USU student conquers the English channel
On Sept. 3, after nearly two and a half years a preparation, Joelle Beard, a junior majoring in English education at USU, swam the English Channel in an above-average time of 12 hours and 17 minutes.
She took the plunge at 2:40 a.m. on Shakespeare Beach near Dover, England. In an email to the Statesman, Beard said “the air temperature was cold, the night was pitch black, and the water was freezing. I got scared due to the conditions and I thought ‘What the heck am I doing? This is ridiculous!'”
Despite her fears at the beginning, Beard kicked it into gear and at 2:57 p.m. She climbed up onto the rocks near the cliffs in France at Cape Gris Nez, which marked the end of her swim.
Beard swam her race in conjunction with The Channel Swimming Association, and in order for her swim to count, she couldn’t wear a wetsuit to keep warm. She instead covered herself with a specialized grease, which she said was similar to Vaseline. This grease allowed her to stay warm in the 61-62 degree water.
The CSA also helped her charter a pilot: Reg Brickell, who has been helping swimmers navigate the Channel for 43 years, and a boat: a 30 foot fishing vessel named the “The Viking Princess.” The boat was equipped with spotlights that allowed Beard to see during the early hours of her swim.
To keep track of time during her 12 hour swim, Beard had a large horn blow every half hour. This allowed her to have some semblance of time, but it also signaled the times that she would eat or drink. Every half hour brought a quick drink of powerade, and every hour and a half she would eat a quarter of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, with a shot of honey. This gave her the energy she needed to perform this incredible feat. A hazard also was posed every time she took a break, because if she stopped for longer than a minute, the cold would set in and she wouldn’t be able to complete the swim.
“I tried to take the swim in sections,” Beard said. “It would be a lot harder if I thought of the overall thing, rather than just a little bit at a time. I would take each half hour and tell myself to just go until the horn blew again.”
She said she would also hum a classical music song to herself, which was her motivational song and entertainment during the swim.
The English Channel is full of all sorts of sea creatures, sharks included, but Beard was fortunate enough to not encounter any of the more dangerous sea creatures. She ran into seaweed a couple of times, and she was stung by a jellyfish on the top of her foot, but it only stung for an hour or two, she said.
To top off her adventure in England, Beard was able to go to the White Horse Pub in Dover and add her name to the wall where all the others who have completed the swim have signed.
Beard isn’t the only Utahn who completed the swim this year. Two weeks prior to Beard’s swim, Gordon Gridley of Syracuse completed his swim in 11 hours and 30 minutes. Beard said she had been in contact with him earlier, and he gave her lots of good tips.
Beard said she trained and completed this swim because she wanted to prove to herself and some of her old coaches that speed in the water is not the only thing that makes someone great.
Beard stands at 4 feet 10 inches tall, shorter than average height for a swimmer, but her height is what gave her the determination to swim the Channel in the first place.
Beard said she was told that she was too short to really be as fast as she wanted.
“Everyone acted like if you didn’t break a school record or get a swimming scholarship you were not good,” she said.
Beard will be receiving recognition at Willard High School, her alma mater, where she now helps coach the swim team.
“Her name will go up on the record board for the English Channel,” said Craig Robinette, Beard’s high school coach.
-carli@jdsco.com