Britain's Ocean City to give warm - and wet - welcome to Lewis Pugh

17th July 2018

A package of sea and swimming-related events is being organised in honour of Plymouth-born Lewis Pugh’s arrival into Britain’s Ocean City.

Lewis Pugh is UN Patron of the Oceans and is currently on The Long Swim, an attempt to swim the full length of the English Channel. Wearing just Speedo swimming trunks, a cap and goggles, Lewis started at Land’s End in Cornwall on Thursday 12 July, with the swim expected to end at Dover towards the end of August. He is expected to arrive in Plymouth on Friday 20 July. 

The Long Swim is part of a worldwide campaign entitled Action for Oceans, an initiative that is calling on governments to fully protect at least 30 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2030. FXTM is the lead partner on the Long Swim and Speedo is the official partner.

Lewis is arriving – time and tide permitting – on Friday afternoon and will be invited to a series of events which showcase Plymouth at its best. In order to keep on track for his mission, Lewis has to swim 10 km a day on his open water channel course. To make his visit to Plymouth possible, local superyacht company Princess Yachts will be fast transferring him to and from the team’s catamaran each day.

Events include:

• A cream tea with the Lord Mayor on Friday 20 followed by a reception at National Marine Aquarium
• A swimming event at Tinside – hosted by Speedo, who are sponsoring the marathon mission. Speedo will provide 800 swim passes – split between morning and afternoon sessions – and special guests includes Jazz Carlin, double Olympic silver medallist and community swimming group Swim Dem Crew. (This has now sold out).
• An exhibition at The Dome on Saturday, 9am to 5pm. Free entry. Visitors can learn more about Plymouth's Plan for Plastics and how they can help protect our oceans.
• Wild swimming sessions in the Sound on Saturday

Deputy leader for the Council, Peter Smith said: “We wanted to make the most of Lewis’s return to Plymouth – the place of his birth. As Britain’s Ocean City, we are extremely proud of the passion and commitment Lewis shows about the oceans.

“His incredible swim could not come at a more crucial time. As a city we have just launched our plan for plastics and our waterfront area is the first UK city to have been awarded the ‘Plastic Free Communities’ status by Surfers Against Sewage.

“Organisations, businesses and residents are all uniting to tackle single use plastics and plastic pollution in Plymouth – and there’s huge support for it.

“We are not just tackling plastics. Like Lewis, we know how important the waters are around our coasts and are looking at how Plymouth could have the first marine park on its doorstep.”

Tinside Pool will be open only to those who have registered for a free swim on 21 July.

More about Lewis Pugh

Over the past 30 years, the British swimmer has pioneered swims in the most challenging environments on earth including the Antarctic, the North Pole and the Himalayas. He has campaigned on behalf of the world's last pristine marine wilderness areas. Now he is bringing his message home.

Lewis’s latest challenge will see him swim 560km along the English coastline, averaging five hours swimming, and covering between 10-20km, each day. The total length of the swim is the equivalent of crossing the Channel from Dover to Calais 16 times over.

Lewis will increase his weight to 100kg to provide vital insulation from cold water and exhaustion. The Channel Swimming Association, which has been authenticating cross-channel swims since 1927, will observe and verify his swim.

About 1,800 people have swum across the English Channel since Captain Mathew Webb first did so in 1875. However, no-one has ever attempted to swim the length of the Channel according to their rules – just wearing Speedo swimming trunks, cap and goggles.

"I've been swimming in the world's oceans for 30 years. This is not a long time in ecological terms, and yet I've seen the oceans change before my eyes," Lewis Pugh said.

"I am swimming the length of the English Channel to call on the British government to urgently protect the waters that surround the UK. The truth is that only 7 square kilometres out of a total 750,000 square kilometres of the UK’s waters are fully protected. That amounts to a mere one-hundred-thousandth. This is shocking. The British Government must protect the UK coastline properly by introducing fully protected Marine Protected Areas (MPA).

"It has been shown that fully protected Marine Protected Areas give distressed and degraded seas their best chance of recovery," Pugh continues. "But the need for action is urgent, and the time to act is now. In a few years’ time, it will be too late to fix this crisis."

To prepare for The Long Swim, Lewis has been training hard in the cold and rough waters off South Africa and the Falkland Islands, swimming an average of 7 kilometres a day.

Speaking of the challenge that awaits him, Pugh says, "There will be bad-weather days when I simply won’t be able to swim. The English Channel also has very strong tides. I've got to get the timing right, or I could be going backwards."

Pugh believes that exhaustion and repeated exposure to cold will be his biggest adversaries. "Not to mention what I meet in the water – the Channel is the world's busiest shipping lane, and has plenty of jellyfish."

Find oout more here.