#171 - 36 years of record breaking kayaking around Ireland with Mick O'Meara encore

WEBVTT

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Welcome to Paddling the Blue. With each episode, we talk with guests from the

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Great Lakes and around the globe who are doing cool things related to sea kayaking.

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I'm your host, my name is John Chase, and let's get started paddling the blue.

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Welcome to today's episode of the Paddling the Blue podcast.

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Today, I'm sharing an encore presentation of a conversation that I had in 2021,

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going back five years with Mick O'Mara.

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And at that time, we talked about his multiple journeys around Ireland,

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including a 1990 team record of 33 days and a second record in 2015.

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That time, solo, when he circumnavigated the island in 23 days.

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Well, we talked about his thoughts on preparation and training,

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keys to a successful expedition, whether you're solo or as part of a team and

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maintaining a true sense of adventure along the way.

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Well, news broke last week of Mick breaking his own record, this time with a

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20-day circumnavigation around the island.

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What's even more mind-blowing is that this record is a full 36 years after his

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first. So congratulations, Mick.

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You are a testament to the benefits of working hard to reach your goals.

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So before we get to our encore presentation with Mick, James Stevenson and Simon

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Osborne at OnlineSeaKayaking.com continue to produce great content to help you

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evolve as a paddler and as a coach.

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Visit paddlingtheblue.com, click the courses and trips link at the top of the

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Enjoy today's Encore episode with Mick O'Mara. Hi Mick, how are you today?

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Good, John. Thanks for having me. Oh, thank you for joining us.

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I appreciate it. So Mick, tell us, where are you from?

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From Waterford, Ireland. I've lived here all my life. I never felt the need

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to move away. So I was just born in the city here.

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I come from a family with just myself, two sisters, mom and dad.

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And yeah, that's it. From Waterford, Ireland. All right. So how did you get your start as a paddler?

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I started off paddling through the scouts and it was, I suppose most people

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will have a go at being in the scouts at some stage. And we were lucky enough

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that there was a Christian brother actually who taught in a local school.

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He was into kayaking and he had a trailer with a couple of kayaks on it.

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So he came along to one of the scout camps.

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We had an opportunity to try it there because I suppose back,

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God, I hate to think of how long I'm paddling now, but it's probably about 40

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years at this stage and slightly more.

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It was a difficult thing to get a go on a kayak, whereas now there's kayaks everywhere.

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So it was a great opportunity and I just loved it from the time I got into it.

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I always liked water sports and I did a little bit of athletics before that when I was younger.

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But as soon as I got into kayaking, I just thought this is the best thing ever.

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So did you start on rivers, inland lakes? How did you get your start there?

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The first we started was, there was a couple of kayaks up the back of a monastery

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up in Mount Menoray in County Waterford, believe it or not, a Cistercian commune there.

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And there's a reservoir there. We used to pull the kayaks, these two kayaks

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out onto this reservoir that was so cold, we'd sort of just paddle around for a bit there.

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Then we started doing a little bit on lakes.

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And one of the scout camps that we were on, we were just learning skills and

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we did a little bit of a bank slide. It was a sort of steep bank coming down

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into the lake, and this is the best thing ever, was to sit into the kayak at

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the top of this kind of a bank and slide down into the water.

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And I can still remember, John, my first capsize, and I'll never forget how

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still and how quiet it got.

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And then all of a sudden thinking, oh no, you're underwater,

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and it's only you are going to get yourself out of this, you know?

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And it was just that calmness, that still. And that's So we started there,

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then we started moving on to maybe some of the rivers, the River Barrow,

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which is not too far from where I am here in Waterford, shooting a few weirs.

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And I mean, at that stage, oh, I don't think there was even plastics out there.

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The dancer wasn't even invented. You know, plastic hadn't hit the kayaking world,

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so everything was in fiberglass, so you were always trying to kind of take care of your boat.

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So no one was running a lot of these sort of, you know, rocky rivers and stuff

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like that because your boat was just going to get wrecked. But we started from

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there and then progressed on.

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A lot of the way that I came into sea kayaking is the fact that we have the

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Atlantic Ocean pretty much on our doorstep here down in Waterford as well.

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So you're not waiting for water to be on rivers and stuff and waiting for flood

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and waiting for the rain. The sea is just outside there. So it was actually

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quite easy to get into that as well.

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So I suppose in the early days of paddling, I was more, I was kind of into kind

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of everything, bit of racing, bit of sea kayaking, bit of river kayaking,

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you know, that's the way it was here.

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So what got you interested in going fast?

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God, I always kind of wonder what is fast. I wouldn't be certainly the fastest

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paddler around the place, John.

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But I suppose in the early days, I got into a little bit of racing.

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Through contact with other people, I like the idea of being able to push yourself.

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I like the idea of being able to kind of go fast in a kayak down a river or on the sea.

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I kind of got the bug for racing. And at the time, it was sort of open singles racing.

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So they'd have a kind of an open cast for general purpose kayaks.

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You start into that and then I got into a little bit of white water racing so

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you're doing you're using the down river boat and then from that you move on

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to a bit of K1 and then you move into K2 and then,

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And then you start looking to maybe go fast on the sea. You know,

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you just kind of transfer that sort of, I won't say a need, but that buzz you

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get from actually pushing yourself.

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You can kind of, you can branch into any of the areas of kayaking and transfer that.

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So speaking of pushing yourself, so that kind of transitions us as you've circumnavigated

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Ireland twice, once in 1990 with a four-person team.

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And then a second time setting the speed record around Ireland at a blistering

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23 days solo. So let's start with the experience of paddling around Ireland,

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and I'd like to compare the two trips.

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Take our listeners on a tour around Ireland by kayak. What's that experience like?

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It's an amazing country here, John. I suppose one of the reasons I never really

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went too far away is that Ireland has everything you'd want.

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It's a great place, and it has all the weathers. It can be fantastic.

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It can be lovely and warm and sunny, and then it can be just stormy and cold as well like we have.

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But I'll tell you, I'll go back to the trip in 1990 when we went around.

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Through the Scouts, I met a few guys that I still paddle with today,

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a lot of my close friends. And we were from down here.

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And we sort of started paddling together up and down the coastline.

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We have the River Shure here, the Estuary. We would have paddled from Waterford

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down to Tremor quite a bit here. It's kind of a 25-mile paddle.

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So we started pushing kind of longer distances, and we were well able for that.

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And then a few, one of us, I think Brian, I think was first of all,

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Brian Fanning, got a sea kayak.

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And this is a great thing altogether because we went from using kind of general

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purpose 13-foot fiberglass posts paddling out to islands and stuff like that

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to actually getting into a proper sea kayak that didn't leak and actually had hatches in it.

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Somebody, I think we eventually bought a VHF radio. I mean, this is going back,

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John, in a time when, you know, everybody has loads of money now and everybody has everything.

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But at the time, you know, a VHF was a real luxury. We decided we'd have a go

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at going around Ireland.

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Actually, this was a great adventure altogether because we wouldn't have been

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what you'd call the classic sea kayakers with all the gear and all the safety and all the knowledge.

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It was more adventure, I think, we had in us and, you know, the willingness

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to go out and kind of have a go and have a bit of crack at it as well, you know.

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So off we went, I think it was on 28th of April, 1990. We'd all got our hands

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on sea kayaks at this stage. I think it was a kind of a version of the North Cap we had at the time.

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Arrived down at the pier and for more with way too much gear.

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Kayak was completely packed half your gear was still at the side wondering how

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they were ever going to get this stuff into the hatch anyway,

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we had, and we had jeans and we had shirts because we called them disco clothes

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we were ready to party the whole way around we had all this kind of stuff,

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but look, do you know what off we went,

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four of us took off and sure, we made it down to y'all the first day we went

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off the next day, packed up again off we went and did another kind of we're

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aiming for kind of 30, 35 miles a day or whatever you could manage.

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We just saw it as a series of day paddles.

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And before you knew it, John, you know, you're down to the southwest,

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you move on, and it means some days you'll have a reasonable day.

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Some days you'll have a headwind.

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Some days it's going to be raining, and some days it's going to be sunny.

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That's the way it goes with expedition paddling.

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But I think our experience through the scouts and stuff like that and just camping

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in general kind of gets you through that because when you do long trips like

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that, it's not just about paddling.

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It's about being able to get off the water and operate as a team as well.

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You've got to cook your dinner. You've got to be able to pitch your tent.

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You've got to be able to look after yourself and get on the water again.

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To me, in expeditions, the paddling is almost the easy bit because when you're

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out there, you're doing what you're naturally good at.

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But the other stuff is hard, getting up in the morning. So when you have a team

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going around, and this is why our team worked so well back in 1990.

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Is that not everyone was the best paddler.

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But as a team, you worked well together because someone had to get you out and

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kick you up out of bed in the morning.

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Someone had to do the kooking. Someone had to be able to break camp and do stuff

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like that. So we eventually got around.

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I think it was in 33 paddling days. And we had a few days off and we had a couple

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of points every night. It was that sort of a trip. It was great, great fun.

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And we got back. And we all survived it, which is a good thing.

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Because there was no major calamities along the way. We busted a set of paddles.

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We dropped a boat on a set of paddles, I think it was, up in Kilki or something like that.

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And we had a couple of rough days. We had to take a day off,

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one or two days off, when we hit Nordic Winds on the West Coast.

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But overall, it was a fantastic adventure.

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And then, kind of from that trip around, we decided to go off to Iceland.

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Again, we swim on a Wednesday night at the local pool here, and we planned this.

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We said, God, that'd be a great old place to go to.

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And we didn't know how we were going to get there. So it turns out that one

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of the guys, Fergus, his sister worked for a shipping company here.

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And we kind of realized that we could actually get boats up there.

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So that was the first thing. And then we decided, should we have a go again,

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saved a few bogs, got a bit of money together. And off we went up there.

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And we got around most of the coast of Iceland, but we ran out of time.

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So we went from Reykjavik right up around the top in a clockwise direction,

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finished stuff in the place and hope I think they call it down on the southeast

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coast and we shipped the boats home. I mean I wasn't going to sort of go along

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the south coast and have to bail out there and leave all my gear there you know.

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So we kind of pulled out in a logical place up there but it was a great adventure

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as well and it was that sense of adventure that kind of kept us going.

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And then you talk about the Ireland trip then that I did.

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When you come back and do this in 2015 I had gone through a couple of Irish

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sea crossings in the meantime with me a good paddling buddy Brian Fanny here

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a fantastic paddler as well,

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and I think I've been across the area at this stage I think seven times I've

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crossed at this stage in a kayak done the routes down here from Ross Lear to

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Fishguard a couple of times,

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crossed the Hollyhead and done the north the north channel crossing as well

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from Donoghadee which is near Belfast over to Port Patrick in Scotland,

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And so I always had that thirst for sort of just pushing yourself and just training.

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It's an excuse to train as well.

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And you're not looking for any sort of, I don't know what it is,

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are you actually kind of searching for yourself? It's probably trying to be the best you can be.

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And when you do these crosses, you always get this great sense of achievement

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that, jeez, I've actually stepped into a kayak in Ireland, and here I am in

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England after coming here by kayak, you know?

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And it's funny, when you land on the beach over across there.

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Nobody knows you've come from Ireland.

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They probably think you've just come around the corner, you know,

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and you're up to doing kind of 50 miles over the last nine or 10 hours or whatever.

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And it's a great sense of satisfaction. So, look, over the years then,

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I had kids and I wanted to do something.

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And 2015 just turned around to be the year. Actually, Jeff Allen,

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who you'd met there, Jeff and Harry went around and sort of made a story out

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of, let's say, our record.

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We had a record. we were the only ones we were after really doing it I think

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in a long time back in 1990 and we did it in 33 days which is a reasonable time,

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and it was and you got to be lucky with the weather John so Jeff and Harry then

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made a big they kind of made a story out of going we're going after Michael

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Amara's record and we're going to try and break the record but we never saw

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it as a record I mean gee if you just go out and do a paddle,

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unless you start going on about a record we never called it a record but it

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was the fastest probably time that anyone had done it in,

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so that's fair enough so the lads did it So in the turns,

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which I was looking at at the time, because I was paddling a Nigel Foster legend, which I still have.

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And Nigel Foster is over your way the last few years, but he designed this fantastic,

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I think it was a Weineck he designed first of all, and then a legend.

00:14:14.729 --> 00:14:16.379
And I think there's another one, a silhouette.

00:14:16.593 --> 00:14:20.640
And there were kind of three similar boats, but fantastic kayak.

00:14:21.185 --> 00:14:24.489
But I kind of saw these new boats that were coming out, and I wanted to have

00:14:24.489 --> 00:14:26.624
a boat. So anyway, Jeff and Harry did that.

00:14:27.269 --> 00:14:32.049
They finished up in Ardmore the trip they did it I think it was in 25 days Harry

00:14:32.049 --> 00:14:33.679
phoned me he said Mick can we come

00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:36.201
down and stay with you tonight we're on our way back to the UK he said.

00:14:37.164 --> 00:14:40.473
I said, yeah. So the lads came down. We had a mighty session.

00:14:40.804 --> 00:14:42.551
A load of drink. Great crack.

00:14:43.373 --> 00:14:47.757
And a load of lies being told. Tall tales, we might say. But when the guys did

00:14:47.757 --> 00:14:49.857
that, that sort of said to me, you know what?

00:14:50.375 --> 00:14:54.777
I'm going to have a go at this because after paddling over the years and doing,

00:14:54.777 --> 00:14:57.427
let's say, the devices to Westminster with Jim Morrissey and stuff,

00:14:57.427 --> 00:15:02.651
and we were successful in that over a couple of years, I knew that I could do better than 33 days.

00:15:03.034 --> 00:15:06.917
And I knew that the lads kind of were, they'd put it out there now at this stage,

00:15:06.917 --> 00:15:10.000
that this was the time of her grabs, 25 days, this is the record.

00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:14.325
So I decided, you know what, I'm going to have a go at this, at some stage.

00:15:14.859 --> 00:15:18.836
So in the meantime, I have back problems, thanks to my mother.

00:15:19.469 --> 00:15:22.817
I have, as they call it, degenerative disc disease, which basically means that

00:15:22.817 --> 00:15:26.376
I have no discs in the first kind of few lumbar vertebrae in my back.

00:15:27.271 --> 00:15:32.570
And my back was giving me hassle. And it was getting painful to paddle. I thought, oh no.

00:15:33.170 --> 00:15:35.604
Is this it? Like, you know what I mean? Is this going to happen to me every

00:15:35.604 --> 00:15:37.907
time I paddle now? I get these bloody back problems, you know?

00:15:38.447 --> 00:15:42.203
So I went about it. Got a sore throat. Got a nerve cut on my back.

00:15:42.772 --> 00:15:45.954
Where I don't really feel some of the pain. It was kind of bone rubbing on bone,

00:15:45.954 --> 00:15:50.388
you know? Sounds worse than it is, but at least that. Sounds painful.

00:15:51.013 --> 00:15:53.664
Yeah. And you know what? I still have back pain every day, John.

00:15:53.664 --> 00:15:56.604
I get up every day and I have a stiff back. And I got a stretch and stuff like

00:15:56.604 --> 00:15:59.489
that. But do you know what? It's better than what it was.

00:15:59.953 --> 00:16:04.984
So I said, there's no time like the present. I'm going to go around Ireland, right?

00:16:06.244 --> 00:16:11.444
And it also turns out I had support from my family. And Una was very good. She said, off you go.

00:16:11.484 --> 00:16:14.764
I had three young kids at the time. And I said, look, I'm going to try and do this.

00:16:15.170 --> 00:16:17.734
And I'm going to have a go. And I said, my back pack up as well.

00:16:17.734 --> 00:16:20.545
Because I always remember Sean Mourley going around all the years ago.

00:16:20.923 --> 00:16:24.609
And Sean was pushing hard. And I think he was up in Donegal one day.

00:16:25.010 --> 00:16:28.204
And he just knew he was back with season up. And he ended up completely crippled

00:16:28.204 --> 00:16:31.334
up there, where he had to go back down to Jim Morrissey's house and hang out

00:16:31.334 --> 00:16:33.838
there for about two weeks, I think it was, because he was destroyed.

00:16:34.122 --> 00:16:38.987
So I was always kind of cognizant of that's the world, that that kind of stuff can happen to you.

00:16:39.300 --> 00:16:42.354
So I didn't make a big deal about going on the trip. I trained hard for the

00:16:42.354 --> 00:16:44.362
thing, got myself a turn.

00:16:44.890 --> 00:16:49.128
And I said to my friends, look, lads, I'm going to have a go at this.

00:16:49.703 --> 00:16:53.154
Nobody was able to get off work at the time. That's the reason I did a solo.

00:16:53.154 --> 00:16:55.171
It's not that I really set out to do it solo.

00:16:55.722 --> 00:16:59.734
But I said, look, I'd have a go. If my backpack's up, come and get me.

00:16:59.734 --> 00:17:02.276
And we'll say nothing about it. And at least I would have tried it, you know.

00:17:02.741 --> 00:17:07.294
So I took off in June because I had a business at the time, sea paddling,

00:17:07.294 --> 00:17:10.978
which was basically kayak touring and stuff on the coast. You have taken out beginners and stuff.

00:17:11.233 --> 00:17:13.967
And I said, look, I can't be gone in the middle of the summer at the high season.

00:17:14.298 --> 00:17:15.575
So I took off in early June.

00:17:16.206 --> 00:17:19.091
Weather still wasn't fantastic, but I went off and did it.

00:17:19.596 --> 00:17:22.684
I had a kind of a rough schedule. I thought, look, if I can do this,

00:17:22.684 --> 00:17:26.250
I'll get around 20 something days. And that was the plan.

00:17:26.907 --> 00:17:30.661
So I went away, and the first two, three days, they were hard.

00:17:31.213 --> 00:17:33.091
But I got out, I was able to get into the boat the next day.

00:17:33.091 --> 00:17:36.228
And then four days later, I was down in Valencia, and I thought, do you know what?

00:17:36.900 --> 00:17:40.011
I'll give it a go for another few days now, see how I go. And then next minute,

00:17:40.296 --> 00:17:42.397
over to Shannon, up the West Coast.

00:17:42.949 --> 00:17:45.941
Then I kind of thought, Jeannie Mack, I'm going well here, and the back is holding

00:17:45.941 --> 00:17:50.402
up. So all the way around, and I got around in 23 days.

00:17:51.047 --> 00:17:56.331
I was delighted with that, John, because it was something I wanted.

00:17:56.331 --> 00:17:59.661
I set out to do and at least I got over the finish line,

00:18:00.296 --> 00:18:04.161
because I say to anybody about you know when it comes to racing or expeditions

00:18:04.161 --> 00:18:07.771
or any that kind of a thing you've got to be able to cross the line first of

00:18:07.771 --> 00:18:12.101
all before you can start talking about times and all this kind of carry on because

00:18:12.101 --> 00:18:13.485
you have to survive the course,

00:18:14.113 --> 00:18:18.612
and at that time in 2015 the weather was basically brutal here,

00:18:19.431 --> 00:18:22.509
For summer, I mean, look, it wasn't winter storms, you can't go out with that

00:18:22.509 --> 00:18:25.387
at all. But for summer weather, I thought, oh, come on, you know.

00:18:25.899 --> 00:18:29.506
I mean, I didn't one day, John, in the 23 days paddle in a t-shirt.

00:18:29.762 --> 00:18:31.312
That's how bad it was. Wow.

00:18:31.736 --> 00:18:35.559
And it was just cold, and it was just miserable. And it was wet at the whole

00:18:35.559 --> 00:18:38.719
west coast. I think Joe Leach was out on the course at the same time.

00:18:38.719 --> 00:18:41.290
Joe is a lad over, and he was having a go.

00:18:41.825 --> 00:18:45.755
And I mean, he was out there in the same conditions. It was just hard the whole time.

00:18:46.295 --> 00:18:50.239
But it was great to get it done. and then coming down the east coast look at

00:18:50.239 --> 00:18:54.039
that stage i thought look i'm on it's a reasonably i'm on for a reasonably good

00:18:54.039 --> 00:18:57.307
time around the place but the weather went against me and some days i thought.

00:18:58.279 --> 00:19:01.729
The wind is on my nose it's not just slightly off to my nose it's actually 12

00:19:01.729 --> 00:19:05.313
o'clock coming straight at me and it seemed to be like that nearly every day,

00:19:05.888 --> 00:19:08.297
and there was a huge depression in the atlantic at the time,

00:19:09.059 --> 00:19:12.499
coming down i thought i'll get onto the east coast now and i'm in off the atlantic

00:19:12.499 --> 00:19:17.039
now and i'm kind of okay at least i'm away from the west coast and this thing

00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:20.226
pushed Southerlies up into me the whole way down, I'll never forget it.

00:19:20.406 --> 00:19:23.319
Of where you're supposed to be coming down and taking it relatively I won't

00:19:23.319 --> 00:19:26.739
say relatively easy, it was the hardest paddling because it was just a pure

00:19:26.739 --> 00:19:28.950
slog like eight or nine hours a day into that, you know?

00:19:29.803 --> 00:19:33.699
This is why I like, I love the idea of the Irish trip, is that you've got the

00:19:33.699 --> 00:19:36.202
challenge of the Atlantic there.

00:19:36.788 --> 00:19:39.939
And the thing with the Atlantic and the thing with weather is that you just

00:19:39.939 --> 00:19:43.249
never know what's going to happen, right? Unless it's a really settled kind

00:19:43.249 --> 00:19:44.456
of a period of weather you're in.

00:19:44.927 --> 00:19:50.616
So when you're out there you're fairly exposed to anything that can come across,

00:19:51.179 --> 00:19:54.409
you know sometimes in the summertime you just get a pattern of low pressure

00:19:54.409 --> 00:19:58.139
coming across on the conveyor belt depending on where the jet stream is just

00:19:58.139 --> 00:20:03.648
coming in one after another and after another and after another you know so you have that sort of,

00:20:04.279 --> 00:20:08.509
uncertainty to deal with so no matter how fit you are how well prepared you

00:20:08.509 --> 00:20:12.799
are there's always that key variable there and that's the bloody weather always

00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:13.991
pieces you can't control,

00:20:14.623 --> 00:20:18.199
this is it and you know you could be half fit,

00:20:18.845 --> 00:20:22.024
And you could do a great time around Ireland. And you could be fit as a fiddle.

00:20:22.326 --> 00:20:25.512
If that weather decides you're not going to do it, you're not going to do it.

00:20:26.093 --> 00:20:30.045
And that's the beauty about the Irish coastline. And also, John,

00:20:30.045 --> 00:20:33.925
like when you go out, depends on what day you go out, the coastline looks different

00:20:33.925 --> 00:20:36.745
every day. I mean, you could paddle around Ireland a hundred times,

00:20:36.942 --> 00:20:39.311
and it would look different to you the hundred times you do it.

00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:42.675
Because whether the sun is shining or the tide is in or out or what way the

00:20:42.675 --> 00:20:45.665
wind is blowing or the temperature, it kind of takes on, you know,

00:20:45.665 --> 00:20:49.162
it has a different character every day that you go up and down that coastline.

00:20:49.906 --> 00:20:53.193
So aside from the weather, what were your biggest challenges on that solo?

00:20:56.451 --> 00:20:59.867
And I say for anyone, look, the weather is, I think your own head,

00:21:00.515 --> 00:21:03.104
think your own confidence.

00:21:04.111 --> 00:21:09.707
I know myself, I suppose, enough at this stage to know what I can do, what I can't do.

00:21:10.398 --> 00:21:16.711
But the difficult thing, I think, about solo paddling is that you have to ask

00:21:16.711 --> 00:21:19.931
the questions, but you are the one who has to come up with the answers to the

00:21:19.931 --> 00:21:22.843
questions as well. So you don't have any buddies there.

00:21:23.508 --> 00:21:26.701
And so you have this always, this will I, won't I? Will I go,

00:21:26.701 --> 00:21:28.961
won't I go? You get up in the morning time, you look at sea,

00:21:28.961 --> 00:21:31.606
you think, okay, will I, won't I?

00:21:32.210 --> 00:21:36.770
And, you know, you can prepare all you want, John. You can get all the gear you want.

00:21:37.234 --> 00:21:40.351
You can have all the stuff, all the preparation, the whole world done here.

00:21:40.991 --> 00:21:44.968
But you have to have the confidence then to actually execute this and go and do it.

00:21:45.565 --> 00:21:48.071
And there were some days there when you wake up and, you know,

00:21:48.071 --> 00:21:51.150
the tent is flapping. You wake up, you think, oh, no.

00:21:52.050 --> 00:21:54.431
And then you have this whole will I, won't I and even though you're getting

00:21:54.431 --> 00:21:56.921
ready and you're packing up the tent you know what I mean, you're still kind

00:21:56.921 --> 00:21:59.781
of thinking you're almost afraid to look out at the sea because you're thinking

00:21:59.781 --> 00:22:03.111
you know what, should I be doing this, shouldn't I because when you are on your

00:22:03.111 --> 00:22:04.867
own you are on your own, that's it.

00:22:05.836 --> 00:22:10.561
And look, you can carry a VHF which you can carry a personal locator beacon

00:22:10.561 --> 00:22:14.781
and all that kind of stuff but you can't really put your safety into somebody

00:22:14.781 --> 00:22:17.481
else's hands and think I'll look sure I'll be grand, I'll just call up the coast

00:22:17.481 --> 00:22:19.324
guard because sometimes,

00:22:20.050 --> 00:22:24.055
your EPIRB might fail, they do, it happens, and your VHF might fail,

00:22:24.305 --> 00:22:27.651
and nobody might see a flare, and you don't want to be out there then on your

00:22:27.651 --> 00:22:29.891
own, but you can't get back in your kayak or something like that,

00:22:29.891 --> 00:22:33.385
hoping for the best that a fishing boat will come by or something like that.

00:22:33.699 --> 00:22:35.871
So they're the big challenges, I think, on the thing, you know,

00:22:36.411 --> 00:22:39.581
is just basically having the mental toughness, I think it is,

00:22:39.581 --> 00:22:45.280
to not only paddle every day, but also then to get in and cook for yourself, camp out,

00:22:45.895 --> 00:22:49.407
and take it on the next day again, and then do that day after day after day, you know.

00:22:49.953 --> 00:22:52.652
Were there any points along the way where you lost that confidence?

00:22:54.511 --> 00:22:58.764
No, but there was days when I thought, I shouldn't be helping this.

00:23:00.425 --> 00:23:03.604
You know what I mean? You kind of end up in a day and you kind of think,

00:23:03.604 --> 00:23:06.384
oh, gee, why did I do this?

00:23:07.244 --> 00:23:10.014
Because you're on the edge, and especially when the weather is not great,

00:23:10.014 --> 00:23:14.831
John, there are the days that you're kind of thinking, you know,

00:23:15.226 --> 00:23:16.804
should I be at this carry-on?

00:23:17.264 --> 00:23:20.073
You know, I know you're thinking about your kids, and every now and again.

00:23:21.014 --> 00:23:23.742
You feel this wave of upset coming at you.

00:23:24.264 --> 00:23:29.304
Out of the blue and you realise that this is fear coming up to try and kind

00:23:29.304 --> 00:23:31.837
of challenge you but there's no time for fear,

00:23:32.475 --> 00:23:36.384
you know I've heard rock climbers talking there was one guy commentating on

00:23:36.384 --> 00:23:39.511
somebody climbing up that is it that El Capitan is it the one that,

00:23:40.451 --> 00:23:45.394
the famous one and he said that you haven't got time to deal with fear you just

00:23:45.394 --> 00:23:48.470
got to pack it away and get on with the job you can think about it later on,

00:23:49.225 --> 00:23:52.764
and that's the way it was some days that because if you start thinking about

00:23:52.764 --> 00:23:54.964
that then you start making mistakes,

00:23:55.464 --> 00:23:59.651
you know, you lose it then, and you start getting stiff, you lock up,

00:24:00.244 --> 00:24:03.254
and that's when, if you think you'll fall in a lot of the time,

00:24:03.254 --> 00:24:06.224
you actually will fall in, and I say that to beginners at times,

00:24:06.224 --> 00:24:08.688
like, don't actually, don't think about falling in, so,

00:24:09.449 --> 00:24:13.884
yeah, there was, I suppose, one day, I was after getting down to Dursey,

00:24:13.884 --> 00:24:17.604
it was only on about the fourth day or the fifth day, down the west coast there,

00:24:17.604 --> 00:24:21.652
and I had the morning session, it was okay the wind had come up then,

00:24:22.250 --> 00:24:25.424
and I got on the water and I paddled out the gap between Dursley Island and

00:24:25.424 --> 00:24:29.974
the mainland and I was gone about a mile or two miles and the boat I was into

00:24:29.974 --> 00:24:34.144
a headwind and the boat was up and down banging and slapping and I just said

00:24:34.144 --> 00:24:36.534
to myself this is ridiculous like.

00:24:38.489 --> 00:24:42.855
I shouldn't be out this. This is just stupid now. And it's really kind of taken a risk.

00:24:43.564 --> 00:24:45.659
And I said to my own mind, okay, I'll tell you what I'm going to do.

00:24:45.659 --> 00:24:50.144
I'm going to do another mile here or whatever. And I'm going to see how it goes.

00:24:50.816 --> 00:24:55.576
And as I got further along, I suppose I just started getting used to the conditions.

00:24:56.238 --> 00:25:00.226
And I realized that they were what they were. And they weren't really going to get any worse.

00:25:00.840 --> 00:25:04.319
So I kept going. But you do have those times, John. You know what I mean?

00:25:04.319 --> 00:25:07.909
Where, you know, you kind of think twice about what you're at.

00:25:08.159 --> 00:25:10.138
So did you have any off-water days for that trip?

00:25:10.911 --> 00:25:15.538
I had two. I had two up ready to cross Donegal Bay.

00:25:16.124 --> 00:25:22.556
The wind had been just, oh, just, the weather had been just terrible the whole way up the west coast.

00:25:22.689 --> 00:25:24.739
Terrible in the sense that, look, I could still paddle.

00:25:25.064 --> 00:25:29.115
It wasn't that, I mean, it's not like it's a winter storm which you can't go out in.

00:25:29.626 --> 00:25:35.129
But fog and just mist and stuff like that. And the day before I was getting

00:25:35.129 --> 00:25:40.453
ready to do Donegal Bay, I paddled till about half past ten the night before in fog all day.

00:25:40.847 --> 00:25:44.619
Got up the next morning at half past five to get on the water for about seven

00:25:44.619 --> 00:25:47.489
o'clock because I knew that there was a weather from coming in.

00:25:47.489 --> 00:25:50.899
The wind was going to kind of veer around from southwest to west.

00:25:50.899 --> 00:25:54.483
And it was actually coming up to about a force five, maybe a force six.

00:25:55.137 --> 00:25:58.989
And I thought, OK, if I get up around Eris Head, which is quite an exposed headland.

00:25:59.989 --> 00:26:03.089
On the Eris Paddle here, This is a place you don't want to kind of get stuck

00:26:03.089 --> 00:26:04.196
up there because there's nothing there.

00:26:04.824 --> 00:26:08.179
If I get up around there, when the wind veers, at least it might be behind me

00:26:08.179 --> 00:26:12.956
a bit more. So, you know, you get up around there, crossed Eris there,

00:26:13.594 --> 00:26:18.070
really, really, you know, the conditions were just getting windier and windier and windier.

00:26:18.575 --> 00:26:21.506
And I eventually got across and I kind of got in behind a cliff.

00:26:22.722 --> 00:26:27.153
And I just had to sit there for a few minutes and think, Jeannie, Mark, like, what am I at?

00:26:28.053 --> 00:26:32.120
And on the way down to a place called Ballycastle, I saw a water spout, John.

00:26:32.706 --> 00:26:36.383
I mean, I was so kind of, you know, you'd be so, it's like you'd be bewildered

00:26:36.383 --> 00:26:39.133
with the weather. It's so bad at you. You know, you're just getting battered

00:26:39.133 --> 00:26:41.512
by this. You're constantly, you're on high alert the whole time.

00:26:41.803 --> 00:26:44.513
You know, one eye on the water, one eye on the cliff thinking,

00:26:44.513 --> 00:26:47.953
listen, I can't, I can't actually go in here. This is just, this is just not

00:26:47.953 --> 00:26:50.365
an option to capsize here. But there was a water.

00:26:50.824 --> 00:26:53.423
And I saw this kind of a whirl. It was probably just a kind of an eddy coming

00:26:53.423 --> 00:26:56.853
off the thing, but it actually lifted water off the sea, like a tornado.

00:26:56.853 --> 00:27:00.887
And I thought, I don't believe what I'm seeing here. It's the wind that strong, you know.

00:27:01.271 --> 00:27:05.293
So I got down and I said to myself, look, the wind was getting out of hand the

00:27:05.293 --> 00:27:08.413
next day. And I said, look, I'm going to go down to Barry Castle here and I'm

00:27:08.413 --> 00:27:11.513
going to just basically take the day off tomorrow because I knew I was going

00:27:11.513 --> 00:27:12.542
to be forced off the water.

00:27:12.902 --> 00:27:17.243
But that day turned into two days because the wind was kind of then gone back

00:27:17.243 --> 00:27:20.813
northwest again. And I was heading, or northerly, I was heading off over to

00:27:20.813 --> 00:27:25.743
Donegal. So on the third, two days later, I got up at five o'clock in the morning

00:27:26.167 --> 00:27:27.641
and I went across Stonygold Bay.

00:27:28.111 --> 00:27:31.353
I crossed that first one nearly 40 miles. And then in the afternoon,

00:27:31.353 --> 00:27:36.256
I did another 20 up to Iron Moor. So that was about a hundred kilometer a day.

00:27:36.679 --> 00:27:39.093
And that was the biggest day I think I put in the trip. But there was a lot

00:27:39.093 --> 00:27:42.993
of anger there. I was stuck for two days. I was like, I was just,

00:27:42.993 --> 00:27:44.835
you know, I was ready to go at that stage again.

00:27:46.242 --> 00:27:47.746
So what was your favorite part of that trip?

00:27:48.484 --> 00:27:52.688
Do you know what? Getting home. Well, do you know what? Realistically,

00:27:52.688 --> 00:27:56.488
I suppose, it was getting home, and it was getting home to see the kids and

00:27:56.488 --> 00:27:59.483
getting home to see the family. It was great to come in because, you know what?

00:27:59.640 --> 00:28:01.858
Well, it's 23, 25, 30 days.

00:28:02.113 --> 00:28:07.038
You kind of have enough of the sea as well. And actually, that was the best

00:28:07.038 --> 00:28:10.831
day in one way because I was kind of finished, and I knew I'd made it at that stage.

00:28:11.081 --> 00:28:15.388
But getting off the water every day, John, is the best part as well Because

00:28:15.736 --> 00:28:19.898
even though you love paddling, once you've put in nine hours or eight hours

00:28:19.898 --> 00:28:23.228
or nine hours or even 10 hours on the day, it's nice to pull the kayak up the

00:28:23.228 --> 00:28:26.038
beach and go, right, see you. I don't want to see you tomorrow.

00:28:27.238 --> 00:28:31.618
And put your clothes on you. Get warm and get ready for a nice,

00:28:31.618 --> 00:28:32.758
nice sleep. You know what I mean?

00:28:33.158 --> 00:28:37.968
So that for me are the favorite parts. And also, look, the coastline is amazing

00:28:37.968 --> 00:28:41.518
here as well. So, I mean, you know, when you ask about favorite parts of the

00:28:41.518 --> 00:28:44.674
trip, it's obviously going to be the days that the weather is better.

00:28:45.336 --> 00:28:48.968
And that you'd have a calm sea and you'd have a blue sky and you'd see some

00:28:48.968 --> 00:28:54.118
wildlife and you can paddle without wearing a kag and stuff like that the whole time.

00:28:54.118 --> 00:28:56.728
I mean, they're the best days. But unfortunately on that trip like that,

00:28:56.728 --> 00:29:01.408
as I said to you, I brought along, I have a coca tash, a touring jacket there.

00:29:01.964 --> 00:29:04.943
And I said, I'll take it with me just in case.

00:29:06.858 --> 00:29:10.688
And I had a pair of salad pets as well that I got off. I inferred to Jeff Allen

00:29:10.688 --> 00:29:12.228
and he gave them to me the time he was here.

00:29:13.049 --> 00:29:15.538
And I wore those a lot more than I thought I was going to.

00:29:16.838 --> 00:29:21.468
And I was glad of them. So if we compare that, the solo trip to your team trip,

00:29:21.468 --> 00:29:25.409
what challenges did you face as a team? Team trips, John.

00:29:26.321 --> 00:29:28.950
The nice thing about teams is that you have company there.

00:29:30.163 --> 00:29:35.190
And you have extra people lifting boats. And you have more people there if something goes wrong.

00:29:35.672 --> 00:29:39.242
And you just have, it just means you have people around you. It's good fun.

00:29:40.165 --> 00:29:47.188
And we were lucky in one way that we had known each other so long that we knew,

00:29:48.129 --> 00:29:49.346
look, we knew each other.

00:29:49.869 --> 00:29:52.909
And we knew that, I mean, as I say to people, if you remember picking somebody

00:29:52.909 --> 00:29:56.229
to go paddling with on a thing, just get to know them when they're cold and

00:29:56.229 --> 00:29:57.328
they're tired and they're hungry.

00:29:58.286 --> 00:30:01.749
And you'll see the other side of a lot of people like that and what you don't

00:30:01.749 --> 00:30:05.389
want in a trip is somebody that's going to flip out when this happens because

00:30:05.389 --> 00:30:07.162
sometimes it's just going to happen to you.

00:30:07.563 --> 00:30:10.860
You're going to get cold, the weather is going to do something unexpectedly,

00:30:11.266 --> 00:30:14.129
you're not going to have the food or somebody is going to forget something or

00:30:14.129 --> 00:30:17.209
the food is buried down the back of the hatch or something like that and you're

00:30:17.209 --> 00:30:20.019
going to have off days as well and what you don't want is somebody completely

00:30:20.019 --> 00:30:22.632
freaking out that happens because that's no good for anybody.

00:30:22.818 --> 00:30:26.749
So you'd want to pick your team members, like everybody has their own skills

00:30:26.749 --> 00:30:29.575
as well but the temperament is very important.

00:30:30.258 --> 00:30:32.929
And I say anybody that goes off on any expedition with anyone,

00:30:32.929 --> 00:30:35.849
whether you're a mountaineer or whether you're hiking or whether you're kayaking

00:30:35.849 --> 00:30:38.095
or biking or whatever, that's an important thing.

00:30:38.629 --> 00:30:42.959
So the difference with that was that, yeah, but you don't have control of yourself

00:30:42.959 --> 00:30:46.616
as well. So if you want to take off like a hair someday, you've got to think,

00:30:47.189 --> 00:30:49.581
it's not you, you have to think of the team here.

00:30:50.004 --> 00:30:53.259
So the team is, you know, is as weak as the weakest link. Okay,

00:30:53.259 --> 00:30:55.579
so you're going to have some of this, you're going to have some of the team

00:30:55.579 --> 00:30:56.976
that are faster paddlers than others.

00:30:57.568 --> 00:31:00.249
But then those other people that might be the fastest paddlers could be the

00:31:00.249 --> 00:31:03.634
people that actually hold this thing together, maybe through good humor,

00:31:04.023 --> 00:31:05.239
or that they're better at camping

00:31:05.239 --> 00:31:08.319
skills, or that they're just more level-headed and stuff like that.

00:31:08.778 --> 00:31:12.992
So it's important that your team has that balance of skills,

00:31:13.561 --> 00:31:17.099
or has that kind of full complement of skills, and it doesn't necessarily,

00:31:17.099 --> 00:31:18.460
everybody doesn't have to have.

00:31:21.345 --> 00:31:25.835
The exact same skill set, for example. But as long as you as a team perform

00:31:25.835 --> 00:31:27.140
together, that's what it is.

00:31:29.345 --> 00:31:31.815
And again, the team, look, if you're having a really bad day,

00:31:31.815 --> 00:31:34.995
some days your mind can start playing games. It's just nice to be able to bounce

00:31:34.995 --> 00:31:38.825
stuff off of somebody else or have a give out about the weather and curse the

00:31:38.825 --> 00:31:41.805
weather with somebody else rather than you doing it to yourself the whole time.

00:31:42.299 --> 00:31:46.080
And that's the difference in solo stuff is that you're there on your own.

00:31:46.487 --> 00:31:50.759
You're 100% responsible for what happens because there's nobody else there to

00:31:50.898 --> 00:31:52.657
kind of take you out of the situation,

00:31:53.174 --> 00:31:55.885
and that's why I think the stakes are high and you have to be kind of more careful,

00:31:55.885 --> 00:31:59.170
you have to be better prepared you have to be better physical shape

00:31:59.571 --> 00:32:02.765
you've got to have your homework done in terms of navigation and kind of all

00:32:02.765 --> 00:32:06.885
that kind of a thing because there's no one there to say hey I forgot to check

00:32:06.885 --> 00:32:10.084
the map, did you have a look at that last night that's not there,

00:32:10.711 --> 00:32:14.305
and then John, you know the other thing about it is that people say to me like would you not be lonely.

00:32:15.485 --> 00:32:17.095
On solo patterns and stuff like that but,

00:32:17.894 --> 00:32:22.832
I'm happy in my own company. I'm not a loner, and it's not that I dislike people,

00:32:23.291 --> 00:32:26.995
but I'm okay if you said to me, listen, you've got to spend a week on your own on some island.

00:32:27.360 --> 00:32:32.091
I'd kind of go, okay, that's all right. It's not quite utopia,

00:32:32.091 --> 00:32:33.711
but I wouldn't mind it, you know?

00:32:34.001 --> 00:32:37.531
Whereas others need social contact the whole time.

00:32:37.896 --> 00:32:42.231
So I think you have to have a personality that kind of lends itself to that

00:32:42.231 --> 00:32:44.907
kind of solo stuff as well.

00:32:45.156 --> 00:32:47.821
And I can paddle on my own. And I paddle with the lads down here a bit,

00:32:47.821 --> 00:32:49.423
but I can go off training myself as well.

00:32:49.736 --> 00:32:53.571
And I can do a three-hour paddling session. I don't even think about what am

00:32:53.571 --> 00:32:55.849
I going to think about for three hours. I don't know what I think about.

00:32:56.302 --> 00:32:58.804
Sometimes I just go into maybe a bit of an old daydream.

00:32:59.349 --> 00:33:02.961
That allows you to do solo stuff like that. So it's not about just the skill.

00:33:02.961 --> 00:33:06.305
It's about having the head to be able to say, hey, can I do this on my own here

00:33:06.305 --> 00:33:10.895
20 days in a row or 25 days in a row without anybody else around me, you know?

00:33:11.654 --> 00:33:15.781
Excellent advice. Nice. So let's get to the question that our listeners really

00:33:15.781 --> 00:33:19.521
want to know, which is, you mentioned the first one, you had a number of pints

00:33:19.521 --> 00:33:23.151
along the way. So doing a 23-day speed record around the island,

00:33:23.151 --> 00:33:24.901
did you have a chance to get a few pints then?

00:33:26.902 --> 00:33:31.191
You know what? The first day I came down, I took off.

00:33:31.487 --> 00:33:36.671
And you know, I was a bit upset taking off as well, because it wasn't the intention to do a solo.

00:33:37.304 --> 00:33:40.492
But I thought, look, you don't know, there's too many people,

00:33:40.492 --> 00:33:43.652
John, having things hitting him and too many people getting sick and too many

00:33:43.652 --> 00:33:46.096
people getting bad news. You don't know what's around the corner.

00:33:46.915 --> 00:33:50.043
And I just said to myself, look, I've got the opportunity to do this.

00:33:50.416 --> 00:33:54.955
I was going to start a PhD. I'd been accepted to do a PhD by the supervisor

00:33:55.221 --> 00:33:56.841
literally the night before I took off.

00:33:57.845 --> 00:34:00.822
And I knew that for the next four years I was going to be stuck into studies

00:34:00.822 --> 00:34:04.002
and stuff like that. So I thought, you know what, sometimes if the opportunity

00:34:04.002 --> 00:34:05.531
is there, just take it and go.

00:34:06.154 --> 00:34:08.395
Because you don't know when the opportunity will come again.

00:34:08.807 --> 00:34:11.744
But I took off anyway, went off on my own.

00:34:12.408 --> 00:34:15.552
Kids were on the beach waving off. I was really upset. You know,

00:34:15.552 --> 00:34:17.792
just for the first couple of minutes going off, because I thought,

00:34:17.792 --> 00:34:19.705
Jesus, I'm going off on my own. This is kind of nuts.

00:34:20.210 --> 00:34:22.822
What am I doing? All this kind of stuff is going through your head,

00:34:22.822 --> 00:34:25.200
even though you know exactly what you're going to do, but you have that.

00:34:25.554 --> 00:34:30.430
So I got down to Ballycotton the first day after having the most bumpy weather.

00:34:31.051 --> 00:34:34.312
It was crazy even the first day. It was like the first day I set the scene for

00:34:34.312 --> 00:34:38.404
the rest of the trip. Just this, you know, just this real bouncy sea and stuff like that.

00:34:38.822 --> 00:34:43.455
But that night I ended up in Ballycotton. I thought, look, I'll sneak up for a quick pint.

00:34:44.182 --> 00:34:46.084
So that was one thing.

00:34:47.238 --> 00:34:51.109
And then I met two lads, Andy and Jeff, who were paddling around.

00:34:51.109 --> 00:34:54.339
They took off a bit ahead of me. And when I came into Brandon down on the West

00:34:54.339 --> 00:34:57.689
Coast, I didn't know the guys were going to be there. I came around the corner,

00:34:57.689 --> 00:35:02.327
pulled into this small pier, and here there was two sea kayaks there, two inyucks there.

00:35:02.449 --> 00:35:05.939
The guys had been in for more a few days beforehand or maybe a week beforehand.

00:35:05.939 --> 00:35:08.951
So I had one or two there, and that was about the end of it then.

00:35:09.909 --> 00:35:13.739
No more then. And it wasn't because I didn't want any. It was that messy.

00:35:13.739 --> 00:35:14.889
I didn't get the opportunity.

00:35:16.969 --> 00:35:22.379
So did you get a chance to see the family along the way at all no okay no and

00:35:22.379 --> 00:35:28.296
it was easier for me and actually you know meeting people i don't know it's kind of,

00:35:29.882 --> 00:35:35.239
Does it upset the kind of rhythm you have doing the solo?

00:35:35.593 --> 00:35:38.584
And funnily again, not to be talking too much about mentioning Sean Morley's

00:35:38.584 --> 00:35:42.664
name, but Sean did that trip around the coast, Ireland and England there years ago.

00:35:43.084 --> 00:35:46.934
And I remember I sent Sean an email or something and I said,

00:35:46.934 --> 00:35:49.614
listen, Sean, hey, give us a shout when you're in some warrior,

00:35:49.614 --> 00:35:51.645
you know, down this neck of the woods when he was passing by.

00:35:52.221 --> 00:35:54.484
And he sent a mail, I think it was a couple of days later, and he said,

00:35:54.484 --> 00:35:58.466
look, Nick, sorry to miss you, but he said, look, I was just basically in the groove, he said.

00:35:59.091 --> 00:36:02.940
I think that's what he said to me, or he wrote something, and I kind of fully got it.

00:36:03.259 --> 00:36:07.154
Because he was just, it just probably didn't suit him. He probably got in late.

00:36:07.154 --> 00:36:08.553
He just wanted to put his tent up.

00:36:08.658 --> 00:36:11.554
He wanted to get up and get his breakfast the next day, and he wanted to just

00:36:11.554 --> 00:36:15.664
move on. And he didn't want all the kind of hullabaloo that goes with meeting

00:36:15.664 --> 00:36:16.878
people and stuff like that, you know?

00:36:17.499 --> 00:36:20.204
So no, I didn't meet anybody along the way, no.

00:36:20.524 --> 00:36:25.534
I picked up food. I picked up food. I sent, I think it was two parcels of food

00:36:25.534 --> 00:36:31.344
along the way, and I picked those up because you can't carry all your stuff, John, in a kayak.

00:36:31.344 --> 00:36:35.854
Well, look, if you have a huge kayak, but I think food dumps or I think food

00:36:35.854 --> 00:36:39.314
pickups, I think are acceptable as long as you're not meeting somebody every

00:36:39.314 --> 00:36:43.044
day, you know, because again, then it gets into, is this a solo trip or are

00:36:43.044 --> 00:36:44.984
you being supported by people meeting you every day?

00:36:45.604 --> 00:36:49.664
So I decided that I was taking pretty much eight days food with me and I said,

00:36:49.664 --> 00:36:54.702
look, I'll take six days and two days just in case and that's what I basically carried.

00:36:55.178 --> 00:36:57.664
And then have a self-sufficient. But if you have your gear with you,

00:36:57.664 --> 00:36:59.671
then all you're really picking up is a bit of stuff.

00:36:59.903 --> 00:37:03.124
Look, you might come along the island or you come into a local community or

00:37:03.424 --> 00:37:05.081
just along the way, pull into a pier.

00:37:05.348 --> 00:37:08.294
If there's a little shop there, you can go up and get yourself a slice of pan

00:37:08.294 --> 00:37:11.124
of bread or stuff like that and pick up little bits like that.

00:37:11.124 --> 00:37:12.991
So you're going to be self-sufficient like that.

00:37:13.531 --> 00:37:15.814
And the rest of it then was really getting your hands on water.

00:37:15.814 --> 00:37:18.594
Water is the heaviest thing. So you're going to pick up a few litres of that

00:37:18.594 --> 00:37:19.729
every day as you go along, you know.

00:37:20.490 --> 00:37:24.485
I see. So what recommendations would you have for others who have their sights

00:37:24.485 --> 00:37:27.474
set on a big circumnavigation? What advice?

00:37:28.059 --> 00:37:31.372
Are we talking about solo or a group? Let's go solo.

00:37:33.935 --> 00:37:39.255
But you know, the solo thing, I think the solo thing is absolutely doable,

00:37:39.255 --> 00:37:42.489
but it's not good for people who like the company of others.

00:37:43.063 --> 00:37:47.835
Because it can be lonely, and it is lonely because you don't know where you're

00:37:47.835 --> 00:37:51.788
going to end up. and many a night I camped out and there was nobody around.

00:37:52.055 --> 00:37:56.241
So it's just you in your tent. You're sitting there and it's only really you and your thoughts.

00:37:56.740 --> 00:38:00.115
So that would be the first thing I'd say because I think people don't think

00:38:00.115 --> 00:38:02.690
of it that way. They'll have all the gear, they'll do all the prep,

00:38:03.003 --> 00:38:06.315
but you have to think about how you deal with this, how is your head going to

00:38:06.315 --> 00:38:10.370
deal with this, and are you going to be okay, especially after having a rough day on the sea.

00:38:10.654 --> 00:38:18.175
So look, and also I suppose the real thing about solo is that you have to have

00:38:18.175 --> 00:38:19.276
the answer to everything.

00:38:19.902 --> 00:38:23.795
So there's no one there to pull you out. There's no one there to give you a

00:38:23.795 --> 00:38:25.712
plaster if you forgot your first aid kit.

00:38:26.344 --> 00:38:30.005
There's no one there to supply you with food. You have to be self-sufficient,

00:38:30.005 --> 00:38:35.887
which means that you have to be clued in enough to be fit enough to do this, to be good enough,

00:38:36.444 --> 00:38:42.976
be smart enough to actually think it out, be kind of prepared for every eventuality really.

00:38:43.655 --> 00:38:49.805
Because again, you're on your own. And I think if you think about that and you

00:38:49.805 --> 00:38:54.328
prepare properly, I think anyone can execute a solo trip.

00:38:54.624 --> 00:38:58.055
Again, you know, you have to look at where you're going and are you good enough

00:38:58.055 --> 00:39:00.639
a paddler to handle it? Is your boat good enough?

00:39:01.331 --> 00:39:04.375
Is your fitness good enough? Are your preparations good enough?

00:39:04.375 --> 00:39:06.712
And have you got enough supplies and stuff like that to do it?

00:39:07.124 --> 00:39:09.704
But if you prepare, of course you can do it.

00:39:10.539 --> 00:39:15.257
You know, team stuff, I say the advice I would say to anybody about team stuff,

00:39:15.257 --> 00:39:18.685
John, is that make sure you know who you're going with.

00:39:19.387 --> 00:39:21.139
Because you think you know people.

00:39:21.859 --> 00:39:24.817
You might have paddled with them, do an hour paddle, a two-hour paddle here

00:39:24.817 --> 00:39:28.059
and there, met them for a weekend and stuff like that, went out and had a few beers.

00:39:28.459 --> 00:39:33.157
That's not the person you're going to see on day seven or day eight or day ten

00:39:33.157 --> 00:39:36.780
of a trip when the weather's been crappy. It's been raining.

00:39:37.392 --> 00:39:40.505
You haven't food. You haven't had a pint in a while.

00:39:40.992 --> 00:39:43.187
You're just living in, you know, you're living in this kind of,

00:39:43.187 --> 00:39:46.037
you know, this old miserable conditions.

00:39:46.473 --> 00:39:50.777
That's where people kind of, that's where you have to be careful that people

00:39:50.777 --> 00:39:55.867
don't kind of lose the plot and everyone, and a big row breaks out because that's

00:39:55.867 --> 00:39:56.974
what can wreck a trip on you.

00:39:57.288 --> 00:40:00.643
And then, you know, also if you're putting a team together, I would say that,

00:40:01.263 --> 00:40:05.269
make sure that the team have the necessary skills to carry out the trip.

00:40:05.601 --> 00:40:10.395
So again, it's not about picking the four fastest paddlers, or five or however many,

00:40:11.097 --> 00:40:15.267
are the four slowest paddlers or the four best people that are cooks but make

00:40:15.267 --> 00:40:19.467
sure that you have the range of skills between you that you can actually do

00:40:19.467 --> 00:40:22.995
what needs to be done on a daily basis and that you have a kind of,

00:40:23.653 --> 00:40:26.887
an easy going approach to stuff because if you go out there with a kind of a.

00:40:28.013 --> 00:40:32.147
If you go out there and you can't accept that the weather has gone against you

00:40:32.147 --> 00:40:34.857
and that you didn't get the 13 wells in that you were supposed to have got in

00:40:34.857 --> 00:40:38.717
today, you know you have to be able to just accept stuff as it happens on the trip and I,

00:40:39.177 --> 00:40:43.019
accept the good stuff but I accept the bad stuff as well if it happens and move on,

00:40:43.582 --> 00:40:46.862
tomorrow's another day and you can kind of restart again, you know.

00:40:48.125 --> 00:40:52.203
So what's next for you from a paddling perspective? Well, it'd be nice to be

00:40:52.203 --> 00:40:55.405
able to get out in the water here at the moment. Do you know what?

00:40:56.183 --> 00:41:02.443
I trained last year. I trained really hard because I finished a PhD and I spent

00:41:02.443 --> 00:41:06.283
a lot of time sitting down in the last four years, even in the summer.

00:41:07.033 --> 00:41:11.423
So I was out to get in a new boat. I'm paddling a Ninyuk Ultra at the moment,

00:41:11.423 --> 00:41:15.809
which is the brand new design out from Rob Feli, made by Kernfield Kayaks there in the UK.

00:41:16.970 --> 00:41:22.683
The ultra is the new version of the classic inyuk that you might be familiar

00:41:22.683 --> 00:41:25.356
with but this is 20 feet long,

00:41:26.463 --> 00:41:33.333
super gear carrier fantastically stable and a great cruising boat really moves

00:41:33.333 --> 00:41:35.340
well on the water so last year,

00:41:36.106 --> 00:41:39.553
i wanted to just get fit again and i wanted to do something i thought look will

00:41:39.553 --> 00:41:43.343
i do a crossing around ireland wasn't really an option at the time you know

00:41:43.343 --> 00:41:47.250
what i mean but i I said I'll do something else. So I had a look at paddling around Achille Island.

00:41:47.458 --> 00:41:53.958
And Achille Island is a 40-mile route up the northwest of Ireland there.

00:41:54.589 --> 00:41:56.551
So I had my sights set in that all summer.

00:41:57.207 --> 00:42:00.399
And I eventually got to do it on the 18th of October last year.

00:42:00.747 --> 00:42:03.173
Because the weather was pretty flaky all summer here. And I thought,

00:42:03.173 --> 00:42:06.243
look, Achille is someplace that you're not going to go out there because it's

00:42:06.243 --> 00:42:08.757
about as west of Ireland as you're going to get.

00:42:09.419 --> 00:42:13.583
But I had a go at that and I took it on. and even though the weather was cold

00:42:13.903 --> 00:42:18.483
and the evenings were closing in and stuff like that I did that 40 miles knocked

00:42:18.483 --> 00:42:20.112
it out in 6 hours and 6 minutes,

00:42:20.794 --> 00:42:24.724
And I thought to myself, okay, I can still do this, you know.

00:42:26.944 --> 00:42:30.124
And it was kind of to prove to myself, you know, that I could kind of get myself

00:42:30.124 --> 00:42:35.247
back fit again with a view that I might take on the Ireland trip again.

00:42:35.758 --> 00:42:42.758
Because I thought the last time, I didn't set out last time to break records.

00:42:43.072 --> 00:42:47.002
I set out the secret if I do it because my back had been so bad, you know.

00:42:47.240 --> 00:42:51.934
And I went from a point a few months before I did the Ireland trip of like every

00:42:51.934 --> 00:42:55.216
time I pull on the paddle on my right-hand side, I'm going to get a twinge in my back.

00:42:55.430 --> 00:42:58.494
That's the way I was. I thought, oh, no, don't tell me.

00:42:58.504 --> 00:43:01.724
You know, don't tell me I'm done. I can still paddle, but when I wanted to put

00:43:01.724 --> 00:43:04.401
a bit of anger into the paddles, it was just hurting me too much, you know.

00:43:05.029 --> 00:43:09.445
And then I took off on the trip to complete it, really.

00:43:09.846 --> 00:43:13.504
And I was lucky enough to do a fast time. Now, I still had to paddle hard and

00:43:13.504 --> 00:43:17.604
stuff like that, but I think if I was going to do it again, I might think about

00:43:17.604 --> 00:43:21.798
actually going out to try and see, could I take a few days off at that time?

00:43:22.367 --> 00:43:26.544
So I'd like to do that. I don't know if I'm going to get the opportunity.

00:43:28.584 --> 00:43:31.545
You know, I've got a family and stuff like that. But you know what?

00:43:31.916 --> 00:43:33.066
I'll start training for it.

00:43:33.705 --> 00:43:36.462
You know, I'm fairly fit. I'm okay at the moment and stuff like that.

00:43:37.030 --> 00:43:40.414
And I might start putting in a few long paddles. And again, if the opportunity

00:43:40.414 --> 00:43:42.070
arises, then I'll be ready.

00:43:42.714 --> 00:43:48.134
Because Curtin Across in the UK there now, Rob Feli is designing another new

00:43:48.134 --> 00:43:52.774
boat because the Inuit Gultra is just that bit long. It's 20 feet long.

00:43:52.774 --> 00:43:55.311
Some people don't like the idea of a 20-foot sea kayak.

00:43:55.794 --> 00:44:00.849
It's just they can't get their heads around it. You know, it needs to be kind of 18 feet.

00:44:01.215 --> 00:44:05.244
So he's developing, and we're collaborating a bit on it, of developing a new

00:44:05.244 --> 00:44:08.924
sea, a new kind of fast sea kayak that's going to be kind of out there with

00:44:08.924 --> 00:44:11.775
the lake of the Taran and stuff like that. And...

00:44:12.560 --> 00:44:16.889
If that's ready, I might have a go on that. So you'd never know what would happen

00:44:16.889 --> 00:44:20.349
this year, maybe June, July, you know. But it's only if I get the opportunity,

00:44:20.349 --> 00:44:22.327
John. Anything can happen in the meantime, you know.

00:44:23.140 --> 00:44:27.406
Well, that's certainly interesting. We'll have to watch for that development possibly in the future.

00:44:28.025 --> 00:44:32.949
It could happen, you know. I mean, look, the coastline around here is great.

00:44:32.949 --> 00:44:38.639
And I love paddling, John, same as anybody. And the lovely thing about me living

00:44:38.639 --> 00:44:43.429
here where I am and Tremor here in Watford is that The sea is only two miles

00:44:43.429 --> 00:44:45.049
away from me, even less than that.

00:44:45.392 --> 00:44:50.049
And I can get a kayak on the roof, get on the water, get an hour-long paddle

00:44:50.049 --> 00:44:54.476
in or maybe do a few intervals or do whatever out there to keep it interesting and come home again.

00:44:54.784 --> 00:44:56.862
So the whole thing takes an hour and a half, you know.

00:44:57.415 --> 00:45:00.359
So I'm blessed in the way that we have that here.

00:45:00.359 --> 00:45:03.599
So I'm able to train and we keep training.

00:45:03.599 --> 00:45:08.959
And then, look, if you get yourself fit in terms of if family allows me to do

00:45:08.959 --> 00:45:13.615
it, things are right and if the weather is right, you could just decide, listen.

00:45:14.629 --> 00:45:20.511
I'm going to take a go at this again and maybe spend two and a half weeks or

00:45:20.639 --> 00:45:23.786
whatever length of time it's going to take and give it a go, you know?

00:45:24.434 --> 00:45:26.930
So tell us about the kit that you use for your trips.

00:45:27.601 --> 00:45:30.949
The boat I use, I mean, for Iceland, we went off to Iceland.

00:45:31.269 --> 00:45:35.429
We initially had paddled an Orcap, then I moved on to a Nigel Foster Legend,

00:45:35.429 --> 00:45:39.889
which I've had for years and years, went on to a turn, and I have the Ultra

00:45:39.889 --> 00:45:43.362
at the moment, the Inuk Ultra. As I like the idea of,

00:45:44.099 --> 00:45:48.674
boat design pushing on John. I just look around at the manufacturers and stuff

00:45:48.674 --> 00:45:52.294
like that and there's so many manufacturers out there and all they're doing

00:45:52.294 --> 00:45:57.904
is creating the same version of the same old designs that are sitting there for the last 40 years.

00:45:58.310 --> 00:46:02.184
So it's a high volume version or a middle volume or a short version or a long

00:46:02.184 --> 00:46:04.493
version or a skinny version of the same bloody boat.

00:46:05.178 --> 00:46:10.974
So I like the idea that John Willis went out and designed the Tarn and that

00:46:10.974 --> 00:46:13.574
was a kind of a radical kind of a change. It's like the front of a whitewater

00:46:13.574 --> 00:46:17.066
racer to the back of a sea kayak with that kind of skimmed off hull on the thing.

00:46:17.415 --> 00:46:19.940
But you know it's kind of, it's just pushing it on from the norm.

00:46:20.555 --> 00:46:24.084
And then with Rob doing the Ulta as well, and he also designed the Inuk duo,

00:46:24.084 --> 00:46:27.431
which the two lads, Ollie Hickson I forget the other man's name,

00:46:27.773 --> 00:46:30.867
came down from Greenland in, the voyage of the Finmen.

00:46:31.128 --> 00:46:33.254
George Barton. George, yeah.

00:46:34.244 --> 00:46:39.030
Sorry, yes. I hope George does not listen to this now. He's killing me for not remembering his name.

00:46:39.459 --> 00:46:43.184
But that And that was Rob's boat as well. So I've got the single version of

00:46:43.184 --> 00:46:45.744
that boat that he has there. So I like the idea of that. And that's why I'm

00:46:45.744 --> 00:46:49.164
paddling the ultra now is that I like the idea of this kind of like people trying

00:46:49.164 --> 00:46:54.144
to innovate, going out with, you know, taking on and bringing out these radical designs.

00:46:54.573 --> 00:46:56.988
That's what I have at the moment. So boat is most important.

00:46:57.122 --> 00:47:01.514
So when you ask me about kit, okay, you've got to have a kayak that's going

00:47:01.514 --> 00:47:02.509
to do the business for you.

00:47:03.142 --> 00:47:05.874
You've got to have a kayak that you can handle. And you've got to kind of have

00:47:05.874 --> 00:47:07.791
a kayak that you can handle in rough stuff.

00:47:08.244 --> 00:47:11.624
So all these boats, all these skinny boats, all these fancy surf skis,

00:47:11.624 --> 00:47:14.404
everybody likes the look of them when they're on the car, but you've got to

00:47:14.404 --> 00:47:18.252
be able to handle that in rough conditions or conditions that you're going to encounter out there.

00:47:18.716 --> 00:47:21.684
So I'm lucky enough, I came from a K1, bit of a K2 background,

00:47:21.684 --> 00:47:23.244
so I had reasonable enough balance.

00:47:23.686 --> 00:47:26.724
I was able to paddle that boat. So your boat is one thing, it has to be able

00:47:26.724 --> 00:47:28.944
to do it, it has to be watertight, it has to be strong enough,

00:47:28.944 --> 00:47:30.872
it has to have enough volume to carry the gear.

00:47:31.685 --> 00:47:38.591
In terms then of paddles, I've been using carbon fiber wings for a long time.

00:47:38.591 --> 00:47:41.221
I mean, I moved to a wing paddle there years and years ago and I never looked

00:47:41.221 --> 00:47:42.016
back, you know what I mean?

00:47:42.422 --> 00:47:46.261
And I have several sets of paddles there, anything from kind of marathon racing

00:47:46.261 --> 00:47:51.563
paddles up around kind of 800, 775, 800 square centimeters down to a kind of

00:47:51.720 --> 00:47:56.445
a medium blade, you know, something like the Epic, the small middle wing or that kind of thing.

00:47:57.110 --> 00:48:00.991
And again you got to be able to use wing paddles John because the standard flat

00:48:00.991 --> 00:48:05.196
paddle is great the wing paddle is really only good for one thing and that's going forwards,

00:48:05.771 --> 00:48:09.571
so you get a good powerful forward stroke for things like sculling and supports

00:48:09.571 --> 00:48:13.111
and stuff like that it's not as good as a flat paddle so you got to be confident

00:48:13.111 --> 00:48:15.715
enough with that so like unless you're able to use a wing

00:48:16.092 --> 00:48:19.341
I give it time to learn it stick with the flats if that's what you're doing

00:48:19.341 --> 00:48:21.787
you know and then as for other kind of kit,

00:48:22.389 --> 00:48:26.931
I would paddle a lot of time in just standard old thermal vests So many brands

00:48:26.931 --> 00:48:28.021
out there are Heli Hansen.

00:48:28.826 --> 00:48:34.298
Any sort of thing like that. I don't use dry suits because I just get too hot.

00:48:34.318 --> 00:48:37.648
They're too cumbersome. I actually hate too much gear. I actually like the idea

00:48:37.648 --> 00:48:42.258
of just padding in the T-shirt and maybe some sort of a pair of shorts or something like that.

00:48:42.278 --> 00:48:46.334
I hate too much kit on me. I just feel totally restricted.

00:48:46.915 --> 00:48:52.178
But again, if I am going out into ruffer stuff like that, I got some coke, that stuff.

00:48:52.625 --> 00:48:55.088
And I'm not sponsored by anybody, John. That's the other thing I say.

00:48:55.088 --> 00:48:58.898
When I mention these names and things like that, I pay for everything I get.

00:48:58.898 --> 00:49:00.363
I've never got anything for free.

00:49:01.164 --> 00:49:04.158
And I don't go kind of go looking for gear and stuff like that.

00:49:04.158 --> 00:49:08.538
But I did, look, I do look at Coke at that stuff as being the best stuff out

00:49:08.538 --> 00:49:11.119
there. You know, the Gore-Tex, it is amazing stuff.

00:49:11.363 --> 00:49:13.395
And it's bloody expensive.

00:49:14.438 --> 00:49:20.141
And that's why we don't have too much of it here. But, and I use that and maybe a pair of solid pets.

00:49:20.760 --> 00:49:24.052
Standard enough spray deck, an ordinary neoprene spray deck.

00:49:24.330 --> 00:49:26.827
But that's the kind of, the case. And then when I'm camping,

00:49:27.494 --> 00:49:30.089
Out, I use a Hillybird tent.

00:49:30.791 --> 00:49:36.201
I mean, Hillybird is great stuff. Again, it is ridiculous money, but it's worth it.

00:49:36.491 --> 00:49:39.198
And one of the things that I say, one of the things I say, John,

00:49:39.198 --> 00:49:43.759
is that, you know, for anybody on an expedition, if it all goes wrong,

00:49:44.354 --> 00:49:49.525
you need to have something to get into the night where you can crawl in and be safe and be okay.

00:49:49.873 --> 00:49:54.038
And, you know, this idea of bringing rubbish tents and things that are half

00:49:54.038 --> 00:49:57.178
fallen asunder and that are 25 years old and all that. I mean,

00:49:57.178 --> 00:49:58.906
for me now, that would crack me up completely.

00:49:59.254 --> 00:50:01.618
So I'd always make sure that I'd have a good tent.

00:50:02.198 --> 00:50:04.978
And there's plenty of lightweight stuff there, but a tent that's going to work

00:50:04.978 --> 00:50:06.986
and it's going to do the business for you and it's going to protect you.

00:50:07.317 --> 00:50:09.337
And also in terms of a good sleeping bag as well.

00:50:10.046 --> 00:50:14.519
So, Western Mountaineer, and again, you know, that stuff is really,

00:50:14.519 --> 00:50:17.662
really fantastic. It's over your neck of the woods there, but it works.

00:50:18.231 --> 00:50:22.760
And, you know, a jet-biled cooker, I like the idea of expedition food.

00:50:23.352 --> 00:50:26.249
That's the brand I would use as well. Again, I don't get this for nothing.

00:50:26.249 --> 00:50:27.467
I'm only telling you what I use.

00:50:27.886 --> 00:50:31.479
But expedition food is freeze-dried stuff. So, it means that you can carry a

00:50:31.479 --> 00:50:33.632
good few dinners with you, and all you have to do is add water.

00:50:34.225 --> 00:50:36.680
And it means that you can move fast, and you can move life.

00:50:37.315 --> 00:50:40.107
And you don't have to try and go to a shop, and you're not looking for fresh

00:50:40.328 --> 00:50:43.569
vegetables and stuff like that, which takes, it's not so much the weight of

00:50:43.569 --> 00:50:45.394
it, it's the time it takes you to get it.

00:50:45.586 --> 00:50:49.639
So at least that if you have a lot of freeze-dried stuff with you and maybe

00:50:49.639 --> 00:50:53.550
kind of dry food, all you need to do is add water and then you can keep moving.

00:50:53.678 --> 00:50:58.340
And then by using something like a jet boil, it's instant. It happens fast.

00:50:58.490 --> 00:51:02.009
And it means that then you can spend less time eating and more time on the water

00:51:02.329 --> 00:51:03.518
or resting as well, you know?

00:51:04.116 --> 00:51:07.279
So no matter how light and fast you're trying to travel, what's the one piece

00:51:07.279 --> 00:51:10.763
of luxury kit that you have to take on your trips luxury.

00:51:11.429 --> 00:51:17.239
Do you know i suppose my camping pillow i'd say if you want to you know if you

00:51:17.239 --> 00:51:22.889
want to talk about a piece of kit i mean look a few bars of chocolate a few bits of fruitcake is is,

00:51:23.509 --> 00:51:26.429
is always good lovely stuff like that but if you're talking about a piece of

00:51:26.429 --> 00:51:33.057
gear i mean look i just see i see camp i see you expedition as three parts of it.

00:51:33.464 --> 00:51:36.639
There's the paddling end of things, there's the sleeping end,

00:51:36.639 --> 00:51:39.850
there's the eating end of things. That's all you've got to think about really.

00:51:40.725 --> 00:51:43.779
And you've got to be comfortable. I mean, after putting a hard day on the water,

00:51:43.779 --> 00:51:45.677
you've got to sleep well too.

00:51:46.025 --> 00:51:49.879
And I think a good pillow, I've got an inflatable pillow, I don't know who makes

00:51:49.879 --> 00:51:52.219
it, I think Exped, I think it is a little light little thing.

00:51:52.463 --> 00:51:55.679
And it's only something that's just blow up, but it's really nice and you get

00:51:55.679 --> 00:51:59.626
a good night's sleep on the thing. Yeah. So that would be one.

00:52:00.258 --> 00:52:04.992
I think anything, John, I think anything, John, that just helps you be efficient.

00:52:05.723 --> 00:52:08.939
And you have to take out, you know, you have to take a kind of a lean.

00:52:08.939 --> 00:52:13.676
I know we're almost kind of looking at taking this from a manufacturing thing,

00:52:14.130 --> 00:52:18.438
but you've got to be lean and you have to look at stuff and think, okay, look,

00:52:19.215 --> 00:52:22.878
Do I need to take all this stuff that I have? Do you really need it?

00:52:23.163 --> 00:52:25.310
If you don't, well, then don't take it with you.

00:52:25.601 --> 00:52:31.044
And anything that's in your boat or with you needs to be part of the team.

00:52:31.044 --> 00:52:33.534
You know what I mean? It needs to be there for a reason, and it needs to be

00:52:33.534 --> 00:52:36.642
good, and it needs to work, and it needs to do what it's supposed to do.

00:52:37.221 --> 00:52:41.680
Because you can't afford to have kind of rubbish with you and stuff that's going to let you down.

00:52:42.115 --> 00:52:45.364
Because a lot of the time, you might be in a position just to walk down to the local shop.

00:52:45.444 --> 00:52:49.084
So you know what I mean? Your gas stove has to work, and your cooking stuff,

00:52:49.084 --> 00:52:52.634
has to work and your food has to work for you and you got to think about all

00:52:52.634 --> 00:52:54.607
this kind of thing and all your gear has to work for you,

00:52:55.211 --> 00:53:00.084
and that allows you then to kind of get on with the job and not be relying or

00:53:00.084 --> 00:53:01.517
not be hoping for the best that,

00:53:02.172 --> 00:53:04.756
the gear might just stay going or not stay going you know.

00:53:05.544 --> 00:53:09.184
I have to agree with you on that uh inflated inflatable pillow i can't tell

00:53:09.184 --> 00:53:13.074
you how many trips i'd been with rolling up clothes and tucking them into a

00:53:13.074 --> 00:53:16.044
bag and using that as a pillow and other kinds of goofy scenarios.

00:53:16.044 --> 00:53:20.613
And then I decided I put the money down and bought an inflatable pillow and it changed my life.

00:53:21.576 --> 00:53:24.924
I'm telling you, they're great. And you know, if that's what you need to do,

00:53:25.244 --> 00:53:28.574
or you need to get out, spend something for a good camping mat.

00:53:28.783 --> 00:53:32.464
I mean, you know, it costs a lot of money, all this stuff, the Thermarest,

00:53:32.464 --> 00:53:35.674
and I think it's that, all that Neoware things. You know, I don't have one of

00:53:35.674 --> 00:53:38.894
those. I have one of the lower spec ones, but they're a lot of money.

00:53:39.027 --> 00:53:42.191
They might be $200, they might be 250, whatever they are.

00:53:42.354 --> 00:53:46.304
But you know something, if it means you're going to sleep well get one just

00:53:46.304 --> 00:53:50.484
spend the money because it makes because when you've battered yourself all the

00:53:50.484 --> 00:53:52.543
day and you've killed yourself out on the water

00:53:52.956 --> 00:53:55.914
you need to get a good night's sleep and there's nothing better than getting

00:53:55.914 --> 00:53:59.214
into your tent in the night time knowing that you're not going to wake up in

00:53:59.214 --> 00:54:02.917
a puddle of water in the morning and you're knowing that you're going to sleep well

00:54:03.329 --> 00:54:05.964
and knowing that you're going to wake up somewhere refreshed the next day to

00:54:05.964 --> 00:54:08.745
be at least to be able to take on the following day you know,

00:54:09.633 --> 00:54:13.514
so i would be i'm not a gear junkie I wouldn't be one of these people now who

00:54:13.514 --> 00:54:16.324
would be kind of swapping and changing gear the whole time.

00:54:16.324 --> 00:54:21.127
But anything I would get, I would try and get the best that I could afford at the time.

00:54:21.912 --> 00:54:26.366
And then mind it and look after it. And all this stuff, if you look after stuff,

00:54:26.366 --> 00:54:27.444
you'll have it for years.

00:54:27.647 --> 00:54:30.916
Oh, absolutely. Good gear that you buy good gear and look after it.

00:54:30.916 --> 00:54:32.030
You're right. You'll have it forever.

00:54:32.647 --> 00:54:35.756
Yeah. I mean, I remember a guy was in the Scouts years ago and he gave me the

00:54:35.756 --> 00:54:38.426
best piece of advice for a tent. He said, there's two things he said.

00:54:38.426 --> 00:54:40.472
Remember, key, you'll have a tent for a long time.

00:54:40.814 --> 00:54:44.296
He said, the first thing he said is always dry it out when you've used it.

00:54:44.296 --> 00:54:46.085
Don't ever put it away wet, he said.

00:54:46.346 --> 00:54:49.278
And the second thing he said is never loan it to anybody.

00:54:50.176 --> 00:54:53.016
And he said that's how your tent and that's how you'll have your tent for a

00:54:53.016 --> 00:54:54.444
long time and he was so rich you know yeah.

00:54:56.470 --> 00:55:00.116
So, Mick, this has been great. How can listeners reach you if they have any other questions?

00:55:00.675 --> 00:55:04.535
I have the website. I still have the email address. I have the website down

00:55:04.535 --> 00:55:07.525
at the moment because I gave up doing the paddle touring.

00:55:07.825 --> 00:55:12.993
I have a website, seapaddling.com. So that's S-E-A-P-A-D-D-L-I-N-G.com.

00:55:13.313 --> 00:55:17.195
It's down at the moment. I'm just re-looking at it. But they can get me on that

00:55:17.195 --> 00:55:20.255
email address at info at seapaddling.com.

00:55:20.772 --> 00:55:22.130
That's the easiest way to get me.

00:55:22.819 --> 00:55:26.615
All right. One final question that I have for you, Mick. It's a question that

00:55:26.615 --> 00:55:30.615
I ask all of our guests on the show, and that is, Mick, who else would you like

00:55:30.615 --> 00:55:33.156
to hear as a future guest on Paddling the Blue?

00:55:33.741 --> 00:55:37.365
I'll tell you who I've been interested in, and I've come across the website

00:55:37.365 --> 00:55:39.139
a good few times over the last few years.

00:55:39.493 --> 00:55:43.605
It's a guy called Mark Sundin, and Mark is in Australia. He runs a business

00:55:43.605 --> 00:55:47.975
there called Expedition Kayaks, and they're over in Sydney there.

00:55:47.975 --> 00:55:52.055
But he has, you know, if you look at the website there, they're always reviewing

00:55:52.055 --> 00:55:58.505
boats, comparing stuff, looking at kind of fast sea kayaks, kind of pushing

00:55:58.505 --> 00:56:01.861
on and challenging the norms, I suppose you might say, you know.

00:56:02.337 --> 00:56:06.595
And Dave also, he's done, you know, with a few of his buddies,

00:56:06.595 --> 00:56:10.569
done the Bass Strafe crossing there between Australia there and Tasmania.

00:56:11.201 --> 00:56:14.655
And so I think he'd be an interesting character. yeah he'd have a lot of opinions

00:56:14.655 --> 00:56:16.165
and stuff and i think it'd be worth uh,

00:56:16.757 --> 00:56:19.995
i think it'd be worth the chat very much so yeah that sounds great i'll have

00:56:19.995 --> 00:56:23.905
i'll take an opportunity to connect with mark and i've had a previous interview

00:56:23.905 --> 00:56:28.305
with beau miles from australia and we'll we'll go back down under and learn

00:56:28.305 --> 00:56:29.966
a little bit about bit from mark as well.

00:56:31.325 --> 00:56:35.925
Yeah absolutely yeah so mick i really appreciate your time today it's been fantastic

00:56:35.925 --> 00:56:39.731
learning about your personal experiences and your personal background as a paddler

00:56:40.061 --> 00:56:44.818
and your experiences on both trips going around ireland And I love your philosophy,

00:56:45.063 --> 00:56:47.895
getting to know people when they're cold, when they're tired,

00:56:47.895 --> 00:56:53.768
and really making sure that you can be inside your own head for a long period of time. Yeah.

00:56:54.343 --> 00:56:56.740
Okay, thanks, John. Great. Thank you. Thank you.

00:56:59.013 --> 00:57:02.588
If you want to be a stronger and more efficient paddler, Power to the Paddle

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The concept and exercises in this book have helped me become a better paddler,

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strokes more efficient,

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have the endurance to handle long days in the boat, drive through the toughest

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So visit paddlingexercises.com to get the book and companion DVD.

00:57:45.729 --> 00:57:48.651
I really enjoyed that conversation with Mick and was happy to be able to go

00:57:48.651 --> 00:57:50.913
into the archives to bring it back to the top of the list.

00:57:51.221 --> 00:57:55.708
I hope you enjoyed it too. Mick is really a great person, quite humble about out his success.

00:57:56.108 --> 00:58:00.468
A big thanks to our partners at OnlineSeaCayaking.com for extending special offers to you.

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Until next time, thank you as always for listening, and I look forward to bringing

00:58:19.471 --> 00:58:22.248
you the next episode of the Paddling the Blue podcast.

00:58:24.622 --> 00:58:27.941
Thank you for listening to Paddling the Blue. You can subscribe to Paddling

00:58:27.941 --> 00:58:32.197
the Blue on Apple Music, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

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00:58:37.492 --> 00:58:40.586
And you can find the show notes for this episode and other episodes,

00:58:40.690 --> 00:58:46.338
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00:58:46.652 --> 00:58:49.694
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