Swimmer aims for Channel age record

With less than a week to go before he plunges into the pre-dawn water off Dover in a bid to become the oldest man to swim the English Channel, Dr Stanley Paris (70), formerly of Dunedin, is spending most of his time on land.

He is mainly resting, relaxing and focusing on the challenge, spending only about an hour swimming each day, hoping to improve his body's ability to cope with cold water.

He will be close to his 71st birthday when he makes his attempt on the record, set in 2004 by a man who was 70 years and four days old.

Dr Paris, a physiotherapist with a world reputation in orthopaedic physical therapy, now living in Florida, has been training for the July 26 swim since last August.

An Otago representative swimmer in his youth, he has an unusual swimming style - his legs trail while his arms do all the work.

One of his training tasks was putting on weight, needing to increase his body fat to help combat the cold.

He also practised raising his basic metabolic rate, by not wearing more clothing than he needed, sleeping outside the bed covers and trying to spend time in cold water.

In January, this led to lobar pneumonia and he lost three weeks of swimming training.

In recent email correspondence he continues to be concerned about the cold on the swim, but completed the compulsory six-hour qualifying swim in windy conditions in early July.

He hopes the water will warm from its current 14.4degC to 16.6degC, the same temperature it was when he swam the channel in 1986, on his third attempt, at the age of 49.

His time for his successful swim was 12hr 59min and he hopes this week's attempt will take about 15 hours.

During the build-up this month, Dr Paris met old friend, Allison Streeter, the "queen" of the channel, who has swum it 43 times.

He asked her what she thought about during her swims and she told him "after the second hour, nothing".

Dr Paris said he wished he could consciously think of nothing, as he had run out of things to think about.

During his training he overcame boredom by listening to music, including Tina Turner's You're Simply the Best - "I have to believe that", he said.

Musical gadgetry, however, will not be allowed on the crossing.

There are strict rules about officially recognised channel swims.

Swimming costumes must be sleeveless and legless and caps and costumes are not allowed to offer thermal protection or buoyancy.

The only buffer against the cold is the application of grease, which Dr Paris will apply liberally and hope it stays in place for the 37km swim.