Alaric Smith
Occupations:
British Finswimming Association National Coach, head coach of Swansea University Finswimming and Freediving Club, Swansea Finswimming Club and the FOG Hoppers Sports Club.
Chairperson of the British Finswimming Association 1998 to 2002 and 2005 to present.
Author: British Finswimming Association Manual - due for completion in October 2009.
Former head coach of Swansea University Swimming Club.
Research into Exotic Carnivores in Great Britain at Swansea University. Former researcher in bat taxonomy, especially West African bats.
Previous employment history includes being an Associate Director of Gerrard Ltd (now part of Barclays Wealth, a large financial services company), a teacher, a journalist and a environmental surveyor, amongst other things.
Sporting credentials:
Commonwealth and British record holder in finswimming (both long and short course). Record number of national championships and national records. British Universities champion and record holder (2007 and 2008). My club teams are the FOG Hoppers Sports Club and for Swansea University Finswimming Team.
Former international standard swimmer (1,500 m freestyle swimming & 50/100 m breaststroke). Competed for London University, University of Hull and Swansea University.
Former national/county standard sprint runner. Competed in triathlon and time trialling (cycling).
Short discursive biography
I grew up in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, West Africa and am from Kent, in South East England, United Kingdom (where a very large chunk of my families history is from). I have spent most of my life in universities or associated with university projects (Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London; University of Hull; Swansea University; MARE, Oxford University).
Recently, I have been focusing on completing my PhD on "alien big cats", finishing off the BFA Finswimming Manual and helping my father write various nautical archaeology papers.
Opinion on Alien big cats
Although I have no wish to discuss my PhD here, I feel that it may be necessary to provide "an opinion". As such, it is:
"Whether there are or are not exotic cats in the United Kingdom, I feel that many of the researchers in the field of studying them have adapted common understandings rather than undertaken scientific method to study them. This has lead to many misunderstandings and major issues with their research."
As to whether the research has answered the presence/absence question; I would prefer not to say until my PhD has been finished.
Articles that I have started and will continue to edit: Finswimming Underwater sports World finswimming records Commonwealth finswimming records
Articles that I intend to write: British finswimming records British junior finswimming records World junior finswimming records Commonwealth junior finswimming records