Meet Chris Rushton
Diver with the Cheshire Police Force
Meet Chris Rushton – not exactly your average Concept2 user. Chris is a diver with the Cheshire Police Force and relies on his Concept2 to keep physically and mentally fit.
As you’d imagine, there’s no such thing as an average day for Chris. His work involves searching for and recovering any item related to a crime or other police investigation which may have been discarded or intentionally placed in water…and by water that could be a lake, canal, stream, river, pond, the sea…and even smelly farm slurry pits. You get the idea! Add to that zero visibility and an underwater area littered with shopping trolleys (they get everywhere), bicycles, traffic cones, scrap metal and all manner of rubbish, it’s not everyone's idea of a pleasant day at the office.
Chris’s patch covers a wide geographical area from Barmouth in mid Wales up to the Scottish border north of Carlisle, essentially the whole of the North West. And if the slurry pits weren’t unpleasant enough, Chris and his team are also called upon to conduct confined space searches (sewers etc), and most unpleasant of all they are called in to recover badly decomposed bodies which, due to their condition, represent a health risk to police officers & undertakers.
“Our unit is a full time diving and marine unit and we are kept extremely busy which may seem surprising to some people, but it’s not all high profile murder investigations which is where most people see us on the news. It’s the search for stolen motor vehicles, discarded firearms, missing person enquiries and even security searches which keep us constantly on the move. Days can be long and often involve travelling for hours in either direction”, says Chris. “Winter can be particularly challenging when water temperatures reach near freezing and obviously when the need arises, we have to dive underneath ice!”
Winter can be particularly challenging when water temperatures reach near freezing and obviously when the need arises, we have to dive underneath ice!
Chris Rushton
Chris first started using the Concept2 in 1994 but has been a regular user now for 10 years. In fact the Concept2 is so important to Chris that he eventually bought his own machine which he now keeps at work. “To beat the traffic I get to work early and work out before the working day begins. I keep my workouts on the rower short, between 20 and 30 minutes, which would include rest periods on an interval session. I find it maintains my interest and keeps the workouts challenging” says Chris. “I do this most mornings of the working week.”
And the TConcept2 hasn’t just been used to keep Chris fit for his job…like a lot of us, he got a little competitive. “It’s been a few years now but I concentrated on the rower quite specifically in 2001/02 and won quite a few competitions and championships. I suppose I realised back in 1994 that I was capable of a fairly decent time when I pulled a 5k time of 16min 40sec. However I only used the rower occasionally for the next 6 years, but during 2000 I picked up my training and used to incorporate it in daily circuit training sessions…inspired from my time in the Royal Navy when I ran the field gun competition. By February 2001 I’d become the first non rower to break the 6 minute barrier over 2k!”
Nowadays Chris is happy to maintain an above average level of fitness using the rower rather than chasing the fitness of an elite athlete – but looking back he’s still impressed at what he achieved by training on the Concept2. “It just shows what can be done if you set your mind to it!”