June 24th: First Solo Swim 2008 - "Non Stop" Christian Made It!

This last week of June was the first swim tide for this year, with Channel temperatures around 15°C. The first successful crossing was accomplished by "Jodie's Hippos", a relay team, followed on Tuesday, 24th, by the first solo swim by Christian Hübner. member of endurance sports club IfA Nonstop Bamberg, Germany.



Christian (middle) won the 12 hour swim in Zürich 2008 with 34,9 km

I had met Christian Hübner last year at the Zurich Lake Marathon Swim where he gave us a few Swiss Fränkli for some pre swim ice cream (they would't take Euros in Rapperswil) and again in February at the 12 h indoors swim in Zürich, where he told me he was training for the Channel. Of course, some Channel-talk and advice-giving followed.

He was booked with his pilot for Tuesday. The weather forecast looked promising, only the wind was southeasterly and seemed to increase. The day before (you are supposed to call your pilot each evening to check, because weather conditions can change very quickly at the Channel) his pilot told him: either Tuesday or maybe Thursday, but Tuesday looks better (as it turned out, nobody could start on Thursday). So Christian decided not to wait maybe endlessly but to go on Tuesday, adding a bit tongue-in-cheekily: "So I can watch soccer on Thursday." From this the rumour started that that he was kind of giving priority to soccer over his swim... (German humour is difficult to understand anyway.)

In the afternoon of Tuesday it suddenly occured to me that Christian must be out in the Channel swimming. I asked on the Chat Group for news and immediately got 2 answers in my mail: he was out there but not making any progress for 3 hours. The wind had picked up, supporting the current, and he was swept out towards the Atlantic in 2-3 foot waves at windforce 5 - as if we had changed his mind and wanted to go to New York.

Usually, once you are swept past Cap Griz Nez, they say you are "lost" - no chance to finish the swim and touch French ground. Christian proved that this is not true. Actually, Vedika Bolliger, a member of my team, who has swum the Channel 5 times and done a Channel triathlon Dover-Paris, had proved this before in her 23 hour swim! After 8 hours into his swim, Christian had thought to himsel the Channel swim felt easier than the Zurich lake, but shortly afterwards his experience changed.

By the time he had swum 3 hours in place nobody thought he would be able to make it any more, except his wife. He just thought to himself that 2 years of serious preparation was definitely worth sticking in there for 6 more hours or so until the tide changed. And the tide did change and he was able to finish in 17 hours 16 min. - way down the French coast. Congratulations! Great "never give up"-spirit!

This is the route of his very unusual swim:



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