A couple of months ago I introduced you to Sean Smith — also known as FatPaddler — from Sydney, Australia.
As you may recall, Sean had a quest. To finish the 111km Hawkesbury Classic paddle to raise money to fight cancer. Well, this past weekend, FatPaddler did just that. After almost 17 hours of paddling, Sean reached the finish line.
In his own words…
It took me 18 hours, including two breaks which totaled about 90 mins (one at 28km, the second at the 58km mark). I paddled the last 53km without a break. It is hard to describe just how hard this was for me – in the pitch black, no one around, navigating by GPS, and in pain from every part of my body. Then in the early hours of the morning the problem of staying awake (I kept nodding off and waking up as I was about to fall out of the kayak). It was really a very grueling event, but i did manage to raise $3600+ for charity, of which over $1000 came from people on Twitter.
Check out this video for a sense of what it is like to undertake an effort like the Hawkesbury Classic and for more great images:
While Sean wasn’t paddling his Folbot Cooper (which he uses for nifty trips to places like Alaska), we are still proud of his accomplishment and wish him the very best on his next quest.
Good on ya, mate!
David A.
Tags: FatPaddler, folbot, folbots, folding kayak, folding kayaks, Hawkesbury Classic, kayak, kayaks, the front
