By then, he will be 71.
An Otago representative swimmer in his youth, he is no stranger to the channel swim.
But he had to pull out of his first attempt in 1983 after 29km because he was not mentally prepared.
In 1986, aged 49, he tried again but an organisational glitch found him being advised he had made it when he was still about 300m from shore.
He could have appealed the decision to disallow the swim but decided, instead, to have another go three weeks later.
A tussle with a jellyfish had caused paralysis in the neck, rendering him speechless and in hospital, which meant he was only allowed one swim before the successful attempt which he completed in 12 hours and 59 minutes.
He felt so good after that swim that he wishes he had attempted the return event then.
The oldest person to swim the 37km channel was aged 70 years and eight days, Dr Paris said, but he will be close to 71 if he succeeds on his first attempt.
His desire to swim the channel was inspired by former governor-general Lord Freyberg, whom a 12-year-old Dr Paris had heard speak of his failures during an address to Otago Boys High School pupils.
Although Lord Freyberg had accomplished a lot, he spoke of his two failed attempts to swim the English Channel.
''Failure is important. How you handle it matters.''
Dr Paris, who is in Dunedin to address the New Zealand Society of Physiotherapists Conference being held this weekend, said there was too much emphasis on winning and succeeding the first time.
His love of a challenge exhibited itself early. He remembers cycling from Dunedin to Christchurch to visit a girlfriend when he was 17 in 21 hours and 15 minutes on a three-speed bike.
That trip was prompted by her father commenting that the youth of the day were not up to the youth of his time.
'' I couldn't stand up for 24 hours.''
He can't remember if the father was impressed by his endeavour, but the girlfriend, a fellow swimmer, certainly was.
Other challenges have included setting a point-to-point speed record across the Indian subcontinent in a Volkswagen Beetle, sailing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in yachts, and undertaking the Ironman championships in Hawaii.
He followed his father, Stanley Paris sen, into physiotherapy, graduating from the University of Otago in 1958.
He left New Zealand in l966 to further his studies into the spine and has a world reputation in orthopaedic physical therapy.
During the early part of his career, he also served as hysiotherapist to New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games teams.
Dr Paris founded his own university, in Florida, the University of St Augustine, which specialises in physiotherapy.
He is not sure what his next challenge might be. Possibly swimming the channel every second year - ''If I did that, my wife might leave me, I think''.
