
To purchase the DVD set, which includes alot more useful knowledge about The Human Body, click on the picture above. I Hope English Channel aspirants find it useful.
Paul Hopfensperger Open Water Swimmer

To purchase the DVD set, which includes alot more useful knowledge about The Human Body, click on the picture above. I Hope English Channel aspirants find it useful.
Right: Article reproduced by kind permission of The Bury Free Press, Friday January 01, 2010. Click on the newspaper article to download a larger version.
Above: The late Jim Rohn at the Herbalife Headquarters, Los Angeles, California, January 24, 1988. Picture taken by Paul Hopfensperger.
After stumbling from one end of the beach to the other on a simply glorious day, I came across the life guards hut and was introduced to a very nice chap called Ken Sach who was the Beach Patrol Officer. When I told him what I wanted to do, he was very enthusiastic and took me into a large warehouse where he showed me the plaque below:-
Above: An autographed photograph of Mercedes Gleitze (b. 1900 - d. 1981) the first person to swim The Wash and the first British Lady to swim The English Channel. Above: The Wash, Saturday September 27, 2009 at low tide. The other side can just about be seen if you look closely.
Returning home, I was very inspired to find out more about The Wash and to start organising my swim. But who would be the pilot?, who would ratify the swim?, etc., etc. There were so many questions with no answers, but I had an idea. About a year earlier, I had spoken to two illustrious Open Water Swimmers about this very issue, and it was clear that there was a need for an organisation to help swimmers achieve their goals in open water swimming, where an existing organisation didn't exist. And so, on October 25, 2009 we formed International Open Water Swimming Association Limited (IOWSA) for this very purpose. We already have members in the USA, UK, Ireland and Malta, and we have only just started. At present, my swim of The Wash will be the first IOWSA swim, and it is very exciting! We have registered "King of The Wash" and "Queen of The Wash" as IOWSA trademarks and if anyone wants to swim The Wash, contact us through the IOWSA website (http://www.iowsa.com/).
Anyway, back to the story. While collating and ratifying the known swims of The Wash, I spoke to both Kevin Murphy and Mike Read, who have both swum The Wash, with Mike Read being the last person known to have swum it back in 1976. He told me that there was originally a trophy, which he had won in 1976 and which he hasn't seen for years. He told me to contact East Lindsey District Council as they were the ones who took it from him. I telephoned them in early November and spoke to a lady called Jackie. I told her about the trophy and she said she would investigate. About a week later she phoned me back and said there was no luck. She had tried everything but to no avail, no one had heard of it. I thanked her and wondered how I was going to locate the trophy. About an hour later, I had a very excited Jackie on the phone - "We've found it!" she yelled excitedly. "It was in an old warehouse in a box. It's a bit dirty but should clean up OK. What do you want me to do with it?" she asked. I suggested donating it to IOWSA if no one wanted it, and we could use it for swims of The Wash. She spoke to her superiors who agreed.
Yesterday, after a 165 mile drive in the snow, I drove to in Manby, Licolnshire in my role as Chairman of IOWSA, where I met Jackie and she gave me the trophy. She was so pleased and said of all the things she had done since being on the council, this was the most satisfying. Apparently, she tried everyone she possibly could to locate this trophy, and spent all of yesterday morning cleaning it up before handing it over to me.
We headed home and I was satisfied that I had three numbers of pilots who could help us organise next year's swim. Despite the weather, it had been well worth while spending the day on the North Norfolk coast.