WATCH: "You have to find something in yourself to keep going"

Tuesday 20 August 2019

From washing machine weather, to greasy goggles and Mamma Mia being stuck on a loop... An adventurous father has shared the highs and lows of his recent round-island swim that saw him raise nearly £1,500 for a charity that supported two of his children born with club feet.

Matt Elcock (37) completed his Round Jersey swim in 11 hours and 51 minutes in conditions he said could not have been “any more interesting.”

Video: Highlights from Matt's challenging swim. (Music courtesy of Purple Planet)

Matt has been swimming in the sea since 2013, when Wendy Trehiou convinced him to join a swim with the Long Distance Swimming Club after he said he was bored of the pool.

Despite it being a “miserable day” and the water being cold, Matt got “hooked” on sea swimming in just 20 minutes.

The following year, he took part in a relay around the island with a team from HSBC, which planted the seed for his Round Island challenge.

“I got out and I told Wendy, ‘I wouldn’t mind doing it on my own!’” Matt said.

Pictured: Matt's swimming coach, Wendy Trehiou, accompanied him in a kayak for parts of his swim.

A series of surgeries and injuries and a new arrival in the family – Matt and his wife, Andrea, welcomed their third child in 2016 - meant that it wasn’t until this year that Matt was able to take the time to train. Even then, he says it wasn’t an easy feat to try and fit long swims around work and family time.

Matt was originally set to swim in early July but a leg injury kept him away from the pool for several weeks. So, when the opportunity to swim on 6 August came around, Matt said, “Let’s do it!” - even though the conditions were “borderline force 4”. 

To reach the “culmination of five years of a dream”, he had to battle “lumpy”, “bumpy” conditions, a greasy goggle incident, heavy showers, a lack of visibility and shoulder pains.

Pictured: The sea was "bumpy" and "lumpy" at La Rocque where Matt's mum and children were waiting for him.

The first two hours felt like being caught inside a washing machine, he recalled.

“My strokes kept getting interrupted. It was tough going, but my battle mode was on. I thought, ‘I can’t moan about it, I can’t whinge about it, I just got to get through it!”

The presence of his mum, Jane, his three children, Poppy-Anne, Florence and Ward, and friends at La Rocque luckily gave him a boost as he had to dive through the waves to keep going.

Coming up the north coast, Matt was struggling to see the boat and whilst he was trying to stay close to the coast, his pilot, Senator Steve Pallett, wanted to get him further away, in better tides. “That’s where you have to trust the pilot 100%,” Matt said. “He is there to get you around as safely and as quickly as possible.”

Pictured: Matt said the support of his crew was crucial in getting him to finish the swim.

After a “stern telling off”, Matt continued fighting rough conditions with little to no visibility, until he reached the west coast where conditions were a “bit more comfortable.”

Through this, the encouragement of his crew – Wendy and her dad Nigel, the pilot Steve, Linda who assisted in crewing duties and Jenny, the observer from LDSC - was crucial.

“They keep you going at your lowest points. The motivation you get from talking to them is fantastic. I didn’t want to let them down, I remember thinking I couldn’t get back on that boat without being either unconscious or having completed.”

Focused on the homerun, Matt pushed hard to get to Elizabeth Castle. “From Corbiere, I thought, ‘I am done.’ Energy-wise, I had nothing. You have to find something in yourself to keep going, it helps you learn about yourself. I had to find resources and dig deep. It’s good to know that when I needed to, I was able to keep going.”

Pictured: Matt with his swimming coach, Wendy Trehiou, who got him hooked on sea swimming.

But the drama didn’t end there: caught between two different tides, Matt struggled to reach the wall at Elizabeth which he needed to touch to complete his swim. “I swam parallel to the wall and touched it with only a couple of metres to spare. Wendy was shouting at me to float to her to get me out safely and I asked, ‘Have I done it?’ Those last minutes were so frantic I wasn’t even sure!”

Seeing a group of supporters waiting for him at the marina – including his wife and children, his parents, his sister, friends, and one of his trainees from Just 4 Keepers – was “overwhelming”, but it still didn’t sink in that he had achieved his challenge after what he describes as a “massive journey.”

In a way, Matt says the rough conditions prevented him from thinking too much. Throughout the swim, he sang Muse’s songs in his head, although he admits having had ‘Mamma Mia’ stuck on a loop after hearing it the previous weekend at the birthday of ABBA fan Wendy.

Pictured: Matt said the last minutes of his swim were so frantic he wasn't sure he had completed the swim.

Most of the time, he admits he was “blankly thinking of nothing.”

"You have all these stresses from work, family and friends and you can do nothing about it in the sea,” Matt explained. “It feels like a big weight off my shoulders. It makes me very happy; I don’t feel as good in the pool. I am a big advocate for mental health and swimming in the sea helps me with that.”

One of the other big benefits of sea swimming, Matt says, is the community spirit. “We all help each other. You are playing with your life getting in the sea, so you all look out for each other. You lean on people for support, you put out messages when you go out swimming and it’s fantastic to see people come and help you.

"It’s so unselfish of them just to help you through that. There’s a really big community support and I love that more than any other sports I have done."

Pictured: Matt with his parents, Bob and Jane.

Matt’s swimming challenge helped him raise around £1,500 - triple his original £500 target - for STEPS, a charity that supported his two younger children, who were both born with bi-lateral talipes – commonly known as club feet.

“They do some fantastic work to support families and children here and in third world countries. They were invaluable for us and I wanted to repay it for a change. It’s really pleasing to give something back. »

Having just about recovered from his challenge, Matt is itching to get back into the water, but not for another long swim, he has to get back in the good books with the family first.

“People don’t realise the amount of time and effort it takes in undertaking such a challenge,” he said.

Pictured: Matt with his wife, Andrea, and his children, Ward, Florence and Poppy-Anne.

He added: “I’ve spent times away from them covering four, five, six, even seven hours when attempting training swims. It’s not a sport that you cannot commit 100% to, so without my family I wouldn’t have been able to complete this.

"I owe them a debt of gratitude that will take a very long time to repay, so it’s about time I focused on them, and put the swimming challenges to bed… for the time being.”