Photo: Kelvin Trautman

Open water swimmer Lewis Pugh is bracing himself for what he believes will be his coldest challenge yet when he takes on the full length of the English Channel – wearing just his Speedo trunks, goggles and a cap.

Pugh will begin his 350-mile challenge when he sets off from Land’s End in Cornwall on July 11.

Depending on tides and weather, he estimates he’ll be in the water for around 50 days and will cover a distance equivalent to 16 Channel crossings before arriving at Dover later this summer.

Pugh is no stranger to tackling cold temperatures without a wetsuit. The 48-year-old has completed long distance swims in every ocean in the world, including the Arctic and Antarctic.

“The average temperature of an English Channel swim is 14°C to 18°C,” he said. “After swimming in it for 10 or 15 hours, that feels like ice.

“Cold and exhaustion will be my biggest adversaries. Not to mention what I meet in the water – the Channel is the world’s busiest shipping lane, and has plenty of jellyfish.

“I’ll be starting off well insulated, weighing about 100kg. At the end of the swim I expect to be very thin.

“It will be a race against time – the water will warm up over the two-month swim duration, but I will be getting thinner and thinner, losing my insulation bit by bit.

“The effect will be cumulative. That cold really gnaws into you when you wake up to it every day. I’ve swum in the coldest waters on Earth, but I expect this to be one of the coldest swims of my life.”

One reason behind Pugh’s decision to shun a wetsuit is to honour the rules of the Channel Swimming Association, which forbids any suit that offers thermal protection and buoyancy. However, there is also a much bigger motivation.

Photo: Kelvin Trautman

“There’s another reason I don’t swim in a wetsuit, whether it’s in the Antarctic or the English Channel – I’m delivering a message about the vulnerability of our seas,” he said.

“If I’m going to urge politicians to take the hard decisions and be courageous, I have to be courageous too. And I am urging them to be courageous now, by getting serious about ocean protection.

“Our world needs clean and healthy seas. And we are the only ones who can make that happen.

“This swim will mark the beginning of a worldwide campaign to ensure that 30% of our oceans are fully protected by 2030.

“In addition, we need to change the tide on plastic pollution by stopping the amount of plastic pouring into our oceans – and roll up our sleeves to help remove the junk that’s already there.

“Changing the world’s oceans for the better starts with us, and it starts at home.”

Pugh is aiming to swim for around five hours per day, and hopes to cover daily distances ranging from six to 12 miles. At the end of each session, he’ll set a GPS point and resume his swim from the exact same location the next morning.

“Due to the configuration of the UK coastline, I won’t always hug the coast, but will swim across larger bays such as Lyme Bay,” he added. “Along the coast, and wherever possible, we will invite members of the public to join us in the water.

“There will be bad-weather days when I can’t swim. Endurance swimmers have waited weeks for the right conditions to attempt a Channel crossing, with many having to give up and return home, delaying attempts until the following year.

“There will be other days when the wind and the tides will be in my favour. You’ve got to get the timing right, or you’ll find yourself going backwards. And I will not stop until I see the white cliffs of Dover.”

The campaign is supported by global forex broker FXTM, with Speedo as an official partner.

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