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OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, July 10, 2009 · 12 Oakville native first Canadian to complete Isle of Jersey swim By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Time and tide wait for no man -- or woman. But Oakville native Lisa (nee Woodside) Freeman is patient. In fact, Freeman likes best to do things slowly -- and preferably in the water. That combination led Freeman to become the first Canadian to successfully complete the Round Island swim around the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel on Friday, June 26 -- in 11 hours and nine minutes. The swim served as a prelude to her next challenge. In late August, Freeman who married anesthesiologist, Dr. Jonathan Freeman, and moved to Birmingham, England just 10 months ago, will try crossing the English Channel. Freeman is 39. Her birthday is Aug. 13 and as she rounds the bend into 40, she is hoping to cross the Channel. "You have to do something brilliant at 40," laughs Freeman from her home in England. Freeman has -- slowly -- been working up to her goal. Rounding the Isle of Jersey at 11 hours was a good warm up to crossing the channel, a challenge that will take 12 to 14 hours. Lisa Freeman Though the swim was anything but warm -- the water was a frigid 14 degrees Celsius. Already, Freeman is eyeing Lake Ontario -- perhaps she'll give it a go next summer -- but it's a much longer haul than the Channel, she admitted. "I've always been a swimmer," said Freeman, who was a member of the Oakville Aquatic Club and the Oakville Trafalgar High School swim team. She was also a swimmer at university, both Queen's and McMaster. "Lisa is a life-long swimmer, but has never attempted long distance swimming before. She wants to accomplish the Channel crossing as a way of marking her 40th birthday," said her dad, Doug Woodside. "I always could swim, but the distances were always too small," said Freeman. That's right -- not long enough as it appears endurance is Freeman's strong suit. Freeman discovered that fact at summer camp when a three-mile swim entered her horizon. "I can't swim fast, I can't run fast. I can't do anything fast, but I can go forever and I love swimming," said Freeman. A newlywed, Freeman just married at age 39, said she loves a challenge, "as long as I don't have to go fast." Her mother just happened to telephone her on June 26 as she was making her way out of the water having completed her feat. "We are thrilled, and frankly amazed. When Lisa joined the aquatic club in Oakville at the age of 6, she almost always came in last in her races, but she could keep on swimming all day long if they would let her. Now she has," said her mother, Christina Woodside, of Oakville. While Freeman said a big percentage of Jersey's modest 95,000 people have swum around the island, and many other people have attempted the English Channel, only 51 swim- mers have crossed Lake Ontario. It's not exactly fun though, admitted Freeman. "My husband has been very supportive and he was on the boat. I couldn't have done it without him. You need to have somebody looking at your eyes and encouraging you," said Freeman. Her husband is not a swimmer. "He sinks. He's a sinker," laughed Freeman. The day of her Isle of Jersey swim, she was able to take advantage of the tide and could feel it pushing her along. When that tide calmed, Freeman put in some tough hours slogging through the beautifully calm waters. "It really, really hurts," said Freeman, noting that for a time during her Jersey swim, she was thinking she'd finish up the swim and then forget the attempt to cross the Channel. "I was thinking, `Oh my God, I'm so tired. The last three hours were the worst part," she said. "There is a lighthouse at which you have to turn. That lighthouse never got closer. I spent two hours swimming toward that lighthouse," said Freeman, adding, "They say when you swim the Channel, don't look at France because France never gets closer." At the end of the swim, Freeman said she had to touch a breakwater that's actually the wall of the fortress Elizabeth Castle, an edifice Sir Walter Raleigh had constructed in the name of Elizabeth I. As a result of the water conditions, Freeman had a tough time reaching and connecting the breakwater. "I met resistance," she said, adding, when she did reach the wall, "I gave it a good smack. "I just felt sick," she said recalling how her husband tried to help her into dry clothes while the two men who had been on her guide boat tried to give her the dignity of privacy. Freeman said she scrambled out of her wet swim gear, exchanging it for fleece clothing and even a toque because she was so cold. After being greeted with champagne, cards and even a gift of strawberries -- and warming up some -- Freeman said she changed her mind and will give the Channel a try. Freeman said she swam the Red Sea and then did long-distance swimming in Malta in order to qualify for the Channel attempt -- you have to do six hours in 15-degree water. "I feel good about the Channel, although it's not going to be fun," she laughed, adding, "It's not supposed to be fun." The Oakville Hearing Centre Is Growing! Nicole Clark, Audiologist Margaret Korble, Audiologist In the Trafalgar Professional Centre 1235Trafalgar Road, Suite 207 Oakville, ON L6H 3P1 www.oakvillehearing.com 905.849.5894