Two weeks on and “Are you having a LAFF??!” are braving the ocean

Alice:

Since I last wrote two members of the LAFF swimming team, myself and Curly, tackled the freezing cold waters of the Atlantic over the May Bank Holiday in a bid to learn to surf – cleverly disguised as a training exercise.


Wet suits were borrowed and booties rented for the first sea dip of the year and as we hit the water for the first time I could have sworn my eyeballs almost popped out of my head!


Yes, I know it seems like we ARE still on land, but we did in fact hit the water. Promise!



Now one of the main rules that the Channel Swimming Association strictly imposes is that swim attire worn by all must consist only of swimming costumes (girls) or little Speedo numbers (boys) – not forgetting our very orange swim caps which I am sure will do nothing towards keeping the heat in.

- yep that's us right there. Hot stuff.

Fashionable Baywatch/burkhini attire - strictly disallowed:

Now having dipped my toes in the sea, I can tell you how inappropriate a thin veil of swim suit is at 12 degrees. We’re all going to turn to ices blocks before we hit the shipping lanes! Argh!

Desperate times, desperate measures - we now only have two options to make sure we reach France alive. Either:
1. Each put on 10 Kilos
2. Get our bodies used to the cold by getting into the freezing cold sea time and time again.

With two May dates in the diary for sea swims, I am overly optimistic that we’ll manage to keep hyperthermia at bay.

Obviously second on the training agenda is the fine tuning of our strokes. Although breaststroke has been a perfect starting point for our indoor training it's now looking like breast stroke could mean that we spend 18 hours bobbing up and down in Dover - less than ideal. So you'll be pleased to hear we are now starting to tackle crawl head on and France is beginning to look a little bit closer.

Come along to our Pub Quiz!

In the meantime if you fancy testing your general knowledge and bingo skills, whilst supporting our merry crew then please come and join us at our charity pub quiz on Thursday 4th June @ Victoria Pub, Queenstown Road, Battersea, SW8 3QH.

More details are on our website: http://www.laffcharity.org.uk/

Thanks for your continued support: I promise that we’ll change the minds of those sceptics out there – if not, the team will eat their swimming caps!

Signing off…Alice, on behalf of “Are you having a LAFF??!” – the swim team that could well take the longest time on record to cross the English Channel.

www.justgiving.com/latinamericanfoundationforthefuturechannelswim