Cold. Very cold.

Fickle currents. Very fickle.

Big. Very big.

Venomous. Very venomous.

The North Channel has it all: every tough obstacle, every reason to quit. every massive challenge – cold water, strong currents, huge tidal flows. Lions mane jellyfish.

Many hardened, experienced channel swimmers have given a 35 km North Channel crossing a go, but it is never easy, never a guarantee.

But American Sarah Thomas did the unthinkable in July 2022: a two-way crossing, escorted by Pádraig Mallon of the Infinity Channel Swimming and Piloting Services.

Her unprecedented 21 hour 46 minute two-way crossing of the North Channel was another feat of the Aquatic Bannister.* The 40-year-old breast cancer survivor achieved the unfathomable – as she has so often accomplished during her storied career. Read about her journey on her blog here.

Like Sir Roger Bannister – who broke the 4-mile barrier in the mile in 1954 – so did Thomas show what is possible in the North Channel.

Meanwhile, Brian Foster was a young 14-year-old teenager in Ireland who had one marathon swim under his swim cap: a 10 km swim at the Best Fest in Mallorca in 3 hours 44 seconds. But the seed was planted by the American icon – a double crossing of the North Channel could be done.

Foster went about his way diligently training with his father and other hardened members of the Sandycove Island Swimming Club.  Foster had already achieved 100 laps around Sandycove Island by the age of 13. He developed his talents and honed his marathon swimming experience by completing a Catalina Channel crossing in September 2023 in 11 hours 3 minutes at the age of 15. Then he completed an English Channel crossing in 10 hours 37 minutes at the age of 16.

The stage was set for a North Channel crossing.

But who would have thought a two-way crossing was in his plans?

Young Brian knew himself it was possible. But was it realistic?

The 14°C water was a huge obstacle, even for a swimmer who had trained for years around Sandycove Island. Who knew what the tides, currents, and jellyfish could do on a two-way?

But his team was right there, right besides him, right with him.

Brian never let them do, never let the conditions get to him. Even when his training mate Finbarr Hedderman jumped in the water to serve as his pace swimmer, Brian kept pushing the pace as Hedderman attempted to catch up with him during his 24 hour 50 minute 13 second swim.

Brian became the youngest person to swim the North Channel – including a one-way, the first male two-way North Channel swimmer, and the first overall on the Northern Ireland – Scotland – Northern Ireland route.

Well done. Very well done.

© 2024 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“

A World Open Water Swimming Federation project.

* An Aquatic Bannister is a feat or an open water swimmer who achieves an open water swimming feat previously thought to be impossible by swimmers, coaches, pilots and fans of the open water swimming world. It is based on the pioneering achievement of Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister CH CBE FRCP who was a British middle-distance athlete (and future neurologist) who ran the first sub-4-minute mile in history. Running a mile in under four minutes was thought to be impossible, a widely propagated myth created by sportswriters, but it was debunked by Bannister when he ran a 3 minute 59.4 second mile in 1954 during a track meet at Oxford University