Four Capetonian swimmers to tackle the English Channel

Swimming across the English Channel is a gruelling physical and mental endurance challenge widely regarded as "the Everest of open-water swimming", and one which four Cape Town swimmers have set their sights on conquering over the coming weeks.

Pictured below before a charity swim on behalf of the Western Cape Cerebral Palsy Association, at Camps Bay on Women's Day, are the four swimmers (from left to right): Fred Louw, Chris Green, Kieron Palframan and Ryan Stramrood.

At its narrowest, the channel (from Dover, England to Calais, France) is 35km wide as the crow flies. They've been training up to this distance every week for the past 12 months in preparation for the swim. Most of that training is in a small 25m pool (that's 1400 lengths a week, or around 230 daily!). If you've ever swum in a gym pool, you'll know how much time that is to spend swimming backwards and forwards while staring at a single black line.

They will have a six day window period between August 23 and 29 in which to attempt the swim - when the tide is in its neap cycle. The tides are hard to predict as they are strong and change direction approximately every six hours. They also change in height and flow speed every day. Some other facts to consider:

• The swim is expected to last 13 hours if all goes well
• The channel is relatively cold water (16 °C) and is a primary reason why swimmers fail in their crossing attempts
• A standard swim costume must be worn to cross the channel. The costume must not provide thermal protection or extra buoyancy - meaning no wetsuit!
• The channel is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, with over 600 ships navigating its path daily
• 25 South Africans have succeeded in crossing the English Channel - the first was fellow Capetonian Peggy Duncan in a time of 16 hours and 17 minutes. Thirty nine years later in 1969, CLDSA chairman Peter Bales became the first South African man to do it
• About 1200 people have succeeded in total since the first in 1875

The crossing success rate is commonly known to be only 10%!

So let's hold thumbs and wish them the best of luck! Post a comment below if you'd like to relay your words of encouragement and I'll be sure to forward the messages on.