Monday 9 June 2014 – Miles & Miles

Special announcment

Monthly Dinner – Bluewater Cafe, this coming Tuesday 10th June at 6.30 pm (book your seat at the bottom)

Miles & Miles  

Today’s blog is mostly about a long term B&Ber Miles Tollan, aka ‘nice-arse’ who is planning to swim miles and miles (all 22) of the English Channel very soon.

Fat Miles after putting on 15 kgs and swimming  15 miles (25 kms) Palm Beach to Shelly 2 weeks ago

When I asked Miles “When is your swim window?” he replied, “I’ll be among the first off the beach at Dover sometime between 1-10 July depending on tides, weather and sea conditions.” And then I asked  what on earth motivated him to attempt a channel swim, and I decided to share his response with you all.

Oscar & Miles

 

“After signing up for the Channel it took me a long time to decide to support a cause. But then I got thinking about my real motivations. Now that I’m getting to the end of my training I’ve realised how big a deal it is just getting to the start line. In a way the actual swim is just a way of telling you it’s finally time to stop. Can I swim 32km? Probably. In 15-degree water? No idea. It’s the whole uncertainty that has parallels with autism, which explains why I’ve chosen Giant Steps as the charity I want to support. The question I get asked about Oscar which I struggle hardest to answer is what does his future have in store for him. I feel I’ve spent my whole life solving problems and planning ahead, and here is this massive unknown in the middle of my own family, and I really have no idea what his life will be like. Will he find a job, have friends, form relationships, will he leave home I wonder. Sure I think about this when I’m swimming, but I think about sharks too and whether I left the iron on and I can’t do much about those things either (although life’s pretty busy with an Oscar in the home and we don’t do a lot of ironing). I think it’s good to be presented with something you weren’t prepared for. Oscar certainly was and it’s not done him any harm.”

Here’s the link to Giant Steps so people can sponsor Miles’s channelswim and support Miles, Oscar and other families like theirs.

http://www.giantsteps.net.au/english-channel-solo-swim

Oscar, Hugo & Eva

You, like I, might wonder when an idea like swimming the channel began to take hold for Miles and this is what he said: “Í got the idea as a kid going on holidays in France on the ferry and thinking what it would be like to swim from one country to another. I spent some time in the Royal Navy and I’m pretty familiar with a lot of the coastline. But it took me to emigrate to Australia and find a bunch of ocean swimmers to really get me planning”.

Miles of supporters

 

“I’ll be joined by three other Sydney friends, Cae, Ben & Michael, doing the same thing, but we each have our own support boat and crew, and it’s more about getting across than racing each other.”

 

“It’s a solo swim but fully a team effort. Each swimmer has a handler on the support boat whose job is to keep the swimmer safe and sound. Mine is Alison Annett whose work with me in the last six months has surely put her on the fast track for sainthood. At the end of my six-hour pre-Channel qualifying swim in Melbourne, Ali was the one who pulled me from the water with hypothermia, and then spent 40 mins in the sauna getting my circulation going again. The poor girl was fully-dressed in jeans and sweating like Phar Lap by the end.”

With Alison

 

http://www.giantsteps.net.au/english-channel-solo-swim

And now for today’s miles & miles….

The return swim to Shelly is just short of one (1) mile so the combined B&B swim was over 100 miles!!!!

Being the last day of the Queens Birthday long weekend the “best of 3 days”  “Triple Crown – Shelly to the beach, 0.47 miles (750 m) racing season concluded with a bang.

Irish Alex was still doing his stretches at Manly when I took this shot at 7.05.

 

First to the starting gates at Shelly were John Paul (JP), Sophie, Sterling & Scotty

 

Here is the final muster at the gates, all chomping at the bit.

 

 

and again at the finish line, Left to Right: Dave Panton, Sterling, Sophie, Simon, Alex (red ), John Paul (kneeling), Tim (Bishop), Scotty,

Richard Agius (kneeling), Rob Boylan (back row), Irish Alex, Marc (Spaniard), Richard Glover, Sorry??? (red wetsuit), Capless Dave (far right)

 

Alex (red) & I  were 1, 2 at the finish, but unbeknown to us “they” changed the finish line to the beach. So Scotty, Irish Alex & the Spaniard ran past us to Brad at the new finish line .

Official Results 

The winner of the triple crown of tarts trophy was “Lips (Rainer) ”

The real official results, of the Trip Crown,  from Judge Brad McFadden

Scrappy Scotty 19
Irish Alex 16
The Spaniard 15
Simon 8.5
Scrollback Stirling 8
The Bishop 6
JP 5
Sophie 4

 

Have a great week ahead.

Simon

The Stats

Regulars:        Newbie:             Temp: 19.1 degrees        Today – Sunset: 4.54 pm

Tomorrow – Sunrise: 6.52 am    High Tide: 05.34am (1.41 m)    Low Tide: 11.31am (0.5 m)

Monthly Dinner – Bluewater Cafe, this coming Tuesday 10th June at 6.30 pm

This month’s guest speaker, Chris Miller, is a freelance cameraman who worked on the TV program Getaway for 20 years. Chris has travelled to many exotic locations where he has filmed both above and below the water. Chris will talk about his experiences swimming with Whale Sharks in Western Australia and cage diving with Great White Sharks in South Australia.

The cost will be only $20 a head and includes shared entrees, a selection of main to choose (incl a vegetarian option) and corkage (for byo wine only) and a little thank you for the staff. All beers (including four pines beers!), wine and deserts an optional extra at the special price of only $5 each. BOOKINGS ARE ESSENTIAL, so book herenow!!

Winter Badge season kicked off 1 June.

You know you want one! There are 14 weeks in the winter season. To qualify for the prized Cold & Bold Badge you simply need to swim 20 times within the season ensuring you have swum in a minimum of 7 different weeks. So, attempting to do it all in the first few weeks does not count!!

B&B i-Log

Really if you haven’t been using the B&B i-Log then you must be new!! Almost 75% of swimmers are now using the B&B i-Log. Log your swim ANYTIME of day using this really efficient and easy way to ensure your swim is recorded in the daily attendance and on the Pacific Challenge. To get started, send an email to Ian Forster ugoboyo@gmail.com (This is not a link so please copy and paste into your email). He will check that your email address is activated on the attendance register then send you info on how to get started.

Lunch with greats of Rugby Union and League

On Friday 13, June, the Royal Far West together with Hotel Steyne Manly is holding a lunch from 12.30pm until 2pm to Celebrate Country Rugby in NSW.  Special guests include Glenn Stewart, Scott Gourle and Ron Pilon.

Ian is putting together a table for the B&B so please let him know if you are interested in attending by sending him an email to ugoboyo@gmail.co, or see him at the swim ‘cause he is there most mornings.  As the B&B is a special friend of the RFW we are being offered a 50% discount off the advertised price!

 

Lunch with greats of Rugby Union and League

On Friday 13, June, the Royal Far West together with Hotel Steyne Manly is holding a lunch from 12.30pm until 2pm to Celebrate Country Rugby in NSW.  Special guests include Glenn Stewart, Scott Gourle and Ron Pilon.

Ian is putting together a table for the B&B so please let him know if you are interested in attending by sending him an email to ugoboyo@gmail.co, or see him at the swim ‘cause he is there most mornings.  As the B&B is a special friend of the RFW we are being offered a 50% discount off the advertised price!

 

Staying safe

We have had seen the return of some serious waves and rips this past week! Were you prepared? Remember that there are no badges for scaring yourself silly! While it is great to extend your boundaries, it is important to know your limits. Do read these excellent tips on staying safe in the surf. To read, or even download, click here