In the past 150 years, fewer than 20 Kiwis have swum the English Channel between England and France. The latest is Queenstown’s Tristan Franklin, who touched a French cliff face at 3.30am last Sunday (local time), after 13hr 57min in the water — a distance of about 50.8km.
The 54-year-old, who had trained for the feat all year, was stoked to finish, but despite his preparation "it really took every ounce of everything to get to the other side".
He had hoped to start at night and finish in daytime, but ended up getting only three hours’ notice he would have a daylight departure.
"Daytime into night is really tough because as you get more and more fatigued you lose all the visual stimulation; you can’t see anything.
"And the wind and the swells really picked up once we got into French water, and so I just got beaten for about six, seven hours."
A big tide forced him to swim at least 5km more than he had anticipated.
Two days later, his body was still "quite swollen" and "my wrists feel like they’re broken from the slapping of the rough water on them".
He also received a jellyfish sting.
Mr Franklin paid credit to his Christchurch coach, Don Abel, who stood on the boat’s rail for 14 hours and fed him every 30 minutes.
He rated the experience as "amazing" and "incredible", despite how tough it was.
"You know, you join this club of English Channel swimmers and it’s quite storied, and this is 150 years since the first guy swam it, so it’s a big thing here."
