Conquering the Channel

Traralgon’s Andrew Crozier successfully accomplished his mission to complete the iconic channel crossing swim from England to France in July.

Not all went exactly to plan, as frustratingly unpredictable weather conditions forced Andrew Crozier to negotiate a whirlpool of emotions in realising his dream to swim the English Channel.

“The whole experience was unreal. It was everything I anticipated it would be, and more,” he says.

After unfavourable sea conditions had caused a postponement three days earlier, Andrew finally set off from Dover in the early hours of 11th July and reached the French coast at Cap Gris-Nez just south of Calais in a time of 10 hours, 50 minutes and 35 seconds.

Not only did he accomplish a great personal achievement, but in the process, he also raised more than $3,000 in donations for the YMCA’s Open Doors charity with the specific purpose of endeavouring to give all kids the access to learn to swim.

Andrew has a direct connection to the YMCA, or the Y as it is now known, through his work as Health and Wellbeing Coordinator at the Gippsland Regional Aquatic Centre in Traralgon. The state-of-the-art facility, which was built by Latrobe City Council in 2021, is managed and operated by the Y.

The money raised through Andrew’s English Channel crossing will help introduce many more youngsters to the joy of swimming.

“Anyone who is disadvantaged or from a low socioeconomic background can apply directly to the Y for funding for lessons,” he notes.

Although the actual 33-kilometre swim was completed in less than half a day, the entire experience was an incredible adventure and a long journey which included a considerable amount of sacrifice.

“There are certain people without whom this would not have been possible,” Andrew emphasises.

“Over in England, there was swim coach Tim Denyer who provided me with the opportunity to make the crossing by providing me with one of his slots, and I could not have completed the swim without the logistical expertise and guidance of the two pilots of my escort boat Viking Princess II, Reg and Ray.

“But the person who I need to acknowledge most of all is my wife Narelle, who was there to share in the moment but was an amazing source of support from the outset. Preparing for something like this requires an enormous level of commitment and places huge demand on your family. Narelle does adventure racing and ultra trail marathons herself. She and I each race and train at a national level in our sports and we both work full time, which takes a lot of juggling around also having two kids. I just want to thank her for everything.”

The Dream

“The idea to swim the English Channel is something I had thought about for years,” Andrew states.

Having grown up in Morwell before later moving to Traralgon, Andrew started swimming at around six years of age.

“I swam competitively up to eighteen years old, reaching as high as national level, then gave it away,” he says.

“From about twenty I started doing triathlons and ironman events both in Australia and overseas and got as far as age group World Championships. But once Narelle and I had kids, life got a bit more tricky to fit everything in and I decided to go back to just swimming.”

Andrew developed a passion for open water swimming. He competed in the Victorian Championships in the 10-kilometre event, then travelled to Western Australia in 2020 to do the Rottnest Channel 20-kilometre race.

Then in the winter of 2022 he took on the challenge of completing the Ice Mile, which sets a task of swimming a distance of 1.6 kilometres in water below 5 degrees.

“I did it at Thredbo in water temperature of 3.5 degrees and it took 28 minutes to do,” Andrew recalls.

“After that I began considering what was next, and that’s when the English Channel swim came into the picture.”

The English Channel crossing is the best known of seven famous ocean water swims often collectively referred to as the “Oceans Seven”.

The remaining six consist of the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland, the Cook Strait between New Zealand’s North and South Islands, the Moloka’i Channel between Moloka’i and Oahu in Hawaii, the Catalina Channel between Santa Catalina Island and Los Angeles, the Tsugaru Strait between the Japanese Islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, and the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco.

“My ultimate ambition would be a lifetime dream to eventually tick them all off however long it might take,” Andrew reveals.