Exploration
Meet the explorer who paddled across Lake Ontario over 20 consecutive days
Mario Rigby's 355-kilometre journey to promote domestic travel and diversity in the outdoors is just a snapshot into his resume of human-powered expeditions.
Seasoned Canadian-Turks and Caicos explorer Mario Rigby finished a paddle across Lake Ontario earlier this month to promote domestic travel and diversity in the outdoors.
From Hamilton to the Thousand Islands, Rigby travelled 355 kilometres over 20 consecutive days through thunderstorms, 40km/h+ winds, and choppy, empty seas. He compared the journey to his 2018 paddle across Africa’s third largest lake, Lake Malawi, just one of the many feats on his adventure resume.
Mario Rigby preparing his gear for another day on Lake Ontario
© Mario Rigby
Mario originally planned to spend his late-summer months working on the Auyuittug Projext— a journey to the most northerly places on the continent, to learn about how climate change is affecting Indigenous communities. But given the restrictions brought upon by COVID-19, he had to scramble and come up with another plan.
“I didn’t have the timeline to paddle all of the Great Lakes, but given Lake Ontario’s proximity to my home, Toronto, it seemed like the perfect challenge to promote domestic travel,” Rigby said. “I wanted to show people that you don’t have to travel around the world to find adventure.”
Additionally, Rigby used the kayak project to partner with Toronto-based My Stand, an organization that works with at-risk-youth.
“When my family migrated to Canada from Turks & Caicos we were quite poor, so I wanted to give back, act as a mentor, as well as a role model in the program,” Rigby explained.
Through raising awareness and money for the organization, as well as organizing camping trips with the organization, Rigby aims to encourage youth to get out and see the world, and act as role model in an outdoors environment that lacks diversity.
"Why not me?"
Like many kids, Mario grew up with a fascination for the daunting expeditions and anthropological-based adventures showcased in National Geographic magazine. But as he flipped through the pages, he only saw black people represented as “poor Africans” or as “victims waiting to be helped.”
“It was nearly impossible to find someone that looked like me that was exploring,” he added. “The only black explorer I knew of was the legendary Arctic explorer Matthew Henson, but since the early 1900s there hasn’t been a heavily recognized black explorer.”
It wasn’t until 2010, that Mario came across Marvel Comics's Black Panther series, and immediately resonated with the character T’Challa, the king of Wakanda, and Marvel’s first black superhero. Before T’Challa was named king, he embarked on a journey across Africa to learn the fundamentals of survival and exploration, and return home with a greater knowledge and understanding of the world.
“T’Challa’s journey has been in the back of my mind my entire life. But why does this have to be a fairy tale story? Instead of waiting for someone to look up to, I thought, why not me?” He added.
Exploring with a purpose
As a personal trainer and former professional track and field athlete, Mario wanted to continue pushing his body to the limits while exploring the world, and naturally gravitated towards human-powered expedition. In late November 2015, he left everything behind and began his Crossing Africa adventure — an extraordinary 12,000 km, two-year trek from Cape Town, South Africa, to Cairo, Egypt.
From close encounters with hippos and crocodiles, to dealing with malaria and civil unrest, Mario’s trek didn’t come easy, but he says kindness, hospitality, and learnings he received from the African communities along the way made his journey possible.
“Everyone is trying to break world records, or take the most exciting videos, but what about interacting with communities and prioritizing learning and growing. Being there in the moment, being curious, learning, and sharing these new perspectives with others has always been my goal” he added.
Since returning from Africa, Mario has cycled across Canada, explored the Turks & Caicos, and recently kayaked across Lake Ontario, all while advocating for the inclusion of diversity in the outdoors and encouraging people to explore the outdoors through sustainable means of travel — two social issues that Mario believes to be interlinked.
“It’s simple, the more diversity and inclusion in the outdoors, the more people will fight climate change. But as more people experience the outdoors, it’s essential that we’re cautious and take care of our ecosystems rather than exploit them,” he said.
These causes have led Mario to adopt a human-powered, minimalist, ‘leave no trace’ approach to any expedition, and his feats haven’t gone unrecognized. He was named one of the 200 nominees for the 2018 Most Influential People of African Descent global 100 list, admitted to The Explorers Club in 2020, and has been invited to speak at a number of international events.
Even with this recognition, Rigby says this is only the beginning.
He has already begun planning a plethora of upcoming projects, from driving an electric vehicle across Africa, to retracing Matthew Henson’s footsteps across the North Pole, and exploring how climate change is affecting the coastal regions of B.C.
