The Time Has Come To Swim The Channel..!

The English Channel.. the 12 months of training is done...   some time between  the 27th to 31st July  we plan to swim the English Channel  two ways....  "Its Not Over Till Dover "

The English Channel..

the 12 months of training is done...

  some time between  the 27th to 31st July 

we plan to swim the English Channel  two ways....

 "Its Not Over Till Dover " 

Finally the time has come...no more talking about it...no more training for it...

 our Channel  time has finally  arrived  , Ricks Two Way  swim of the English  channel looks like it could  go ahead as early as Wednesday morning (27th July )  .

as we are now so close to starting , we would like to take this opportunity to give our thanks to everyone for their support , encouragement and amazing  messages of good luck...it truly means a lot to us all , it’s been a tough and emotional and fun  twelve  months for the 6 of us.. We so hope we can make the swim a success this year for many private and personal reasons..,..We will for sure give it our best shot....

We are swimming in Aid of Macmillan Cancer Support  ..

We hope by swimming to France  and back ..

we can raise some funds to help Macmillan with their amazing Work ..

Cancer can be the loneliest place
No One Should Have to Face Cancer Alone... 

Please take a moment to watch this  Macmillion Cancer Support Video...

A Five Pounds donation will give help and support  
to people who need it most..

If you to  support us and Macmillan  
Big Ricks Mamcillion  Just Giving account link is below..

.https://www.justgiving.com/teams/bigricks


Now..

If u wish to stop up all day and night to follow our progress
across the channel 

 then these are links to help you.....

This is our Boat for the Trip...
sea satin ..just click link below to see.
Channel Swimming & Pilots federation  Association

 Link to our Pilot Lance Oram and his Tracking link of Sea Satin  )

http://cspf.co.uk/pilot-lance-oram

we are swimming the channel with
THE Channel Swimming & Pilots federation  Association
this is the link  to the CS&PF  ships GPS tracker ...

click link , then click Boat called Sea Satin to find us ..

http://cspf.co.uk/tracking/235019388

we will be putting  updates  on our social  media accounts as well..
this is the link to Ricks Twitter account 

https://twitter.com/RicksSwim

@RicksSwim

And on our Face Book team account

https://www.facebook.com/BigRicks2016/

Many Thanks to ITV Central & Susi and Jason at Cliff Lakes Open Water Swimmingi for taking the time to help and support Big Ricks Channel Team 2016 & Swimming@Macmillan 

click on picture to see how our training has gone 

and hear why we are swimming to France and back 

we all  hope its going to be a lovely day 
 next week...

 Once again  we wish to thank everyone 

 for your help,  your support , for your Kinds words  over the past 12 months ..

best wishes to you all Big Ricks Swim Team  

Cancer can be the loneliest place
No One Should Have to Face Cancer Alone... 

Big Ricks  Just Giving account link is below..

Macmillan Cancer Support  

https://www.justgiving.com/teams/bigricks

Dosthill Quarry

The Ricks Boys...
you can breath out now chaps...
7.30am  start ..
water temp we believe is 16 maybe a touch cooler...
2hrs + swim is the Target 
(Rob ,Ross,Stu)

Dosthill Quarry..
its always nice to try a new open water venue..
we have been told many a time how nice it is to
swim here , well finally we made the trip to give it go...
we were told than the water would be still cold enough to give us
 some much needed cold water training to keep
our hand in ahead of the channel swim next week..
http://www.divedozzi.com/about-dozzi/outdoor-swimming/

Dosthill Loop.
its not the longest loop we do..
but its more than enough ,
some the ricks team did a slightly  different loop
going from Buoys 1 to 2, 2  to 4 , 4 to 5  and back to 1
we reckon it was around 300m at our speed to do it..
it  just meant in was a smoother swim doing it this way ,
 instead of turning back on yourself  to middle section on the course 

NOW come on...that does looks inviting ...

Makes Getting up at 6.30 on Saturday morning worth it 

Young Charlie all smiles

before smashing 90 minutes this morning chasing Mrs T  

 Mr Emery..

looking cool as always..

his plan along with Rob & Stu ,,,

was to be Hour in , Hour Rest , Hour in 

 still Breathing in,,,,;-)

Finally after posing for what seemed like hrs..

the boys are off...or are they....well Ross got straight in & swam off 

the 2 big boys had other ideas ...

after Ross had zoomed off on his swim..

Rob & Stuart show everyone the Ricks Way 

off getting ready for  swimming  in 16 degree water ..

your guessed it...A splash Off ...

(Click Arrow in the Picture above to see Ricks Splash Off )

Rob,Ross,Stu & Suzanne 

 Ross looking in great shape

on his 2nd Hours swim this morning ..

the man was flying and leaving the big men in his wake,.

Stu & Rob...

coming round the turn , trying to chase down Ross...

in their dreams ,.Mr Emery had long since gone 

 good to see our good friend Suzanne Brown

on Saturday morning  

Suzanne looking strong as she swims in

to get some refreshment..

Mrs B did over 3hrs this morning ..  

Our first  impressions of swimming at Dosthill are very good..water is lovely and clear , the water temp is much lower than the lakes near by , maybe as much as 5 degrees cooler which we know is not everyone's cup of tea , but when you live in the midlands and you are planning a double channel swim in 8 days time ,  really is a good as you can get without traveling to the sea to train ,..

everyone at the dive site is very welcoming & helpful ..there are  cups of tea and coffee to be had after your swim  , also have their own little take away cafe should you fancy a sausage bap etc after your swim... loads of places to park 

swimming over the divers can be a little unnerving at first , but after few laps you really didn`t notice them or the air bubbles coming up from the bottom of the lake..
think we maybe swimming a lot more at Dosthill over the coming yrs .. 

maybe the best thing , is you can swim here long perids of time and not just your normal

one or two hrs ..which if you are a long disatnce OW  swimmmer is what you dream off.

Thursday 1pm-9pm. Last check-in at 7:30pm. Exit from the water by 8:30pm
Friday 1pm-9pm. Last check-in at 7:30pm. Exit from the water by 8:30pm
Saturday & Sunday 7:00am-4pm. Last check-in at 2:30pm. Exit from the water by 3:30pm

Counting Down The Days to Ricks Two Way Swim Of The English Channel 

8 Days to Go........!!
Ricks are swimming to give something back to Macmillan Cancer Support , to help them in their amazing work , no one should face Cancer alone 
Ricks Just Giving Link...
https://www.justgiving.com/teams/bigricks

Our Double Channel window is 27th to 31st of July
to track our swim ..use the link below...
our Channel Pilot will Lance Oram , our Boat for the trip will be Sea Satin
http://cspf.co.uk/pilot-lance-oram

The Night Owl

The Night Owl Swim..
1st late night swim ever done by Cliff Lakes Open Water Swimming..
8/7/16

Open water swimming as darkness falls really is one of the best moments you could wish to experience in swimming . 

can only be one Ricks  Blog Tune ..;-)
Night Swimming by R.E.M

Great Picture Taken By Charlie..
everyone is all smiles..
its almost 10pm on Friday night...
and we are about to swim..Crazy ;-)

Great turn out at 10pm last night . Picture Taken by Cliff Lakes
Shortly before we got in.... 
Big thanks goes out to all the helped keep us safe last night .

9.30pm Friday night...
and its almost swim time 

Duncan ..Big thanks goes out to Duncan , Heather
and everyone that  helped keep us all safe last night .

1st night swim at the Cliff Lakes ..
lovely swim ..19 degrees ..
beautiful sun set as we started the swim 
great atmosphere on the night 60 + swimmers turned up 
at just a days notice...
The Lake put on bbq , and drinks .and music....
8/6/16 
( cheers to cliff lakes ,& Charlie for the use of the amazing pictures from Friday )

for more information on swim at Cliff Lakes 

http://www.clifflakes.org/#!open-water-swim/c10mt

Short Ricks Video from Friday..

its not the best one we have every done, 

but you should get the picture of what 

we did..