01907: Summer 2017

Photos: Scott Eisen
Jones had a slightly different route,
admitting he was in inflatable armbands in
the water until age 9 and was jealous of his
peers taking swim lessons. His parents
eventually signed him up for lessons and it
turned out he was a natural.
“When I was about 10 or 11, I
figured out I had an instinctual feel for the
water,” he said. “I remember at that time
someone telling me, ‘You’ll swim the Channel
someday.’ I’ve never forgotten that. Very few
people had done it in the ’70s and ’80s and
it was one of those challenges that was always
in the back of my mind.”
He swam competitively during his youth
and was a member and then captain of the
swimming and water polo club at
Cambridge University, earning a prestigious
blue blazer. After college, his busy career and
travel schedule kept him out of the water, but
he would pop over to the local outdoor pool
when he moved to Boston and later
discovered and joined the Sharks. He’s also a
member of the coaching staff at the YMCA’s
Lynch/van Otterloo branch.
In January 2016, Jones decided to take a
sabbatical from work and begin training for
the Channel swim.
“It’s eaten away at me all my life, like
having a little cartoon mini me on each
shoulder whispering in my ears that I can or
can’t do it,” said Jones. “If I don’t attempt it
now, I know I’ll have regrets.”
Jones was quick to bring on board Gainer,
who had previously talked him into doing
the 10-mile Northeast Kingdom swim in
Vermont, as well as Boston Light.
“I turned the table on him and signed up
for the Channel, hoping he’d follow me,” said
Jones.
“I didn’t even have to think,” said Gainer.
“To have someone to train with, it’s been the
perfect time to do it.”
Jones’ wife, who completed an Ironman
Triathlon shortly before they were married,
was supportive, as was Gainer’s family. In
April of that year, Jones completed his
qualifying swim in the waters of Mallorca,
one of Spain's Balearic Islands. SwimTrek
was hosting an intensive open-water training
camp and the CS&PF needs a recorded
swim of at least six hours in waters 61 degrees
or colder. Gainer completed his qualifying
swim during a double Boston Light Swim in
October.
Unfortunately, Jones has met a few
challenges along the way. Not long after he
started training, he got the diagnosis that his
left hip had reached the end of its useful life
and the muscle spasms around it were
crushing the nerves in his leg and lower back.
Thomas Gainer, left, and
Andy Jones at Eisman’s Beach.
“It was crippling,” he said. “It was the only
time in my life that I could conclusively circle
the 10 as my level of pain.”
He was told he needed a total hip
replacement, and with that, dreams of the
Channel started to crumble. Luckily, he was
scheduled for surgery in October with a
surgeon who had invented a less-invasive
procedure that would allow him to maintain
an active lifestyle after rehab. There were,
however, complications that lead the hip to
dislocate before Jones awoke from the
anesthetics and he had an emergency revision
surgery days later.
“For weeks I was exhausted and healing
took much longer due to the additional
trauma,” said Jones. “In December, I rejoined
the Sharks but it was too much, too fast. My
right shoulder developed tendonitis and,
more painfully, so did my new hip. It was one
hell of an emotional roller coaster.”
He spent January focused on rehab and
started to swim again in February. He did
another qualifying swim at the training camp
at Mallorca in April to make sure he
was ready.
“Unlike last year’s rough water, lack of
sun and so many jellyfish, we got ‘Tommy
conditions’ this year,” joked Jones, who
seems to have been cursed by Mother Nature
in comparison to the calm seas and sun that
Gainer has perpetually been dealt.
Unfortunately for Jones, old patterns
might come back to haunt him during
the Channel swim.
“It’ll be a fierce crossing for me,” he said.
“I put myself on the spring tide.”
The preferred time for swims to take place
is on what’s called the neap tide,
because the period before the tide turns is
much longer and the tidal flow is much
slower. A pilot will generally schedule one
swim during a spring tide and four during a
neap tide. Gainer is scheduled during the
week when the tides turn from neap to
spring, so he may luck out if he starts early.
“Most people feel it’s a more direct shot
into France on that tide,” said Gainer. “The
pilot will try to get everybody through during
neap, but has time reserved the following
week if need be. I’ve already taken the three
weeks off, so I’m willing to go out at any time.”
Jones and Gainer have progressed from
strength-building and dry-land cardio
training to pool interval training and longdistance
beach swims. Jones says he likes to
swim off of Phillips, Preston, Nahant and
Devereaux beaches. >>> P. 26
SUMMER 2017 | 25