Liked The Channel

As always, this year's English Channel season has seen numerous successful swims, failed swims and swims that never started due to the turbulent weather.

This week on Wednesday, 16-year-old Nicholas Caine from northern California completed his Channel swim in 13 hours and 11 minutes. "3-5 foot swells along with the current changing 2 hours early added about 4 hours to my swim, but I made it and that's what's important. My Santa Barbara channel swim was great practice before the English Channel, thank you for the opportunity," wrote Nicholas to his colleagues from California.

His mother, Marilyn Caine, and other family members were with Nicholas on his support boat that took off at 4:20 am, "The last 7 miles took thee hours. It was very stressful So hard to watch Nick in all the waves, hour after hour. He battled till the end."

Nicholas sent his initial thoughts via text, "...didn't get cold at all. 1st 10 hrs. of the swim (I) loved. Liked the channel."

Copyright © 2009 by World Open Water Swimming Association