Brothers fulfill quest in Channel

For as long as Utah has been a state, Utahns who have gone to the British Isles and traveled from England to France have crossed the English Channel either by hovercraft, boat, airplane or via the underground chunnel.

But not David and Richard Barnes.

The brothers from Salt Lake City — David, 37, is an ER doctor and Richard, 33, is a lawyer — recently became the first Utahns to swim the English Channel.

Richard did it on Aug. 6, 2005, and David two weeks ago on Aug. 26, 2006.

And while their completion dates are a year apart, they definitely did it together.

Their quest goes back 27 years, when David was 10 and saw a TV show about swimming the channel. By that time, he was an accomplished swimmer, as were all seven of his brothers and sisters. Growing up in Seal Beach, Calif., where their father, David, was employed by TWA Airlines, the family took advantage of 25-cent swim lessons.

"The city wanted everyone to know how to swim, because the ocean is right there," remembered David Barnes Sr.

The family soon moved to Salt Lake City, but no one lost the salt water in their system, least of all David and his younger brother, Richard, who shared a room growing up and, as it would turn out, David's channel dream.

It was at Richard's wedding reception about 12 years ago that David formally sprung his plan on Richard: Someday, the two of them would swim the English Channel.

"I was immediately taken with the idea," said Richard, who was captain of the BYU swim team at the time. "It would be our Everest."

A lot of things took priority after that, not the least of which were children, law school and medical school. But by 2004, both men were living in Salt Lake and holding down steady jobs, allowing them the luxury to set aside time for at least 20 miles of swimming every week.

By August of 2005, they made their way to the channel, and in pitch blackness just before midnight, dove in — each with the requisite guide boat and official Channel Swimming Association monitor on board.

David Barnes Sr. served as crew chief on David's boat, while younger brother John Barnes worked Richard's boat.

The conditions, even for the notoriously rambunctious English Channel, were abominable: 4-foot waves, snarling currents in 56-degree water, heavy winds.

After six hours and throwing up everything in his stomach, David abandoned amid waves of nausea.