not with a friend and to be honest I do not remember much.

Susan swimming in the Channel

After Susan’s death everything was a bit of a blur for a while and I cannot possibly imagine the pain her family had to through and still go through.   One thing I do remember clearly though was that I had made a promise to my daughter.  I was due to swim the strait of Gibralter, a swim from Gibralter to Morocco, with Terry Laughlin, Lennart and Tommi, not many weeks after Susan’s death and my daughter was beside herself about me swimming.  Whilst still in France that day I had, through tears on both ends of the phone, promised my daughter I would not do that swim or the channel, as she was hysterical, but I had made sure I only said that I wouldn’t do it that year because I didn’t want to ever break a promise to her and I knew I couldn’t go forever with just swimming in a pool and not trying the bigger swims that I want to do.

I pulled out of the Gibralter swim once I was back, exactly as I had promised, but 6 days later got up at 4am in the morning and travelled down to the South of England and did a short 3km sea swim without telling anyone except fellow TI coaches Dawn and Gill from Essex who were there to support me.  I thought it was better to get straight back in the water and swimming felt as good as it always had, I’d got over the first hurdle.

One of the other things that stuck in my memory, as well as my daughter Susie’s reaction, was Susan’s family and especially her dad’s reaction. He told me she would want me to carry on swimming because she had loved to swim and she wouldn’t want anyone to stop.  Susan had been motivated and gave everything to her swimming.  I knew I still wanted to swim and if I’m going to do the channel I need to not only build up to it on a fitness front, but I need to build my family’s confidence to make sure they can feel comfortable with me doing it.  So 2014 has been a year of swimming so far for me, with Susan being behind much of my motivation.

I have been swimming outside most days and doing drills in the pool.  I have been setting myself small targets and bigger challenges as I tend to find that is what motivates me. So I have booked events and swam in different parts of the country with different people.  And swimming still makes me very happy!

Coach Jai getting ready to swim Ullswater in the Lake District, UK.

I’ve proved to myself that my confidence in open water has not been affected, but I’ve not been back in the Channel and that holds more significance – it is a bigger challenge than just swimming.  I don’t remember much of the trip back last year, but I haven’t been back to Dover since returning on the boat and I won’t lie that it will be with mixed emotion that I return. I think even the drive down will be challenging emotionally.

So that is why the relay is so important to me. As well as getting to spend time with the team, I will be with five friends and fellow coaches that will be a great support when I go back in that particular water.  It is also another step in the journey to build my family’s confidence so I can swim the channel solo one day with a clear conscience that they will feel OK about it, as I really feel I can’t do it until they are ready.

So it is a big thank you from me to the rest of the team, Coaches Rachel, Mandy, Stuart and Todd and especially big coach Dave Cameron for giving me the opportunity of getting back in the Channel with fantastic support and friendship to get me through it. Here is to hopefully reaching the shores of France and picking up some pebbles in memory of Susan.

Coach Jai – Midlands UK

Swimjai@me.com

Susan before setting off in the Channel