Big Rick.! it would be easy to say Mark Rickhuss was just an amazingly talented swimmer, a superb all round sportsman..and great family man, well yes Mark was that , but so so much more...!! we hope to give you a small insight as to who the man 'Big Rick' was and why his smooth, easy and laid back personality and approach to life, had such impact on so many peoples' lives..without him ever knowing it...!
So...Who is Big Rick...?, Why not play as you read..!!
Mark was an accomplished pool and open water swimmer. In his teens Mark swam for both Darlaston and Walsall Swimming clubs and won many ASA Staffordshire County, West Midland and British National titles in the swimming pool. As much as Mark enjoyed pool racing, his real love was always Open Water swimming. As soon Mark transferred his efforts to the open water, he had only one thing in mind; swimming The English Channel..!! he won all big BLDSA (The British Long Distance Swimming Association) races whilst training for his Channel attempt in 1999.. Windermere, Coniston , Torbay , Liverpool ultra and so many more...
Mark completed his English Channel dream in the summer 1999, the conditions on the day were not perfect by any means, but nothing was going to deter Mark from swimming with the constant support and encouragement from his father John (a fine open water swimmer himself) in the support boat. ( Mark`s Channel CSA pilot for the swim was the great Reg Brickell with his boat Viking Princess .)
Mark not only swam the Channel, which is an amazing achievement in itself, but he set a few records for that year. at the time Mark was only the 605th swimmer to ever swim from England to France in the past 100 years, his time of 9 hours 18 minutes resulted in him being the fastest British person to do the swim in 1999. His time, in the roughest of sea conditions on the day, was considered so amazing by the CSA (Channel Swimming Association) that they awarded him the title of 'Best Open Water Swimmer' of 1999. ( Mark always thought that given better conditions on the day a sub 8hrs swim would have been possible , he was in such great condition )
In 2002, when still living and working in Warwick, Mark along with with his dad John and 5 others formed 'Sandwell Long Distance Swimming Club', Mark Passed away in 2005 . aged just 41.
Big Rick.!
'Big Ricks Open Water Swim Team' was set up in 2008 in memory of Mark.. Over the past 10 years the team have participated in many open water swimming events around the UK to raise much needed funds for The British Heart Foundation & Macmillan Cancer Support & Cancer Research UK . To date team 'Big Rick' have raised over £100,000. We are always motivated by the memory Mark...!!
Just a few team pictures from some of the events Big Ricks have completed over the past 10 years.!
BHF Bournemouth Pier to Pier 2008
BHF Bournemouth Pier to Pier 2009
The British Gas Great North Swim 2009
The British Gas Great East Swim 2010
The British Gas Great London Swim 2010
The British Gas Great London Swim 2010
BHF Bournemouth Pier to Pier 2010
BHF Heart of England Swim 2010
ASA Midlands Open Water Champinships 2010
The British Gas Great Salford Swim 2010 If you wish to support 'Big Ricks' English Channel challenge in aid of The British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK, then please log onto our Virgin Money Giving Page; Big Ricks Channel Swim 2011 Virgin Money Giving
Big Ricks @ the great salford swim 2011
The Great Salford Swim May 2011
Big Ricks Swim For Your Heart Award 2011
Big Ricks Channel team 1st training session April 2011
Ricks Boys @ The Great Swim 2011
Channel Team Night Training in May 2011
Big Ricks Channel Relay Team
(CSA Fastest 6 man Relay of 2011)
Big Ricks @ Swimmers Beach Dover with the Famous Channel swimming
Trainer Freda Streeter 2011
Big Ricks @ The Great North Swim in Lake Windermere 2011
Big Ricks @ The Great London Swim in Victoria & Albert Docks 2011
Big Ricks at The British Heart Foundation Heart Of England Swim 2011
Big Ricks at the British Heart Foundation Pier to Pier in Bournemouth
Big Ricks Nige and Henry at the British Heart Foundation Pier to Pier in Bournemouth 2011
Big Ricks Darran. British Freestyle (44-49) champion 2011
Big Ricks Swim Team..
British Heart Foundation Team of the Year 2011
Big Ricks Swim Team winners of Fundraisers of the Year 2011
at the Kelloggo`s ASA Swimtastic Awards dinner in Sheffield
Big Ricks were awarded at the CSA dinner in Dover
The Fastest Mens Channel Relay Team of 2011
Big Ricks Channel Team
were runners up for most outstanding sporting achievement
at the Walsall civic awards 2011
Ricks show support for
The BHF and Cancer research uk at the start of our double channel year 2012
Big Ricks Swim Team... 1st swimming team from Great Britain & Europe to ever swim four ways across the english channel Mel , Charlie , Stu, Paul , Ross & Ryan . 2nd to 4th of september 2018 46 hours 13 minutes
2nd september 2018 , around Its 1.30am at Dover Marina
and we are just about start our 4 way...
who knows what lies ahead ....
we are excited , nervousand a tiny bit scared .. we know this swim is going to take well over 40 hrs... with weather forecast not looking great after that .. we know the swim will get difficult on the fourth crossing .. lets get this swim started......
waiting for our pilot Lance Oram and his crew to arrive .. this will give you some idea off how much kit we took with us on the boat .. not sure Lance is going to be happy.!!
Ryan jumps from the Boat and swims his way into Samphire Hoe Beach to start the swim . start time 3.20am 2/9/18
Paul trying to wind up Mel…And Paul swimming against the sunriseBig Rick’s had decided to take on this challenge purely for that reason. We’re all strong swimmers and we like to challenge ourselves. Everyone has a reason for swimming. We, as a team, aim to push ourselves at each opportunity. We’d already done a 2-way, so it had to be a 3-way or 4-way otherwise it wouldn’t be worth doing. That’s no disrespect to anyone who does 1- or 2-way relays! It’s just the way we function as a team, how we motivate ourselves, and more importantly it helps to raise more money for the charities we support, rather than doing a similar swim to one we’ve done before.
In my head, there was only one reason we would fail the swim, and that would be due to weather conditions beyond our control. I knew the tides could play havoc too, but I also knew that we were strong enough swimmers to battle through them if necessary.
In the days and weeks leading up to the swim, I didn’t pay a blind bit of attention to the weather reports, or the wind-speed apps that you can download onto your phone. Quite simply, I didn’t want to know! There was nothing I could do about it anyway, but I was more nervous that the weather would put a stop to the swim even starting. We had booked a whole tide window to ourselves, but we still needed 2 clear days of decent weather conditions within that window to even give it a shot, so the stakes were high. Five or six days before our window opened, our pilot got in touch with us to let us know that the first two days of our tide window (2nd and 3rd September) were looking the best conditions for our swim; the remaining days of the tide were not looking good at all.
From the moment we received that news, I was petrified that the weather forecast would change and that it would all be called off. I SO wanted us to have this chance. Fortunately, the weather Gods listened to our prayers and we set off as scheduled – at 3.20am on Sunday 2nd September with Ryan leading us off.
Whilst the weather Gods let us swim, they did not make the swim easy for us one bit. Rarely did we have anything near calm waters, with lumpy, choppy – and at times rough – waters throughout. My 3rd swim, which was on the 2nd lap swimming back from France to Dover for the first time – was the most challenging from that perspective. We could see that Ryan was literally being flipped over onto his back and I was due in the water again after him. Sarah, our crew, said that it was important that I was watched the whole time I was in the water, given the rough conditions. I prepared myself mentally for a tough and challenging swim, which it certainly was! However, it was actually quite a fun swim too. Sometimes you just have to crack on with it, embrace the rough waters, and swim.
Silliness on boardTalking of Sarah our crew, we couldn’t have wished for better support. Sarah worked tirelessly across the whole challenge, running around after us, cooking us food and making us drinks, and watching us as we swam, giving us encouragement. She was simply awesome and an essential part of the team. As a trained masseur she even gave massages to Ryan and me to help loosen our shoulders – as the below pictures demonstrate!
On the plus side, the unsmooth and choppy waters throughout the majority of the swim meant that most of the time the jellyfish stayed below of the surface out of harm’s way – so out of 4 lengths of the English Channel, and 6 swimmers, we only suffered 1 proper jellyfish sting the entire time! (poor Mel). My penultimate swim, where I was swimming through the separation zone, was where I saw the most jellies, and where I came in very close proximity to a few of them. But miraculously no stings. My team mates flashing at me and mooning at me took my mind off the jellyfish anyway!
Big Stu ploughing through the waterMel hoping she won’t get stung on her next swim…At reaching the half-way point, with Ross swimming us into Dover, I felt a bit emotional. It was starting to feel like we could do this… For the majority of the 2nd lap I’d been concerned about the conditions, praying they wouldn’t get any worse than they already were. But we’d broken the back of the swim now. We braced ourselves for another ‘trip’ to France and back.
Me embracing the waves…I think it was on lap 3 that I finally managed to get a bit sleep… When I say ‘a bit’, I mean about 40 minutes! We had pushed some boxes of our food to one side at the front of the boat inside the cabin, and had made it into a semi bed area. It certainly wasn’t comfortable, but at that point I could have slept anywhere!
My unsuccessful attempt at trying to sleep earlier on in the challenge. My eyes are closed but I’m wide awake!The conditions were not as bad as they had been on the 2nd way fortunately. That said, the rough conditions on the 2nd lap had actually played in our favour, as it had helped us to get back from France in 9 and a half hours – which ultimately proved to be our fastest lap of the 4-way.
Some were more successful at sleeping than others…But the tides were not playing ball at all on laps 3 and 4, as due to the timings landing back in Dover the first time, we didn’t catch them in the way we would have liked. After a long slog, Ross finally swam us into France after lap 3 and we thought, “That’s it, a quick sub-10 hour swim back to England and we might still have a chance of beating the world record!”. Sadly, we soon realised that was not to be – and if you look at the track of our 4th lap you will see why! We had to swim out wide from the Cap before the tide finally picked us up to take us in the direction we needed to be going in. I’d counted on only having to do 1 more swim, but it soon became apparent I’d need to do an extra one, making it 8 hours swimming for me in total.
Darkness had fallen again – Dover was well in sight but seemingly not getting much closer, we were fighting strong tides and were being pushed much further away down the coast from Dover than we would have liked. I got in the water again and swam my heart out for another hour, got out again and it looked like we’d barely moved! We were definitely in for the long haul…
At this point, we would have kept swimming for another day if we’d had to – nothing was going to stop us getting back to England, no matter how many more times we had to get back in and swim.
So close to finishing, yet so far!Everyone on the boat had nevertheless become very delirious! We knew we were going to do it now and didn’t care how long it was going to take. Finishing it was all that mattered now. We had the music blasting off the boat, we were dancing around to Frank Sinatra and the Venga Boys (yes, an eclectic mix of tunes) while Mel streamed live Facebook videos! The support from everyone supporting us via social media was completely overwhelming.
At 1.33am we finally arrived back in England, with Stu swimming us in – not into Dover but way beyond Folkestone! It was nice to be greeted by some friendly faces on the beech too, our swimming friends Sal and Tony who’d made the effort to come and see us in, even at that time of night!
Our crazy swim trackIt was about 4.30am on Tuesday 4th September before we finally made it to bed, following a near 2-hour boat trip back to Dover after we’d finished the swim so far away from where we’d started. We hadn’t slept properly since waking up on the Saturday morning to drive down to Dover. So it’s fair to say, the rest of that week we all felt shattered! I was randomly falling asleep during the day, as well as feeling dizzy and light-head for a good week after finishing the swim. It’s amazing how a challenge like that really takes it out of you for several days afterwards. It’s one thing being awake for nearly 3 days continuously, but it’s another thing to do 8 hours of swimming in rough and choppy waters in between as well.
We hadn’t broken the world record, but we’d become the first team on the continent to complete a 4-way English Channel relay swim. And only the 3rd team in the world to do so too.
Our place on the wall in the new Channel pub ‘Les Fleurs’More importantly, we raised nearly £6,500 for British Heart Foundation and Marine Conservation Society, and approximatey £90,000 for a range of charities since the team formed 10 years ago. This is the reason why we swim, and if we can change things for the better whilst pushing ourselves to the limit, then it’s all worth the time and effort in the end.
The question is – what can Big Rick’s Swim Team do next that is bigger than an English Channel 4-way? You’ll have to wait and see. But for the time being, we’re having a well-deserved rest!
Six British swimmers under the team name Big Rick’s
completed a four-way crossing of the English Channel in early September,
raising money along the way for British Heart Foundation and Marine
Conservation Society.
The team of Paul Bates, Charlie Weadon, Melanie Holland,
Ryan Coley, Stuart Fuller, and Ross Emery took one-hour shifts, swimming
relay-style to finish the swim in 46 hours and 13 minutes. The team is the
3rd-ever to complete the four-way swim, and since 2008, have completed 11
crossings in total of the English Channel – all in memory of
their friend, Mark Rickhaus.
In all, the team has raised over £95,000 ( $130,000) for
U.K. charities.
“We wanted to take on something that was bigger than the
2-way relay we completed in 2016. A few teams have completed a 3-way, but only
2 teams have successfully completed a 4-way,” Bates told SwimSwam in an email.
“We thought it was worth a shot, as we’re all strong swimmers and we knew we
had it in us to achieve it if the tides and weather played ball too.
Here’s a look at their course:
Between one hour sessions, the five members would be in a
boat, following behind the current swimmer.
In preparation, the group kept up their usual level of
indoor training and supplemented it with increased cold-water open water
training, including preparation for the repeated in-and-out stints.
“The main challenge that was difficult to prepare for was
the lack of sleep we would get during the actual challenge,” Bates said. “We
were limited with places we could find to sleep on the boat, so this was
something we had to just deal with. We managed to get only small amounts of
sleep during the 2 days, and it was nowhere near enough as what we needed.”
Some of the group members had done single Channel crossings
in advance of this most recent one. Coley had done a one-way crossing as part
of a different relay team, and Holland did the complete swim solo.
“I think it’s really important in a challenge like this that
you are very close as a team. Big Rick’s are just that – we have fun, we take
the mick out of each other a lot(!), and we support each other when it
matters,” Bates continued.
“We swim for the team and for the charities we support – not
for ourselves. Nobody wants to let the team or charities down, so no matter how
difficult a challenge gets, no matter how dark and miserable it is, or how many
jellyfish are in the water, we know that we have to get back in that water and
keep swimming!”
