SUP
The Gnarliest Ocean Crossings of All Time
These brave adventurers connect shore-to-distant shore by swimming, paddling, kiting and rowing.
It was said of the late John Fairfax, who crossed two oceans 40 years ago by row boat, that: “He crossed the Atlantic because it was there, and the Pacific because it was also there.”
Others cross great distances to test their own physical limits, in essence, testing the possibilities of all mankind. Some, like Kai Lenny, have made such crossings in the name of a cause; Lenny’s to raise awareness of the plastic problem in our oceans.
Swells jack when the current pushes against them
© Andy Mann
In April, without a motor, Lenny made various crossings, connecting the Hawaiian Islands on multiple crafts, be it hydrofoiling shortboard, hydrofoiling kiteboard, hydrofoiling SUP and sailboat. Lenny even foiled for over 50 miles between two islands in open ocean on his hydrofoiling shortboard, generating speed by paddling it into swells and riding all the way to the next shore.
3 min
Downwind Voyage for Change
Kai Lenny Talks Through Pollution & Leaves Low Environmental Impact (5 Gyres, Pulling Trash, Etc - showing the value of doing this in the Hawaiian islands).
A young waterman of the highest caliber, Lenny has made these recent crossings in the wake of some truly epic ones before him. The following six ocean crossings (sans motor) are definitely the world’s hairiest ones.
John Fairfax, first to cross Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by row boat
When someone says, “Truth is stranger than fiction,” whether they know it or not, they’re describing John Fairfax. You couldn’t create a more dynamic character in a novel than the actual man. The first man to row across the Atlantic and then Pacific Oceans, John Fairfax, got kicked out of Boy Scouts at 9 years old for stealing a pistol and opening fire on a group of other scouts (no one was killed). At 13, he ran away to the Amazon jungle to live in the wild. By 20, he attempted “suicide-by-jaguar,” but reconsidered and killed the jaguar to sell its pelt.
Shortly after, he became a pirate and in 1969, just for the hell of it, rowed from the Canary Islands to Florida in a 22-foot-long row boat. It took him 180 days. In 1971, Fairfax and friend Sylvia Cook, rowed a horrendous 8,000 miles from San Francisco to Hayman Island, Australia. It took them 361 days, also making Cook the first woman to row across the Pacific. Along the way, Fairfax was bitten on the arm by a shark and they were caught in a cyclone. Support boat? Yeah, right. A legend of a human being, Fairfax passed away in 2012.
Benoit Lecomte, first to swim across the Atlantic Ocean
What’s the farthest length you’ve ever swam? What’s the most amount of laps you’ve ever done in pool? Spoiler: No matter how many it was, the following will make you pretty bummed on that feat.
In 1998, Benoit Lecomte became the first person to swim the Atlantic Ocean (without a kickboard), completing the 3,700-mile swim in 73 days with a support crew. At one point along the way, he was followed by a shark for five days straight. Each day, Lecomte would swim around a total of eight hours in two- to four-hour stints.
Why? To raise cancer awareness in honor of his father who had passed. Oh, and he’s not done swimming yet. Any day now, Lecomte is attempting to swim the 5,500 miles across the Pacific Ocean from Tokyo to San Francisco to raise environmental awareness. This time, he’s wearing a Sharkbanz shark deterrent device.
Chris Bertish, first to stand-up paddle across Atlantic Ocean
Chris Bertish SUPed across the Atlantic Ocean
© Brian Overfelt/The SUP Crossing
Some guys (and gals) are just animals. They’re not just good at one thing; they excel at every single thing they put their minds to. Like, Chris Bertish, for instance, who earlier this year stand-up paddled across the Atlantic Ocean from Morocco to Antigua in 93 days. Already an accomplished sailor and big-wave surfer (the guy won the Maverick’s Big Wave event in 2010), Bertish put his mind to stand-up paddling, designed a tricked-out SUP craft he could sleep in, and stroked the 4,050-mile crossing … mostly at night to hide from the sun. Despite a leaky hatch, curious sharks and torn rotator cuff, Bertish succeeded, averaging 44 miles of paddling a day.
Roz Savage, first woman to solo row across three oceans
With four Guinness World Records for ocean rowing to her name, along with being a United Nations Climate Hero and honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire (straight from the Queen), “Savage” is right. Roz rowed unsupported across the Atlantic in 2006, then in 2008 rowed across the Pacific in three stages over nearly two years. In 2011, she rowed across the Indian Ocean in 154 days, thus making her the only woman in the world to row solo across three oceans. Named 2010 National Geographic “Adventurer of the Year,” Roz currently works with the 5 Gyres Institute and promotes plastic-free communities all over the world. Again: Savage.
Hubar, Ringvold, Blom, Pequeno, Gijsbers and Frans, first to kiteboard across Atlantic Ocean
Crossing the Atlantic by kite
© Enable Passion/HTC Atlantic Kite Crossing
Twenty-four hours before getting to their destination in the Caribbean, the six kiteboarders Filippo van Hellenberg Hubar, Camilla Ringvold, Max Blom, Eric Pequeno, Dennis Gijsbers and Ike Frans were running out of water. But in a relay-race-type team effort taking two-hour shifts with one kiteboarder always in the water, the team sailed the 4,000-mile Atlantic crossing, past sharks, whales, flying fish and through patches of dead winds. Taking 27 days to accomplish the feat in December 2013, the six are the first to kiteboard such a distance across the world’s most reputably unpredictable ocean.
John Beeden, first to non-stop solo row across Pacific Ocean
Following the wake of the great John Fairfax, adventurer John Beeden completed the 7,400-mile solo row crossing of the Pacific Ocean (without stopping) in December 2015. Rowing a type of 20-foot modified kayak-craft, it took Beeden nearly six months from San Francisco to Australia, at various points getting pushed back by currents hundreds of miles that he had to regain. Already rowing across the Atlantic in 2011, Beeden was unassisted on his Pacific crossing and the journey was entirely self-funded. Any money raised was actually donated to chosen charities, like Prostate Cancer U.K. and Breast Cancer Care.