‘As tough as I could’ Saskatoon born woman completes English Channel swim

Standing on a French beach with her coach after finishing the 16-hour swim. (Courtesy: Aerin Bowers)

Aerin Bowers completed one of the ultimate swimming challenges in the world.

“I swam across the English Channel. I swam from near Dover to Wissant, which is on the French coast. And it was a swim that took me 16 hours and 33 minutes and some,” Bowers told CTV News via Zoom from Ramsgate, England.

Bowers is originally from Saskatoon but now lives in Rossland BC. She had initially hoped to complete the challenge in September for her 50th birthday, but it was called off because of bad water conditions.

She flew back to try it again on June 30, and this time, she was able to get in the water with the help of her support team. Her team includes a coach, her partner and a friend who threw her bottles to feed her, which must be consumed in the water.

Bowers recalls one of the challenges was trying to keep the liquid sustenance down during the grueling swim.

Bowers’ last name might sound familiar to those in Saskatoon. Her dad was Kelly Bowers, who passed away in 2019. He was an inspirational teacher and coach in the community.

It was his wise words that kept her going during the 16-hour feat of physical and mental endurance.

“He had two sayings that he used to say to me all the time. And everyone will probably have heard these before. And the first one was, ‘keep plugging.’ So, you just keep going, keep plugging. And then the second one is ‘you got to be tough.’ So, that was the main one that I sort of repeat over in my head. You’ve got to be tough. So, I tried to be as tough as I could,” she said.

She admits she thought about giving up after intense jellyfish stings on her face and arms, her tongue burned by salt water. Not to mention the temperature of the water was a chilly 16 C.

“When I was getting closer to France, that’s where the tide really kicked in so, I was sort of swimming in place for what felt like a really long time and had to still keep up my stroke rate so that eventually you kind of push past it.”

And push past it she did.

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Bowers raised money through a GoFundMe page. Currently she’s $800 short of her goal of $10,000. The money is going to Jumpstart, a children’s charity close to her dad’s heart.

“It was important to my dad that all kids would have access to do the sports and activities that they love without any financial barriers. And I benefited from that as a kid. I was able to do, you know, everything from swimming to volleyball.”

She started swimming when she was three-years-old and has no plans to stop, saying she doesn’t rule out attempting this swim again, but needs to financially recoup since she paid for all of it out of her pocket.