Nick Caine swam the Channel on the 29th July 2009 in a time of 13 hours and 11 minutes

Nick's Story 

My name is Nick Caine, and I swam the Channel on 29 July 2009 when I was 16 years old. I swam with pilot Eddie Spelling on Anastasia. I completed the swim in 13 hours 11 minutes.

I started swimming when I was five years old for my local country club team. After two years I decided to start swimming year round at the age of seven, swimming with the same team until I left for college. When I turned 13 I started training for distance events and began swimming open water swimming in the San Francisco Bay. Six weeks after starting open water swimming I completed my first round trip Alcatraz swim in San Francisco. When I first decided to swim the English Channel my parents and myself had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had decided a few weeks after meeting someone who had swum the Channel. I did all of the research and had a meeting with my parents to present everything I had learned. They both agreed to do anything they could to help me accomplish this dream and within the week I reserved a spot to swim.

I started training for the Channel when I was 14. I did a lot of distance pool training, averaging 7,000 SCY/day during the week from November 2008-June 2009. I also trained 2-3 days a week in the San Francisco Bay. I swam seven days a week in addition to cycling and weight lifting. On the weekends I would swim roughly 10k a day. From mid-June 2009 until my Channel swim I was swimming open water every day to keep up my acclimation. In the last week of June I swam 20k a day in the pool.

In the year before my swim, I weighed 150lb. (By the day of the swim, I was 164lb, and the day after I was back at 149lb.) I did the majority of my training in the San Francisco Bay. In June I went to Ireland for two and a half weeks to take part in the first-ever Ned Denison run Irish training camp. While I was there I completed some of my toughest training swims. I took part in a 9-mile staged race and the following day I did my six-hour qualifying swim in 13C water. The six-hour qualifying swim was the hardest thing I had ever done. I had never spent more then two hours in water that cold and quickly learned how brutal it can be. Making it through the qualifying swim, with the help of Daniel Martin, reassured me that I would be able to make it across the Channel. After that, I went to Dover for the two weeks leading up to my swim. There I trained with Freda Streeter and swam in Dover Harbor every day, meeting fellow Channel swimmers.

My swim started at 4:20a.m. on the 29th July. My crew included my dad, mom, both grandpa’s and a friend, Chris Pountney. On the 28th I e-mailed Eddie asking him how the weather looked for the week just to get an idea of when I could swim. That night, at 6:30p.m., I got a phone call from him asking if I wanted to swim at 0330 in the morning. I ran down stairs while on the phone so my parents could hear what I was saying. I quickly agreed to swim the following morning because I didn’t want to miss my chance to accomplish my dream. Shortly after, my mom wanted to make sure Eddie meant 3:30a.m., not p.m., and since was so excited I couldn’t remember. I called back to confirm and quickly packed all of my bags since I was prepared to swim on the second day of my tide. I quickly called my coaches and e-mailed friends to let them know I would be swimming the next morning and got some last-minute advice. The whole night I couldn’t sleep, finally falling asleep at 12a.m. I woke up 1hr 50mins later to eat breakfast and get ready to swim.

I got in the car with my swimsuit on since I was so afraid of forgetting it, and had three more packed in various bags. I got to the marina at 3:15a.m. to load the boat and get ready to swim. It was a calm morning, still dark out and listening to the seagulls as we made several trips from the car to the boat. I met one relay team and one solo swimmer that morning in the parking lot. I had a bit of a strange feeling walking across the parking lot because no one was talking. All of the swimmers were silent, contemplating the task that lay before them. ‘21 miles’ and we will have swum our way to France. 

I loaded the boat, went over the logistics one more time with my observer, pilot, and crew as we left the harbor and headed to Samphire Hoe where I would start my swim. As I took my warm ups off and lathered up in ‘Channel Grease’ I watched the relay team take off, and then the solo swimmer. Finally it was my turn, Eddie backed the boat up to get as close to shore as he could. I put my goggles on, carefully backed down the ladder, said my goodbyes, and jumped off the boat. I walked out of the water and onto shore, carefully clearing the water line with a spotlight on me to make sure I was following the rules. I heard the boat horn go off and everyone cheering. I slowly walked into the water up to my thighs and dove forward and started swimming. I tried to keep my mind clear, thinking that I had spent two years training for this, I was only going for one more swim, and soon enough I would be France having accomplished my goal and make everyone proud. 

All in all I would say my swim was tough. It started out good. I was holding a strong pace. But after eight hours the current started to change two hours earlier than expected. Mentally I prepared for a 10 hour swim at most. I ended up swimming in place for nearly 2 hours once I was inside the French shipping lanes. Since the current changed early, it added nearly 4 hours to my swim and I almost missed the French coast.

I was surprised by my body’s ability to swim for 13 hours. I never had problems with the water temperature since the bulk of my training was done in colder water. The sea was slightly rough with 2-3 foot swells for the middle half of my swim. For my feeds I drank Cytomax, but switched to Maxim after 10 hours. I ate Gatorade gel packs and Clif Shot Bloks.

The last three hours were so mentally tiring. My body was sore, but I was used to it from my training and past swims I’ve done. I had been keeping track of time based off my feed schedule, but after 10 hours I lost track of time. I thought about getting out once after 10 hours but my dad kept me motivated and swimming. My motto has always been “Willpower” and “Failure is not an option”, so I knew I couldn’t give up. I also knew how many people were cheering for me and wanted me to finish so I couldn’t let anyone down, especially myself. The fear of failure was my main motivator the last three hours of my swim.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, I knew I was really close to finishing. The most memorable part of my swim was coming into shore. I had a French Coast Guard helicopter flying over my head as I swam the last quarter mile, which felt like a greeting comity and motivated me to swim faster. My favorite part of any channel swim is when my body drops vertical and my feet touch the ocean floor. There were small waves pushing me over as I tried to climb out and I kept tripping on pieces of the cliff that had fallen into the ocean. I cut my hands and feet a little trying to get out, not noticing the much similar way out 15 feet to my right. Once I walked out of the water I walked to where I could stand up, again past the water line to make sure my swim would be legal. I turned to face my boat and held my hand above my head in celebration. I was physically and mentally exhausted. I couldn’t believe what I had just done, I had no idea how long I swam or how far. I knew things got a little rougher and that the swim took longer then I wanted, but I made it across and now everyone would be proud of me no matter what. I bent over to grab a few pebbles off the beach, put them in my suit and swam back to the small boat. The first mate greeted me with great excitement, genuinely happy for me, and wrapped a thermal blanket around me. We motored back to the big boat listening to everyone on board cheering and honking the horn. Even though I was exhausted, I had the biggest smile of my life, relieved to have finished.   

Once I was back on the boat I quickly got dressed and drank some water. I couldn’t eat anything and started to feel sick (but never threw up!). I fell asleep on the boat ride back, constantly being awakened by my mom to make sure I was alive and answer questions for reports back in California. Most swimmers talk about having an empty feeling of what to do next but I didn’t have problems with that because I went into my Channel swim knowing there were more swims I wanted to do.

I came home to countless e-mails and Facebook messages from all of my friends congratulating me on what I had just done. Going through all of them helped me realize how many people were cheering for me during the swim and wanted me to succeed. I realized the full magnitude of what I had just done when I came home the next day from a ‘short loosen up swim’. The messages were still coming in and every single one gave me a different feeling of self-satisfaction and pride. Being 16 years old and swimming the Channel didn’t seem much different than the adults who do it, in my opinion. Throughout my training I noticed some people didn’t take me seriously because I was so young. Knowing how many people were skeptical of my ability to swim the Channel was one of my greatest motivators so I could prove them wrong.

If I were giving advice to other aspirants, I would say to make sure you swim in open water as much as you can in the year leading up to your swim. Do multiple 6, 7, & 8 hour swims in the final months leading up to your swim. Doing one or two of these long swims might be enough to get you across but you will be doing yourself a big favor by doing one or more a week if you can. It is great mental training to swim in as many different conditions as you can.

For myself, my next goals are to swim around Manhattan Island and break my record for the fastest swim from Annacapa Island to the California coast and be the first person under 5 hours.

Nick Caine

I highly encourage anyone who wants to talk to me about my swim or ask for advice to e-mail with questions. My e-mail address is ncaine12@yahoo.com. I think I can offer an interesting point of view to anyone interested since I trained from the age of 14 until my swim when I was 16.