Top tips for other Channel Swim relay teams, courtesy of the Are You Having A LAFF??! Channel Swim Team, July 31st 2009

We thought you might appreciate a list of top tips from our channel swim, whilst it is still fresh in our minds, and whilst you’re preparing for yours. It was an amazing experience, you’ll love and hate every moment of it if it was anything like ours. Something we’ll never forget, and well worth every second of training, fundraising, hard graft and pain. We miss it!

So here’s our tips before we forget all the useful stuff. Below is a list of useful hints from each of my channel swim team…

1. In the coming weeks, the whole team agrees that training in Dover as much as possible would help you no end. No training as good as sea training! Drink coke after swimming at Dover to avoid stomach infections from petrol water though.
2. Meet your boat crew and see your boat well before the swim so you know what you have/don’t have in terms of toilet/hot water facilities/shelter on board.
3. Get your own support crew for the day – boat ‘mum’ and driver. You need help to get back from Dover after a long stint swimming, or at least have a room booked for post-swim in Dover, you’re too tired to drive. You need someone on board who is not swimming to help change you, grease you up, make sure you have eaten, rub your back when you’ve been sick, etc. Little by little you get more tired as a swimmer and supporting everyone else after a few hours in the water becomes more hard.
4. Get a system going for who is cheering/dressing/watching the swimmer/preparing the next swimmer. There is a LOT happening on board, as at any one time there is always one swimmer in the water (needing support/cheering/watching), one swimmer about to go in, and one swimmer just come out (freezing/needing fed/looked after). It takes 1-2 hours to recover from the swim, so a bit of a rotation system works well, so you know that everyone is looked after at any one time. As long as you remember you’re a team, and you have an extra pair of hands to help you out too, you’re fine.
5. Despite the amount of salt in the sea, you DO actually still need salty stuff to eat (crisp cravings!!) – we didn’t plan to have anything salty unfortunately. Pot noodles work – they’ve been recommended by other teams we spoke to. Or crisps.
6. Ginger biscuits, cooked chicken (massive amounts of protein helped us through), energy gels, lucozade, red bull, water, water, water, cream cheese sandwiches, porridge, bananas, energy tablets(dextrose ones), tinned fruit, jelly – all great to have.
7. We took a sound system, some motivational music on tape andloads of batteries. We took tapes because CDs might jump on rocky water. This music was EXCELLENT – we turned it around so that the swimmer in the water could hear and it stops you getting bored after 40 minutes in the water. We ran out of batteries though, so not all swimmers benefited and we saw the difference in how long before people started asking how long they’d been in. Take note!
8. Stretching before and after each swim would have been good.We didn’t. We are in pain now.
9. Sleeping bags, pillows, roll mats and blankets in abundance were essential – for keeping warm and sleeping after each stint of swimming!!!
10. Foldaway chairs were useful.
11. Take golf umbrellas as if it rains there’s not much shelter on board!
12. You will be sick and that’s unavoidable, swimmers swim so slowly that the boat is literally just bobbing along to France. Sea sickness tablets helped a bit, looking at the horizon helped a lot, lying down and sleeping helped most of all. You still need to get energy into you for swimming, so high calory, low volume foods/drinks are best.
13. Take spare goggles!
14. Try not to get run down and ill in the weeks before the swim – better to be healthy than to push yourself for that extra 10 minutes in cold water – two of our team got ill in the run up to the swim – one with chest and lung infection (me!) and one with swine flu – both of us were touch and go as to whether we could swim. Steady training on the run-up is sufficient – don’t run yourself down.
15. Try and get some sleep the night before if possible.
16. This sounds gay, but we did a spreadsheet to make sure we split the buying of things we needed, and didn’t forget vital items. You need the following stuff, apart from food – most of this is on the spreadsheet: light sticks for those swimming in dark, sun cream (high factor – we wore factor 50 and all still got burnt!) flasks for hot water, stereo and music, waterproof camera, clothes – it’s all about warmth as its cold on the boat too! Old joggers, t-shirts & hoodies, woolly hat, gloves, socks and trainers, sun hat. - remember the grease will ruin them; Swimming Costumes - 1 for each stint. Not too tight because they will rub! Swimming hat & spare, swimming goggles & spare, Ear Plugs, Enough dry towels, Grease doesn't really seem to keep you warm but prevents rubbing! we used vaseline, pharmacy stuff: Sea sickness tablets, Painkillers, Antihistamines, Sting cream, Vaseline, Face wipes, Wet wipes, Hydration sachets.
17. Most of all, GOOD LUCK AND ENJOY!!!!! You’ll be amazing.

Lots of love, Sarah and the ‘Are you having a LAFF??! ’ swim team. Completed in 13 hours, 17 minutes and 10 seconds. Hurrah!