“When you look across there now and you can’t see to the other side, and you think ‘I’ve swum there’ – it is incredible.”
English Channel swimmer Craig Kircher is sitting in the Langham Hotel on Eastbourne seafront, gazing through the drizzle to the grey sea and waves rolling across the sand at low tide.
Craig, 49, completed the swim to France in 14 hours in late July after two years of intense training both at sea and in pools, building up the stamina needed to swim the 21 miles (33km).
He is reflecting on how he achieved a feat that fewer than 2,000 people worldwide have accomplished as solo swimmers since 1875. More people have climbed Mount Everest (around 6,600 up to December 2023).
And Craig is the fourth person from the Eastbourne Sea Swimmers group to swim to France.
What is even more extraordinary is that he swam through a debilitating migraine which almost forced him to give up, was pushed wildly off course by changing currents and struggled to keep down liquid food he had to take every hour.
Craig, a former PE instructor at Lewes Prison and now an electrician, sips his coffee, having just been for a brief swim (of course) around Eastbourne Pier and back. His Dry Robe is draped over the back of the chair as he talks about the experience of the Channel swim.
“I would say it was even better than I expected. When you consider the number of people who have done it in the world, it’s an amazing feeling,” he says.
“I knew what the training would involve but it was still the hardest endurance event I have done.”
This is from a man who joined a Channel relay team in 2021, swimming a two-hour slot in choppy seas, took part in a 50-mile ultra run in snow and minus 7C over ten hours, and did an Iron Man challenge, swimming, cycling and running in driving rain and 25mph winds.
He laughs as he says: “Every event I have done, I always have bad luck in terms of weather.”
“Going in the sea in the winter, even for ten minutes, and that feeling of being alive is euphoric”
The swim also raised an impressive £4,500 for two charities: Children With Cancer and the NSPCC.
Craig, who lives in Wannock, also used to run 22 miles to work in Lewes (taking the long route), then train hard during his job as an instructor. “I like to push my body,” he says, with some understatement.
“I would say about 40% of an endurance sport is mental and 60% is physical. When you get to a point when your body says ‘Enough’s enough’, you are only working at about 60%. If you push yourself, you can get to 80% or 90% and go further.”
He returned to swimming when he became disenchanted with gym work and found running was too punishing on the knees.
“Going in the sea in the winter, even for ten minutes, and that feeling of being alive is euphoric. It’s an amazing feeling,” he says.
He made a commitment to swim the Channel before his 50th birthday and paid a £1,000 non-refundable deposit two years ago: there were further costs, which brought the total to around £4,500.
The intensive training started last October with long swims in pools, both the Sovereign Centre in Eastbourne and Sea Lanes open water centre in Brighton, to average 20km a week. There was also a build-up to a six-hour sea swim and acclimatisation to cold water.
“You do feel cold to the core but you acclimatise as long as you keep swimming,” says Craig.
A qualifying swim of six hours in water under 16C is required of Channel swimmers within 12 months of their planned crossing. Craig completed his in May this year in 13.6C water.
The big day
On the day of his Channel swim, July 27, he started at 2.20am, acutely aware that he had one chance after all the build-up and training.
“I had a headache – then I realised it was more than a headache, it was a migraine. You follow a spotlight to the beach, wave, then just start. I could immediately taste the diesel fumes from the boat, and bright lights are a major trigger for migraines.
“I had all these things going against me, thinking ‘Can it get any worse?’ Then one of the crew threw up over the side near where I was swimming,” says Craig, laughing ruefully at the memory.
“At that point I was thinking ‘I’m going to get out’ and this was 45 minutes in. After my first feed at one hour, I was sick and my head was banging.
“About 90 minutes in, I was thinking ‘I can’t do this’. Then I was thinking about the charities I was doing it for and thought ‘What would I tell people?’”
The crew put painkillers in each feed and he ploughed on. “Even with a migraine, I thought I’m going to swim at least six hours – get my money’s worth,” says Craig, laughing again.
“Then I just kept going until each feed. The diesel fumes started going the other way so they weren’t in my face anymore.”
The crew held up messages they wrote on the whiteboard from friends and family to urge him on. Craig is keen to note that without his crew, he would not have made it across: James Brent, James Ingram (also a Channel swimmer) and Richard Harding.
The sun rose around 5am and the swim became a blur as Craig was disorientated with time, direction and sun position. But he eventually saw the coast.
“When I saw the land, I thought ‘I am going to make this even it takes me another six hours!’ It was a euphoric feeling to see the shore.”
There were about 100 local people from the village of Wissant, west of Calais, (above) clapping and cheering on the beach.
He had swum a total of 35 miles (60km) and reckons he burned around 15,000 calories.
The return trip to England by boat took just three hours; Craig was too exhausted to enjoy the champagne the crew provided but he had achieved his goal against the odds.
Someone jokingly asked him if he was now going to consider doing a two-way Channel swim. “I had been thinking it’s the last time I’m ever going to do this – then the next day, I was thinking ‘maybe’!” he says.
But the training schedule took up every weekend and he, his wife Hilary and 12-year-old daughter Isabella have not been able to take a holiday in case the swim date was moved.
“The commitment from them is so massive and they had to put up with me being moody sometimes. But they are so proud of me.”
So too are his parents Carol and Helmut, who live near Langney Point, and always had a footwarmer and hot drink ready when he called in after a chilly training swim.
Craig now swims around 10km a week, down from 35kms at the peak of training. He recently swam from Langham beach to Holywell at the western end of the promenade and back.
“It was the first swim I had really enjoyed in about six months,” he says.
The immediate plan for Craig and his family is simple: a return trip to Wissant, where he landed after his epic swim
“I was so enthralled by their reception, I’m going back there for a holiday,” he says.
:: The other members of Eastbourne Sea Swimmers who have conquered the Channel are: Paul Redding in 2020 (17h); James Ingram in 2022 (14h 14m); Holly Manktelow in 2022 (17h 22m).
SAFETY ADVICE ON OPEN WATER SWIMMING FROM THE RNLI:
- Be prepared. Check the weather and tides, choose your spot, go with a buddy, have the right equipment.
- If in doubt, don’t go out. No matter how much preparation you do, or how experienced you are, if a swim doesn’t feel right there is no shame in getting out of the water straight away, or not entering.
- Make sure you acclimatise to avoid cold water shock.
- Be seen. Wear a bright coloured swim hat and take a tow float.
- Stay within your depth.
- Float to live.
- Call 999 or 112 and ask for the coastguard in an emergency.
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