After 16 hours and 28 minutes gliding across the English Channel, Sunshine Coast resident Chris Shapland stepped on French soil.
At the ripe old age of 69, Mr Shapland swam 33 kilometres across the channel on September 19.
Mr Shapland was well-positioned to tackle the perilous stretch of water, coming from a long pedigree of swimmers.
“My grandfather was teaching swimming in Toowoomba in the late 1930s,” he explained.
“My parents then secured the lease of the Toowoomba Municipal Baths (an old fill and drain pool) in 1947. From that date on there has always been a Shapland family member teaching or coaching swimming as a profession.”
At just nine years of age, Mr Shapland began working alongside his mother and father to help teach others to swim. In 1992, he formalised his family’s teaching strategy and franchised the business, Shapland Swim Schools, which has since grown to 14 Brisbane swim schools, including one which is owned and operated by one of his sons.
Through the Channel crossing, Shapland hoped to draw attention to the fact that provided you are taught a good swimming technique when you are young, as the Shapland Swim School aim to do with the hundreds of Queensland children they teach to swim each year, it can be a life saving and life-long activity.
“If you learn to swim correctly when you are little, you have a technique you carry with you the rest of your life. And swimming is an activity you can do way into your 80s and 90s. It’s not only healthy, it has very impact on your body, if you have the right technique,” he said.
Mr Shapland said swimming the English Channel is something he had always wanted to do, but had only began the necessary training in 2014.
The Mt. Ninderry resident trained for the treacherous sea conditions in his backyard pool, with a device specially built in that pumps out a strong current to allow him to swim for lengthy periods in the one spot and simulate the currents he encountered.
“It’s more of a mental than physical battle – it’s not such a physical feat if you know how to swim properly,” he said.
Mr Shapland adhered to regulations – swimming in only a swimsuit and goggles – and was fueled by an endurance drink every 30 minutes.
He is the second oldest Australian to make the swim, with Cyril Baldock swimming the channel recently at the age of 70.
More people have climbed Mt Everest than swum the channel.
Image: Facebook – Shapland Swim Schools
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