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.
In the other boat, now well out of sight, Richard was struggling, too, but he kept swimming, constantly asking John, "How's David?"
According to instructions relayed from David that Richard wasn't to know he'd quit, John kept saying, "David's fine. He's going strong."
"That kept me going," remembered Richard. "It gave me great encouragement to think David was doing it, too. It was really rough conditions, probably on the outside edge of what's acceptable."
By the time Richard reached France, 16 hours and 43 minutes had expired. It would be the slowest channel crossing of the summer, and hardest. When the Channel Swimming Association voted on its "Endurance Athlete of the Year," Richard Barnes won hands-down. His name is engraved on a silver chalice in the organization's museum in Dover.
"I was glad to have done it, but it was really bittersweet, it wasn't a total high," said Richard. "I was sad my brother hadn't made it."
A couple of months later, when David announced, "I'm going to try again," Richard immediately said he'd train right along with him.
For nine months, they worked as hard as they had the year before, and then some, adding trips to San Francisco for swims in the frigid ocean waters there.
This August, they were back in Dover. Under more favorable conditions, David covered the 21-mile crossing — although swimmers swim as much as 40 miles because of the currents — in 14 hours and one minute. Taking advantage of a rule that allows pace swimmers, Richard dove in at miles 9 and 11 and accompanied his brother for an hour each time.
"He really helped get me through some of the toughest currents," said David, who at one point was smacked in the face by a jellyfish. "Having Richard there made a big difference."
When David climbed onto the sands of France, "Oh, it was a huge moment," said his father.
"I tell them Richard was the first Utahn and the youngest, David was the oldest and the fastest," their father continued. "They both set records."
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527