Chris Flook has put his swimming career behind him and moved on...though he still occasionally gets a pain in his shoulder to remind him of the injury that ended his days in the pool.

Flook was in his peak and gearing up toward the 1996 Olympics when the injury finally brought an end to his competitive swimming.

Things were looking up for Mr. Flook in 1993 when, at age 20, he became the first Bermudian swimmer to win medals at a major Games, bringing home the silver and bronze from the 100 and 200 metres at the CAC Games in Puerto Rico.

He carried that good form -- and the shoulder injury, too -- into the Commonwealth Games the following year and narrowly missed qualifying for the final.

But after struggling to overcome the injury he finally decided to toss his goggles aside at the age of 22, though with goals and aspirations still unfulfilled.

"I was doing all the work to get ready for meets but during practice I couldn't do the whole practice because I was having problems with the shoulder,'' explained Flook, who works as a collector of specimens at the Aquarium.

His job keeps him in the water probably just as much as when he was swimming, but it's a different type of swimming these days.

"I chase fish for a living,'' he says with little regret. "There are no egos, no starting guns and no butterflies. If I don't catch them today I'll catch them tomorrow.'' Flook is at the age now, 28, where his swimming career would probably be over anyway, so he doesn't allow himself to look back with regrets. Still, there was plenty left unaccomplished.

"The last thing was the Commonwealth Games in 1995 and it was a couple of months after that that I had the shoulder done,'' Mr. Flook explained.

The surgery was performed by Dr. Peter Fowler at the University Hospital in London, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Fowler was the same surgeon who saved the career of Canada's 1984 Olympic gold medalist, Alex Baumann, with shoulder surgery.

Dr. Fowler has particular interest in swimmers as a silver medalist himself for Canada in the 1959 Pan American Games.

Dr. Fowler took one look at Flook's shoulder -- even with a shirt on -- and knew immediately which one he was having problems with. "I went to Dr.

(Colin) Couper and Dr. (Joseph) Froncioni and they both hadn't done the operation before and weren't comfortable so Dr. Couper suggested I go to see Dr. Fowler.

"Sure enough, I walked into the room and didn't even have my shirt off and he said `oh, okay, it's your left shoulder'. He could see I was holding it a bit higher.'' Mr. Flook remembers injuring the shoulder around Christmas in 1991 when, while in Florida training with his college team, he fell on it.

"The AC joint is held there by tendons and ligaments and I fell on it, stressed them and when the scar tissue built up underneath, the bones rubbed on the scar tissue. Surgery was a couple of hours, but then I was back where I was staying at 9 or 10 o'clock that night.

"When I came back to Bermuda it was about two or three weeks that I started doing physio here, with Dr. Couper's physiotherapist.'' Mr. Flook was advised by Dr. Couper that he would need surgery to correct problems with both his shoulder and knee, with which he was having cartilage problems. As a breaststroker the proper use of the legs are also a big part of the technique.

"It's the scariest thing, you know there is a problem and you know you should address it, but then you hear all those stories (about operations),'' he said.

"The biggest thing was just making the decision to go and get it done. Before I had it done I was waking myself up at night, rolling over onto it. It was really painful.

"Sometimes when the weather changes and there is dampness in the air or with heavy lifting it feels a little weaker, but it's a lot better than it was, definitely.'' Over time the shoulder has improved but prior to the surgery it was slowly getting worse, including bothering him at the CAC Games when he swam through the pain barrier to win the two medals.

"It (shoulder) was bothering me then but it progressively got worse,'' he said. "In 1994 it was pretty much at its worst.

"When I stopped swimming after Commonwealth it had gotten worse and worse. I woke up in the morning and it was like somebody was punching my arm all night.

"It was a separated AC joint. They say this is the type of injury that rugby players usually get, from falling on their shoulder.

"I know it's a weaker shoulder than this one so you just pay attention to that. Subconsciously when you are doing stuff you tend to use your other shoulder more.'' In all, Mr. Flook swam competitively for just six years, quickly rising up the ranks to become one of the Island's top swimmers.

"I started late, when I was 16, so I basically did the circuit and then dropped out,'' he stated.

"I was pretty disappointed, it was more frustrating than anything, knowing you have the capability to do some more things, but you just have to take care of the problem at hand.

"After the operation it was a couple of years of taking your time and getting used to the shoulder again. Flexibility came back pretty quickly but not the strengthening of the actual shoulder.

"If I was lifting a bucket of water with each arm I had to put the one in the left hand down. I don't get any pain from it anymore but sometimes it gets a little achy if I do heavy lifting or it's damp.'' The problem with his right knee has also been with him for a long time.

"I had Dr. Couper look at my knees briefly, but I think it's from the breakstroke when your legs close in and there is water pressure on your knees,'' he says.

"I don't run but if I've been on my feet for a long period of time it does act up, but you learn to live with it. It's not such a bad problem now. I've had it for a long time.'' He added: "You can't dwell on the bad things and let it overtake you.

Tomorrow's another day. It was quite disappointing to have to stop swimming but other things have happened in my life since then.

"With the job I have now I still swim almost everyday in the summer, though it's not competitive swimming. For awhile I couldn't even watch swimming on TV. It was really frustrating at first. Now I watch it and still get butterflies.

"One of my old coach Gareth Davies' favourite sayings was `never say what if' because then it's too late'. No expectations, no disappointments!'' Photos by Arthur Bean, Tamell Simons No regrets: Former swimmer Chris Flook, above, whose work as a collector of specimens at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo keeps him around the water.

Below, Chris as he shows off the silver and bronze medals he won at the 1993 CAC Games in Puerto Rico. Shoulder injury ended his career two years later.

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