SA cop in the English Channel

A long-time PASA member plans to carry out a police-type role for one of his mates – but on the other side of the world.

If blind 46-year-old Rick Selway strikes trouble when he swims the English Channel in August, his rescue will be down to Constable Mark Altmann. The Sturt police officer and first-time support-crew chief expects his best mate to succeed, but continues – as he must – to prepare for disaster.

Altmann, 51, knows he will have to dive straight into the Channel to save Selway’s life if the swimmer cramps up or loses consciousness and sinks. Then, in waters entirely unfamiliar to each, the novice lifesaver will have to haul himself and his charge back to the safety of a support-crew boat.

To best prepare for this worst of possible outcomes, Altmann spends much of his 120-lap training sessions, in the Minda Home Inc swimming pool, underwater.

“I’d say 20 of those laps would be underwater,” he says. “And I try to go for between 30 and 45 seconds holding my breath underwater, swimming or not swimming. I’m practising that at the moment, in case I have to dive in and pull him up.”

Altmann gladly accepted the job of crew leader. Selway asked him to take it on three years ago, after he unexpectedly announced that he intended to swim the Channel.

The two first met in 1994 through Altmann’s wife, Katrina, a physio assistant who works with Selway, a volunteer co-ordinator, at Minda Home.

Back then, neither man could swim. Selway even feared putting his head under water. But, in 1997, the Minda hydrotherapy pool became available for staff use after hours. So Altmann and Selway decided to teach themselves to swim.

“After the first 20 laps,” says Altmann, “the pool man thought he would have to dive in and pull us out – he thought we were going to drown.”

The pair’s self-teaching continued through to 2001 when, after a Sunday swimming session, Selway blurted out his announcement: “I’m going to swim the English Channel.”

Altmann and Katrina were initially stunned, but offered to support him in any way they could. They believe Selway to be the first legally blind person to swim the channel unassisted.

Through his swim, the highly determined Selway – born blind as a rubella baby – plans to raise $50,000 for Minda Home, the Guide Dogs Association, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, and Cystic Fibrosis South Australia. He has already raised $12,500 through a raffle and donations.

Meanwhile, Altmann is taking his job of support-crew leader with pride, but also extreme seriousness. He has had to acquaint himself with hypothermia, and other medical conditions, which might afflict Selway in the water.

“If I say: ‘You’re out of the water’, he knows I won’t take that decision lightly,” says Altmann. “The whole thing (for me) is his wellbeing.

“It’s all very well to swim the English Channel. But, if I think it’s going to be a medical problem to him, or could quite frankly cost him his life, it’s my decision to pull him out.”

Altmann expects his police experience will be a significant help to him in the decision-making process.

As part of their training regime, Altmann and Selway have a few times simulated the 34.5-km English Channel swim off the SA coast. Their first test run, which Altmann supervised with the support of an Adelaide boat crew in January 2002, went for 25km. Selway covered the distance in 12 hours.

In another swim, last March, he completed 29km but had to stop when conditions became too choppy. “He did that in 121/2 hours,” says Altmann. “If it hadn’t got rough, he would have done the 34km in the 12- to 13-hour mark.”

Also part of the training regime is Selway’s daily swim to work, from Seacliff to Brighton, and Altmann’s ongoing pool training at Minda Home.

Selway, and Altmann and his wife – also part of the support crew – will undertake their challenge from Dover, England, to Saint Pol-sur-Mer, France, in mid-August. To transport the support group and observe the swim, they have had to hire an English boat and its crew at a cost of $4,000.

The boat will not sail in a storm or other dangerous conditions but, in the European summer, the waters are likely to be calm and up to 15 degrees. When the team reaches France, however, it will, shortly after, have to head straight back to Dover.

“We’re not allowed to get off the boat,” says Altmann, “and Rick’s only allowed 10 minutes out of the water. He’s got to swim back to the boat, because we won’t have passports with us.”

To confront the daunting task, Selway and the Altmanns have met all the costs of the boat crew hire, airfare to London and accommodation. All donated money, Altmann insists, will go directly to the charities.

With a Dover restaurant table already booked to celebrate a successful swim, Altmann and his team clearly picture only one outcome. “I’ve got no doubt in my mind that Rick will achieve this,” he says.

“He doesn’t know the words: ‘No, you can’t do that’. I’m looking forward to seeing him do it for his own personal satisfaction, and to show that being disabled is not a handicap.”