How Aerin Bowers Turned A Paused Dream into an English Channel Success

What keeps a swimmer moving when the shore won’t get closer? We sit down with endurance swimmer Aerin Bowers to chart the raw, funny, and fiercely honest path from a weather-canceled dream in (2024) Dover to a 2025 English Channel crossing powered by grit, smart training, and a crew that knew exactly how to support this journey.

You’ll feel the pace of a night start—the rush to kit up, the fear of doing anything illegal at the pebbled shore, and the first hour’s logistics of staying near the boat in pitch dark. From there, the Channel teaches: a smack of jellyfish, a stubborn swimsuit, and hours where rhythm replaces thought. Aerin surges for three hours, fighting the treadmill feeling until the water finally shifts and the French coast starts to move toward her.

We get specific on the unsexy or maybe sexy foundations that made it possible. Erin’s training blends drills, intervals, and long back-to-back swims with added strength sessions, physio, and massage to stay injury-free.  Her “coach as mentor” model supports the social-emotional side, because performance isn’t just pace; it’s belief held over time. Aerin also names the channel blues—how motivation can crash after a big goal.

Most of all, keep asking why you swim; the answer becomes fuel when the tide turns. If this story moved you, tap follow, share it with a water-loving friend, and drop a review to tell us what part hit home.

Transcript

Welcome And Why We Swim

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome back to Rama Podcast. And if you forgot what that stands for, it stands for Rad Active Water Women. Today I am bringing back a friend and an incredible swimmer to talk about her journey to the English Channel and probably a ton more because we have so much on. And her name is Erin Bowers. And I feel like I just want to kind of lean into a question before we dive into this. And I came across this book with my shelf. And I'm like, okay, so why do we swim? And like that question often comes up and it's fairly easy for me to answer. But like I would like to put an expanding out there. Listening to this card and like to really think about like why do you swim? Like, what is your reason behind that? I know my life because it's like my sanctuary, the place where I connect the community. It's where I feel in a fun. So I'm gonna invite Erin into this conversation and welcome

Meet Erin And Early Swim Roots

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Erin. And I'm gonna just dive right into this question for you. Like, Albert and why why do you swim?

SPEAKER_02 1:11

I think I swim, I love the book as well. That's one of my favorites on my on my shelf. Um I swim for so many different reasons, and the reasons have shifted so much throughout my life. I I started swimming um as a kid because I was really a water baby and love being in the water. As an adult, I swim for fitness initially, and then when I discovered that I loved open water, I swim or I swam because I wanted to be out there in the middle of the lake uh in the summer and just you know, under the sky and and that feeling in the water. And now I swim for both my um mental and emotional health and my physical health, and because it gives such a beautiful structure to my life um and a discipline that um that I don't really get from anywhere else. So yeah, plenty of reasons to swim. There's there's more reasons to swim than not than not swim. I think like I don't know about you, but I could probably just live in the water. I wish I could live in the I just float to my you know my water kitchen and get a coffee and then I'd I'd swim over to my bedroom and have a nap there. Yeah, I I agree. I could live in the water too.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Maybe we're like onto something and you should create a house like this. Do you remember the water beds growing up? I had a waterbed, yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

I used to where did they go that morning? I don't know what happened to ours because all I know is that I used to wake up between the frame and the the water, like the bladder every morning, and I'd be like in there and thinking like this isn't all it's cracked up to be.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

But that's awesome. Thanks for sharing. I just had to go there for a minute. So just to I just wanted to mention to everybody listening right now that if you have kids around throw on the headsets, they'll probably be swearing. There usually is in my podcast. Um, the dog could bark, all that sort of stuff. This is raw podcasts. So just putting that out here. So I really wanted to just take a moment and celebrate Erin and just like what she's accomplished. And I mean, she's accomplished so much in her life, but recently she accomplished swimming the English Channel, and that's what we're really gonna dive into this morning, along with some other things. So, Erin, I got a few questions for you. So, first of all, congratulations. Thank you. Incredible, absolutely incredible. Um, so what was your initial reaction when you realized that you're actually gonna do the English channel? It was gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

I well, I was supposed to do it in September

The Dream Delayed In Dover

SPEAKER_02 3:37

2024 for my 50th birthday. Um, that was my original date and went over to England with my team, and the weather didn't cooperate, and I didn't get to swim. So I kind of had to put the dream on hold. And I was really lucky to get um a slot this year with a swimmer who um uh switched with me because I was put to 2026 and 2025 didn't work for her for reasons um that she had. And so I took her slot. So um when I realized that I was gonna get that uh early July date, I had a lot more confidence in that date than sort of the late September than I'd had because of you know the weather patterns that are there. Um yeah, and I just had to keep training. And when I realized I was gonna um when I was gonna get to to do it, I thought, you know, you get one shot to do this. There's so many things that kind of have to come together to make it happen. But yeah, I just worked towards trying to make all those things happen. And um, yeah, it's just it's always been a dream of mine, and it was such a uh, you know, great experience to actually get to work towards something and then to achieve it. Everything just worked out beautifully.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Amazing. I'm gonna go back because you said something around so sometimes in life we have these dreams that we have to pause and we have to re-root. So last year, it was like the year before, right? So 2024. So you you showed up, you went there, and and then your dream was put on pause. So, how did you manage that part?

SPEAKER_02 5:09

It was really difficult because you go there and you're in communication with your the pilot

Managing Disappointment And New Goals

SPEAKER_02 5:14

of your boat, and you know, you know there's no guarantees. And you know, we got there, and I was really trying not to be obsessed with the weather forecast. Um, although, you know, I I admit that I probably looked at a hundred different forecasts looking for that like best one that was going to tell me I'd get to swim. But ultimately it's up to the pilots. And so the weather just didn't cooperate. Um, there were other people in um in my wave who were also waiting, as well as people waiting uh with the other boats, of course. And so there was a lot of frustrated swimmers um hanging around Dover and swimming in the Dover Harbor, um, you know, trying not to lose hope or trying not to lose focus as well. So it was a really hard week. I had a sinking feeling a number of times, but you know, I'd go to bed at night thinking, you know, I'm gonna get a I'm gonna wake up and get a message in the morning that the water or that the weather has cleared and that um we're gonna get the green light. But, you know, I ended up having a really good heart to heart with the pilot and my coach Brent um down at the harbor. And uh, you know, I wore my sunglasses through that whole meeting, even though it was cloudy because I was trying not to cry. And I knew I wasn't gonna get to swim then. And so, you know, I had to sort of suck it up. And yeah, disappointment is a hard thing to deal with, but there's nothing you can do about the weather. You there's nothing you can do. You can't demand that the pilot takes you anyways, you know, even though you've even though you paid a lot of money to be there and stuff, there's nothing you can do about it. So you just have to really pull on your big girl panties for lack of a better word or luck of a better word. And yeah, you just have to deal with it. So it was a real learning thing for me. So I did learn a lot through going through that process of um disappointment for sure.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah. And so for some people that are listening, they maybe have gone through that and like maybe they've paused it or, you know, they they haven't moved forward. Like, is there anything that you would say to those people that are, you know, kind of went through that disappointment and then like maybe lost focus of that dream?

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Yeah, for me, it was really important to set some more goals um because that, you know, the goal of swimming is what had kept me focused initially. And then there was that sort of dip of getting not uh to swim. And then pretty quickly I had to set my sights on on something else in order to get back into that structure where where you know I could um I could get back to work, I could talk about it with confidence, but you know, and without crying, um, and just sort of make peace with like I am gonna get to do this, but it's just you know, it's on hold for a bit. So it was really important for me at that time. Um, I actually engaged with the Catalina Swimming Federation um to book a Catalina channel swim for the following summer. Like it was just really important to me to keep that, uh, keep that goal moving uh in order to get through it. So that's the most important thing I can say is just to, you know, to keep moving.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Yeah, keep that momentum going. I love that. Thanks for sharing that.

Into The Channel: Night Start Logistics

SPEAKER_00 8:19

So the next question I have is what were like the mental challenges while you're in the water? Like, what were some of those and how did you work through them? I mean, there had to be some. There are during my swim.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

During your swimming, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

So I had um some challenges, even just getting when I got to the boat dug down at the harbor. Um, everything just happens really fast. And so I was really focused on like, don't forget your goggles, don't forget to put your light on, don't forget to um put your anti-chafing stuff on, don't forget the sunscreen layer. Like it was just everything was moving so fast and you know, it's sort of all barreling towards this one moment where they're gonna blow the whistle and you're gonna have to get in the water and swim to the shore. So um yeah, so that there was there was a lot of interesting things going through my brain at that time. Um, getting into the water and then having to swim to shore in the dark and getting to the shore and standing on the pebbles and waiting for them to say go. Like I was really worried that I was gonna do something that would make the swim illegal, like I wasn't gonna be cleared of the water enough or something. Like there's just so many things that you that had kind of have to go right. And then, you know, the the horn of the ship blew and I dove in the water and I started swimming. And the first hour I just could not figure out how far away to the boat I should be, or which, you know, how much distance there should be between me um and the boat. And it was pitch dark, so I really couldn't see much. And so, you know, my my mental focus for that period of time was around like the logistics of, you know, I they need to see me and I need to be kind of swimming in the right place. So just kind of figuring that out. And I also had to swim on uh a different side of the boat than I breathe. Um wow. But I do bilaterally breathe. So, you know, I'm really I'm really glad that I've always kept that up. Um, so I wasn't looking up at my crew with every breath,

Jellyfish, Rhythm, And Mental Game

SPEAKER_02 10:20

but more like every third or every fifth. So so that was okay. And then, you know, I I ran into a I learned that a bunch of jellyfish all together are actually called a smack. So I ran into a smack of jellyfish. They smacked me, and that was interesting too, because I'd really just kind of processed it and was like, okay, that's what that feels like. And that's, you know, I'm not gonna die and my throat's not closing up. So I suppose I'm not allergic to these things. And so the first four hours of the swim was really just about experiencing a whole bunch of, you know, different and new things and just being really excited. The middle part of my swim, I guess the middle eight hours of my swim, um, you know, I don't really remember that much about it, except that I just really got into the zone, the same kind of zone I get into during long training swims at, you know, seven hours or um five hours to seven hours. You're really just in a rhythm and I was enjoying myself. Um, my left boob had come out of my bathing suit and it wouldn't go back in. Oh, that's what I did. So I kept trying, you know, when my you get about 15 seconds to do your feeds. And so I was really trying to like hike my top of my bathing suit up during these feeds, but it wasn't really cooperating. So I ended up just kind of giving up on that. But you know, that like thinking about that even like took up time. So they also think like, oh, you got to go through the alphabet when you're doing these long swims, or you got to go through all the songs that you've memorized, whatever. And I actually spent a lot of time thinking about my boob. That's awesome. Oh, Aaron. Yeah. And then um, because I ended up swimming on a spring tide, which I wasn't expecting, I was swimming on a much bigger water than um was sort of planned. Around the 12-hour mark, my coach let me know that I needed to turn on the gas, otherwise, it wasn't gonna happen. Um, because we were coming around what to the point where with the next tide, I had to push through that in order to get into the um around the cap to get into France. And so he said, you know, you got to really give her for the next hour. So I turned on, you know, whatever jets I had at that point and swam for an hour as hard as I could. And then he said, You've got to do this for another hour. So it was like, all right, I guess I got to do this. And then after three hours, he's like, This is gonna be the last push. And if, you know, you're gonna get pushed back out into the channel if we can't kind of break through this, this big, this big tide. And so I get then had to turn on the jets for the third time, um, which took a lot of focus for me because I could see the coast and it didn't seem like I was getting any closer to it. I really did feel like I was swimming on a treadmill. And at that point, I did have, I you know, I felt a little bit of desperation thinking, you know, I can only, you know, I've got these small hands and short arms. Like I'm not really like a uh I'm not really built for for swimming in a lot of ways, but um yeah, I just had to really kind of push through. And then there was a point where I knew I knew I'd broken through that tide and I could see that the beach was getting closer and closer. And I was just, you know, my I had fireworks going off in my brain. Yeah, so you see, it was like a whole gamut of of mental experience through you know those 16 and a half hours it took me. And I was I was really surprised that it was that long because it didn't actually feel that long to me.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

But wow thanks for sharing that. I was

Racing The Tides And Final Push

SPEAKER_00 13:47

following you along your journey too. So it's good to have that perspective of the actual like what was happening and going on. Yeah. Like, you know, yeah, going through the jellyfish to like the tide. And then did you did you know when well maybe you did because your coach told you, but did you know when you broke through that tide?

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Yeah, I I I can't say exactly like the like the actual um oh, how can I explain it? Um, I don't know if like the boat turned, like it felt like we were then swimming in a different direction all of a sudden. We've been going in this one direction for a really, really long time. And then suddenly we were almost like swimming into a different direction. So that's when I kind of had a sense. Um, and the sunset was just starting, and so it really did feel like everything was coming to a close in a really perfect way, even though you know it was probably four hours more swimming than I had thought that I would probably need to do. But um, I really enjoyed almost all of it. Even, you know, I I probably I always barf and I probably barfed around six hours.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

I was gonna ask you, how many times did you barf?

SPEAKER_02 14:49

Yeah, I barfed quite a bit, but um, you know, that's that's something I'm so used to now. I just kind of get on with it. And I was really lucky because I have Debbie Collingwood as my uh one of my support people. And she was just like, you know, she was like master chef on the boat, um, making sure all my feeds were perfect and she would put a little gravel in sometimes, or you know, she knew kind of when uh when caffeine would be a good thing to add for me. And so she I couldn't have done the swim without her supporting me for with my nutrition. Um she knows me really well, she knows I'm a barfer. Um, she knew exactly, you know, when I should potentially have a feed every 20 minutes instead of every 30 when I was trying to push through that current and stuff. Like she was just so essential to the success of that swim. But yeah, of course I barfed. I I always barf.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Okay, so I got another question here. So when your preparation, so you had a coach, and that's something that I would recommend that everybody has out there going into something like this or any big swim event. So can you just walk us through like just like quickly, like what that preparation like looks like? What did it look like for you?

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Yeah, so my coach is sort of more like a mentor than a coach. I would say he coaches me from a um social emotional standpoint rather than uh specifically on technique or around my training plan. Um, I'm always checking in with him about it and that. And so he he knows me really well. Um, and then my training is sort of half self-designed and half. Um I do work with a swimmer in the UK named Amy Enyon, um, who's done all of these huge big swims and has a really scientific approach to putting together a training plan. So uh, you know, I work with her to put together um training plan that's built in um speed and distance and rest cycles. So uh I like to stick to a plan. That's just something about me. I'm uh I you know I like to have a structure. So uh yeah, I work through that structure all year. So that you know, pool swims that include a lot of drills and a lot of

Nutrition, Barfing, And Crew Support

SPEAKER_02 17:05

um, you know, sort of focused technique and then intervals to keep me, you know, to keep my speed up. Um, and then like long, long swims on the weekends. So that kind of back-to-back swims was really important to maintain that structure uh in the pool. And then obviously as soon as I can get in the lake, I would do those two, those long weekend back to backs. Um, and then also a lot of strength training, and that's something I was really able to access during my channel swim, is I felt way stronger because I had, you know, done an extra two days of strength training a week, really focusing on those um large muscle groups. And you know, that was a key part of my training. And I'd like to say that the um physio and massage were also like a key part of training too, because I had to um, you know, I really had to make sure I was getting massage. Sorry, getting massage, getting the physio that I needed. Um, I was part of that plan. So it was all kind of rolled together. Um, but yeah, and I learned a lot about, you know, it's not so much about the the distance in the training as much as the the focused efforts around the things that you're personally gonna need to do. So for me, it was, you know, remaining injury free was really, really important to me at, you know, this age and the stage of my life. Um, I know I get a stiff neck, I get a really sore neck, and sometimes I get um tendinitis in my like tennis elbow kind of thing. So, you know, making sure that my training takes into consideration that I'm not gonna be pulling out 30, you know, 30 kilometers um a week. I just can't do that level of distance. So, what are the other things I need to do to um to be able to swim these long distances? And you know, then there's the emotional and mental training too. So there's there's just a lot of pieces that kind of come together.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

And it it takes like, you know, someone just listening now, like to train for something like this doesn't this takes like how long did it take you all together? Like this has been a journey, like how many it's been a real journey.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Yeah. I sort of started, um, like I think I applied for the English channel in 2021. I think, you know, then you know you're gonna be on a waiting list for a long time. Um, and I did have lots of big swims before I got to do the channel swim. Yeah. Um, so I did, you know, I did around Coronado, I did Lake Zurich, I did the Portland Bridge swim, and I did a lot of really long swims, um, all as part of the training with this kind of being the penultimate goal.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Yeah, so it takes time and consistency and dedication and determining all those things of like, I mean, you gotta, you have to have that drive to want to do it, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:40

Um, yeah, yeah, you do. And I think like when I started open water swimming and I did my first across the lake swim, I think in 2013. And like now, like I'm a much, much better, stronger swimmer um than I was then. And I'm a much, much better, stronger swimmer, maybe not quite as fast as I was when I was like 13, 14, and um you swimming age group in Saskatchewan. So I'm you know, it's

Training Structure, Strength, And Longevity

SPEAKER_02 20:04

taken me, I don't know, 40 some years to become a swimmer that I am now. And I still have so much to learn and so far to go. But um it is that constant attention to I guess continuous improvement. Um and it takes dedication and focus, but you know it's worth it. Totally worth it because then you can go and do something like swimming the English channel and exactly. So I put that forever.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

I have another like maybe it's not a question, but I just kind of wanted to dive in something here. So you wrote a blog recently and for everybody that's listening right now, I you can follow Aaron on Instagram. I'll put the everything the details in here but um and read it it was around mental mental health and everything and I I don't want to dive right into it because I want people to go and read this. So I find one thing I know after like I've been through like endurance events like you but nothing like the English channel but like Iron Man and things like that uh open water swims. And then we get to the end of the season and it's like you know it's so at the end of the season it's like you kind of go on some people we go on a low, right? Of like so what are some of the things that you've learned over the years kind of okay you've done your season it's like well what's next like yeah we need to take a break but like what do you do?

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Yeah there is like like most athletes they do experience that cycle of lows after accomplishing a goal or coming to the end of a a challenge or the end of a season. And that's just a really natural thing to to go through because you know there's there becomes sort of a void in the schedule there becomes you know what's kind of next there's this like emptiness. And so you know I think going through that is it's a really natural thing. I don't I don't think that's something that people should beat themselves up over that kind of dip in motivation that happens. Like that's it just kind of happens. And I did learn a lot about that. Like I I I I dealt with the channel blues after my swim. I hardly swam all summer after I got back even though I had planned to do you know another really big swim and then all of the summer events that I was registered for, I just did not feel like swimming. My motivation just wasn't there. And if you you know you you don't want to you don't want to start hating something that you previously loved because you're kind of forcing yourself into it. So I think you know it's just important to listen to your body and listen to the signals that telling you it's you know not the day to get in the lake today. It's not the day to do this. I'm gonna go for a bike ride instead or I'm gonna um I'm gonna go to the gym or um you know but I was I was quite taken aback by how um strong that that that feeling of almost not of depression really was um with the with the kind of low of that but you know thinking of it as kind of an ebb and a flow like so yeah I had a couple months there where it was really hard for me to swim and I wasn't motivated and I didn't really feel like celebrating my swim but now I'm on a different trajectory and so you know I had a swim two nights ago with with three girlfriends down at the local pool and it's had a blast and I was like yep okay feel back again. Yeah it's all Aaron's back.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

So Aaron I really feel like you know we need to do a part two of this. Sure. So I I feel like there's there's more here to dive into and it's really important to me not to rush through this. Um so if you would come back soon and like let's do a part two because there's so much more to dive into but I wanted to kind of close it off here with some fast fun questions. Okay. Okay. So morning swim or evening swim?

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Evening swim uh favorite snack or feel during a long swim a barf so I'm gonna have to say bananas it's just so boring but yeah what about after your swim hash browns and medium poached eggs. Oh yeah very specific and hot sauce yeah oh nice um cold water or warm

Post-Goal Blues And Motivation

SPEAKER_02 24:10

water?

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Cold water me too uh one uh one swimming tip you'd give to someone like just starting out in the open water um sign up for an event sign up for an event to challenge yourself and sign up for a swim across the lake event yes sign up for an across the lake event so many good ones now yeah there's there's more every year yeah sign up for an across the lake swim event definitely okay what's your favorite swim across the lake swim then let's go there oh my god I love skaha because it's a little bit longer and it's just such a good time and yeah I just love skaha um favorite post swim ritual probably a beer what beer not not immediately after this later yeah no I'm not fussy any old any old beer I'm from Saskatchewan so probably beer and clam okay uh one word to describe your English channel swim oh um oh my goodness it's a really tough one um epic um lake or ocean ooh that's a tough one probably lake uh where's your favorite lake my favorite lake is Slowcan Lake in BC ooh never been there before beauty Erin thanks so much for being a guest on Raw Podcast and I really hope that you come back because I've there's so much more to dive into um and I think we just touched it here today. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me I'll come back anytime. Thank you for being a guest on Raw Podcast Erin it was great to catch up with you and to hear part of your journey of the English channel. And as we mentioned Erin's gonna be back. This is the second recording we've done together and there will be many more so look at it in January for the one after this one with Erin coming back to talk even more about the English channel, what she's doing next and who knows what else we'll talk about. I feel like this is gonna be an ongoing thing throughout the year. So thanks again Erin for sharing part of your journey and I can't wait to learn next recording. Thank you everybody for listening to Raw Podcast and I know you're loving it so can you share it within your community to other women that love the water or love swimming please share this out in the community. And also if you know somebody who'd be an excellent guest on Raw Podcast please share with me. They can be from anywhere around the world and I actually would encourage that. Thank you everybody for listening to Raw Podcast and we'll catch you again soon. Have a beautiful day