Many thanks to Wendy for this insightful interview with Richard who will be attempting to swim solo around the Island tonight for charity. Ed
Islander Richard Beardsall is attempting an epic 60-mile solo swim around the Isle of Wight starting out tonight, Saturday 5 September, at around 9pm from Ryde sands and, if all goes to plan, arriving back at the same spot at around Sunday teatime.
Richard had hoped to do the swim – which is to raise £1500 for special needs pupils at Medina House School to take part in sailing activities with UKSA – in August, but weather conditions led to its postponement.
“I’ve been looking for a weather opportunity and it looks like we’re going for it tomorrow night,” he told me over the phone on Friday.
It isn’t just a case of donning wetsuit and flippers and setting off. He has a five-person team in three support vessels (a 40-foot catamaran and two RIBs) to keep him fed and watered and ensure he stays safe. Pupils from Ventnor Middle School are also involved in researching aspects of the project.
This is Richard’s third attempt at the round-island swim.
“We’re getting better at it. The first time I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I still got 41 miles. I realised it was possible we could do it. The second time I had atrocious weather and was swimming into high waves. It can knock your morale – they had to pull me out in the end. It’s down to mother nature – if she lets you pass, she lets you pass.”
Richard set himself the swim challenge after learning of the death of the man who saved his life as a boy. When he was 10 he was swimming off Little Hope Beach, Shanklin.
“I went down in a rip current and I knew that I was gone. Everything went quiet. Then this bloke was saving me and dragging me in to shore. It’s the kind of thing you never forget. It stays with you for life. I was training to swim the English Channel a few years ago when I heard he’d died. So I decided to do something close to home instead, something more meaningful.”
He’s been training for the past year, doing body conditioning, pilates (Richard’s wife, Alison, teaches at the Island Pilates Centre), and spinfit to build up his leg muscles.
Plus swimming, of course. “I’ve been in the sea since May, when it was freezing, practising swimming into the tides.”
His diet in the week leading up to the swim has been heavy on carbohydrates. “It’s like training for a marathon, lots of fruit, veg and pasta – I’m a bit tight in my skin at the moment!”
During the swim he will go alongside the boat for regular isotonic and carbohydrate drinks and fructose mixed with water, to keep up his energy and stave off dehydration.
Plus he has a special treat lined up for when he passes the Needles: “Porridge and honey, served gloopy from a flask. It’s warm and you can just about get it down.”
It’s just one of many targets he’s set himself en route to help him keep going: “It’s amazing what the mind lets the body do. It’s pure endurance. Your body’s screaming ‘no, give up!’ but you have to back yourself and just carry on.”
One previous attempt resulted in injury: “Wetsuits aren’t designed to be worn for that period of time. I got welt marks down my chest. The skin splits like a peach and the salt gets in. So many things can get in your way.”
For those of us who can’t imagine how anyone can swim, or even attempt to swim 60 miles, Richard explains, “Some of us are awkward on land. In the sea it becomes about being part of the sea, and you listen to it and what it’s telling you.”
He knows it is possible and has spoken to the record holder, Kevin Murphy , who achieved the swim (without flippers) in 1971 in just under 27 hours. “He’s really nice. He gave me some tips. But we had good summers back then. Now the weather’s all over the place.”
Ideally he’d like no wind at all, but otherwise “what we want is a westerly or north-westerly winds down the back, and then around Ventnor we want it to turn south-westerly to push me up the other side.”
The lead support vessel is fitted with a tracking device, and once Richard sets off you’ll be able to follow his progress from a link on the UKSA website.
If you keep your eyes peeled you might even see him (or the support vessels at least) off the shore. Richard is swimming anti-clockwise and hoping to round St Catherine’s point at around 10am on Sunday.
At the time of writing (4 September) Richard is 70% of the way towards his £1500 fundraising target. You can sponsor his swim online by visiting the Just Giving Website.
“This is my personal journey, but really it’s about the kids,” says Richard. “I hope to give children at Medina House School the opportunity to sail, and I want to show local kids that by backing yourself and just cracking on, you can do anything.”
