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Brendon Prince (Extreme Athlete)

On today’s Podcast, we have Brendon Prince, who became the first person to stand up paddleboard around mainland Britain. He began his circumnavigation in Torquay, Devon, on April 27 and arrived back on September 14. Over 141 days, he covered a staggering 4,203km on his SUP, and he hoped to complete it in 120 days. Unfortunately, winds plagued his journey from the start, and he lost a total of 22 days to the weather.

In completing the expedition, he broke three World Records

1. First person to SUP from Lands End to John O’Groats via the coast.

2. Circumnavigation of Mainland Britain.

3. Longest ever SUP journey approx 3800km.

One of the reasons Prince began the challenge was to raise awareness for water safety, which you can donate to below. We talk about the highs and lows of such a trip and one particular experience where Killer Whales hunted him. Let me know what you think and leave a review of the episode.

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Brendon’s Website

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Transcript of our Conversation

Brendon Prince

[00:00:00] Brendon Prince: Hello and welcome to the modern adventurer podcast coming up and then paddling. Thinking nothing are there and it’s not no nice night. It’s it’s drizzly. It’s Dre. It’s perfect. Perfect predator condition. So he say, and I’m paddling. And basically an Orca came up behind me and I actually saw was a fishing boat that I just hadn’t heard come up behind me because, and I, I can’t describe just how big these things are in the water and just how tall that finished standing out of the water.

So. Yeah, it actually surprised me so much. I fell off the board and I’m in the water thinking, do I panic and get out or do I just lie there? Interesting. You know, I mean, it’s world. There’s nothing like if it wants me, there’s nothing I can do about it. My next guest is an Adventurer and Teacher and it’s fresh off the board after 141 days Paddle boarding round, great Britain embraced the British weather and had some of the most [00:01:00] incredible experiences on his trip.

Encountering up moments with orchids, where he was thrown off his board and felt like he was being hunted by the Orca whales in Scotland on the podcast today, we talk about some of its incredible experiences and the why and why he did this incredible. So I am delighted to introduce Brendan prince to the podcast.

John, you awesome to speak to you, buddy. I really looking forward to a chat, so yeah. Awesome day. It is amazing to have you on your fresh off the paddle board. Any what? A couple, couple of weeks ago you were round the UK paddleboarding. How does it feel to be off? It’s a funny feeling, isn’t it? Cause it’s something that you kind of.

You dream of ending because that’s part of it. But then when it happens, it’s, I mean, I still feel like I’m on cloud nine. I still feel, you know, being away for four and a half months, 141 days, you lose perspective of a lot of things and [00:02:00] gaining those things back gradually each day is just. Well, for people who don’t know where you are, probably the best place to start before we jump into this incredible expedition that you did.

Why don’t you tell the audience sort of about you and how you got into paddle boarding and this sort of massive adventure? How did it all start? Well, I suppose, I mean, I started teaching water sports when I was 16 and went on lots of different expeditions. Back then it was more about maintenance here in the water as expeditions.

But it’s always been in there. And then you have children and that sort of changes perspective. And I stopped climate and did more and more and more stuff on the water. And then I got my first, I was given a paddleboard in 2007 as a, as a thing to try and you know, lots of people pointed and laughed when they saw me, because he was like, what’s that guy doing?

[00:03:00] Standing on a board and there’s no waves. But. And I’ve been paddling ever since. And it’s always been something that I thought, you know what? I could use this as a tool to have awesome people like yourself, listen to why what my, why is for doing it. So I thought, well, you know what, it’s a guy called Jordan White.

He tried to do it last year. Top guy, good friends. And for lots of reasons, it didn’t achieve. And I thought, well, now we’ll never really let’s give it a go. It’s going to be a slug. It’s one of those endurance events where it’s not just about what I do, but it’s more about how, what I do in the weather.

It’s all about the weather doing something like this. And yeah, 141 days later set a load of world records and got it. Well, yeah, we had Jordan on a F a couple of months back here, as I say, so unlucky with his attempt. But as he said, he he said your [00:04:00] name and said that you were doing this incredible trip.

And you know, such as I say, from, from the beginning, starting in Tor ki, I mean, what was the sort of big reasoning behind. It’s funny, isn’t it? Because that’s the key question that people ask and I’ve got a very big reason for it and that, and I’ve delved into my own mind to say, well, actually, could I have done this where they at that reason?

And I don’t think I probably could have done. I think you have to have a very strong motivation to do this, you know, getting up at four in the morning when it’s freezing cold in Scotland. W I C you know, even in the center, I see stuff on there’s wet. You know, you gotta have a good motivation and to paddle for 16 hours.

So my motivation comes from all about. Prevention of drowning or water safety. We live on an island great Britain, fantastic island, huge coastline, huge amount of inland waterways, but we unfortunately don’t [00:05:00] have the knowledge to support our, our geography and deaths through draining and accidents through draining, rescues through draining are just off the scale and bigger things have got to be done to keep everything in line, to try and do something about this.

And Having taught water safety in schools and as an instructor as well for three decades I’ve, I’ve tried every avenue and it seems that the, the 21st century way of teaching children water safety is to create an app. It’s perfect sense. I mean, let’s get w when they’re on their phones playing a game, but within that game, it’s all about water.

So these things cost a lot of money. So I thought, well, what crazy thing can I do to sort of raise this money and raise awareness and come in and paddling boarding around Britain seemed the obvious choice seen as I was a pilot boarder, I’ve got the experience, I’ve got the knowledge of the water and to put it and like Jordan, you know, I mean hats off to Jordan Wiley because he’s not a [00:06:00] paddling.

And he doesn’t have, you know, he’s water, not a Waterman. And he took the challenge on, which is just incredible. And then I took the challenge on and I got the skills and it was still a massive challenge. So yeah, that was my motivation for those 8 million pedal strokes. Oh God. Wow. And I mean, it is incredible that as you were saying, the why it’s just so important in these events to do, as you say, to get up at four 40.

And put on an icy wetsuit in the middle of Scotland. I mean, we had Sean Conway on, he swam around great Britain and he used the same. He was just like, God, the motivation sometimes when you are just so cold and you put on this IC wetsuit, and it’s amazing that you had that huge, why sort of driving you throughout.

And so for, for an expedition like this. The sort of planning that goes into it, because you must have had quite a decent support team around you [00:07:00] helping you throughout. Yeah. I’m, I’m very proud of our planning. Very proud because we can sit back now and look at it and nothing went. Which I’m sure it was a little bit of luck and there been a lot to do with planning.

So my mission was to not do it with any support on the water. And the reason for that is to prove that with the right skills, the right equipment, the right knowledge, you can actually undertake this. Venture. But I needed obviously a crew or land so that when I came in and that, and that, you know, half that, the problem, half the difficulty of doing what I did was the fact that I was coming in every night.

So you’ve got to smash it through waves. You’ve got to come back in three waves every night to get in. And that they’re the gnarly aspects. So I needed a crew often to guide me, cause I’d be surfing into beaches with massive waves. On a beach I’ve never served in before. I don’t know if there’s there’s hidden rocks or dangerous, so they would [00:08:00] watch for those and died me and signal for those sorts of things.

So, and also prepare my food and a bed to sleep in, in a van, you know, so land crew. So I had Willard, Harry once Will’s a professional video photographer, so he was documentary documenting what we’re doing, and Harry’s just an all round, super legend can turn his hand to anything and, and, and be a problem solver.

So between the two of them, there was. Eyes on the land. And especially, you know, certain parts of England, certain parts of Wales and a lot of Scotland, there’s nothing else. So, you know, and, and this was super important. Some people kind of, and I’ve spoke to some adventures, unfortunately, sadly that have an opinion that if anything goes wrong while we’ve got the RLI or the coast guard to come and save us I don’t view it like that.

I think it’s ultimate failure if you’ve had to resort to that type of rescue, because if we’re the right plan and even the unexpected you can deal with, and I had lots of unexpected, [00:09:00] but through skill and knowledge, you just deal with it to still be safe. And that was when I was trying to prove within the activity.

So Yeah. I mean, it’s a team effort really as a team effort and we’ll Harriet and Zoe and Lucy back at base in torquey where we’re all part of that team. And of course, I’ve got to mention as part of that team, my wife and children who were a big part of that team. Yeah. Because, because you left your wife and kids behind to support you from Tokyo imagines, probably the reason why you started from there as properly.

From cookies, my home turkeys. I can actually see, I could see some of the window now. Exactly what I started and where I finished. Oh, wow. That must be so nice. Yeah, that was part of it really. And I, I mean, I love tool bay. Being at a time within toolbag, I wanted to, to, you know, advertise where I live and the beauty of what I, where I live and put that on it as well, to support the local [00:10:00] businesses, that water business related businesses in Torbay.

And indeed, as I traveled around, you know, having as much interaction with stand up paddle boards, schools, and, and, and water people was, was a massive part of. And so you set off from talkie. Oh, tool bay back in April. And the idea was 90 days, was it? S and I remember you saying that, that was like, if everything went perfect, like the wind, the waves, like the whole, the weather, everything, but it took a little longer.

So what happened. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the plan was to leave Torbay turn right. And just keep turning right until I came back into tool bay, really simple concept. And my, my. Ideal of 90 days. It was based on the last five years, really of whether we haven’t had a [00:11:00] year’s weather, like, you know, like anything else for a long time.

I’ve got connections with different weather organizations, and they’ve said, you know, the recordings of wind on the, on our coast have just been ridiculous. But what the most important thing about that is when coming from the same direction for two weeks It’s almost unheard of, you know, without it changing.

And the issue is if you’ve got wind coming in your face for two weeks, it’s, you know, it’s ridiculous. It’s crazy. And that slows you up, you know, on a good day, I did 78 kilometers. When I was training back here, you know, I could do a hundred kilometers in a day with the right conditions. And yet I have.

20 days where I didn’t go on the water at all, because the weather was too bad. And I had another sort of 30 days where I did less than five K in a day because the weather was so bad. And, but I might’ve been paddling for 16 hours to do that. 5k, you know, it’s just so [00:12:00] demoralizing. So yeah. Had the weather massively against me in places.

Thankfully then as we got around. John and Dan, the east coast, it was more favorable to make a bit of ground up. But yeah, we completed an a hundred and forty, forty one days, so that’s a good chunk over, but Hey, that’s just the way it is. Sometimes you just got to go, go with it. Never against it. Yeah. I suppose for people listening and who don’t know much about paddleboarding, I mean, I did a.

Expedition in April and you CA you’re going at quite a slow pace. And when the wind’s in your face, it’s almost like a sale dragging you back. Yeah. That’s exactly it. You can show on a good day, I’d be doing eight kilometers an hour, so you can start to see, you know, if you’ve had them for 10 hours, how much, how much distance you can get.

Fantastic on a bad day, I’d be doing. Maybe one and a half kilometers an hour. [00:13:00] So in 10 hours of paddling, you’ve, you’ve, you’ve only gone as far as you can see, you know, it’s, it really is demoralizing and also brutal on the body because it takes 10 times amount of energy to go quarter the distance. Yeah.

And, and, and as you say, demoralizing in your mind, should, you know, Just absolutely nowhere. And you put in all their surfer. Yeah. I mean, there were some places around the coast where, you know, we’ve got big concrete sea defenses or promenades and because the wind was so strong, you trying to hug the coast because trying to get some shelter and often I’d be paddling.

And there was one particular time on the Northwest coast where I was paddling all day. All day. And basically the guy that walked past me cause he was fat much faster than me walking on the promenade in the morning with his dog, went walking again in the evening with his dog. And I was still in that stretch of water.

You know, it would have been so much easy to get out or walk the [00:14:00] beach and it was to paddle that, you know, that was part of the challenge. What makes it all fun. Good. And so I suppose what I suppose when you had the sort of westerly winds. Probably the start was the most brutal. Yeah. Well the Cornish coast corner will then Devin a bit like the Northwest coast of Scotland is different from the rest of our coastline because they always have Atlantic swell coming in.

So no matter what all the local national staff is doing, you know, if there’s a big, is a big storm or a winds and the Atlantic America is it comes this way then actually. So when we were in Devon and cool. You know, we had all the local wins and what that creates and the swell that correct. But then you’ve also got this five meter swell coming in from the Atlantic constantly.

And that fashion smashing the cliffs on top of all the other weather just means sometimes it’s just brutally [00:15:00] dangerous and you just can’t get. And yeah, that’s what we found. And so to start off, you know, in the first 30 days, half the time was sat watching rather than paddling because the weather was just too.

Wow, God. Well, just enormous waves when the hot, the whole nine yards. Yeah. All of that. And you know, there was a tire I’m going, I spent five days waiting, imbued, and the day actually paddled out was, is a 10 foot swell, 10 foot waves coming in there. So for most people, they were like, well, you’re not going out today.

And I said, well, actually once I’m back there, it’s not too bad. I just need to get out there and on a 14 foot ball, that’s never easy. So, you know, to get out there and I manage 10 K that day, but of course, if you got out there, you got to come back in and that can be the really sketchy part of serving massive waves on a 14 foot board trying to protect yourself.

But also the board is if I fold that board, if I damage that board, I’ve got to [00:16:00] still do it on that board. So, you know, you’ve got to be overly cautious to make sure I didn’t snap in half. All right. So you didn’t even have a spare one gain just in case because of part of the record attempt, you have to do it on one board.

So you know, it’s about fixing it. It’s about sorting if you smash it up, but that then means you’ve got a delay. So it was all about just looking after that board because it’s a priority. Absolutely. And so throughout that trip, what were some of the amazing moments from. Well, you got a seven, eight, you know, amazing motion for me personally.

So the days when you do get that 50 K in, in the morning you just fly in, you know, places like the men in straits, in Wales, where you’re doing 35 kilometers an hour places in Scotland where you’re doing, I mean, fastest. Speed was 39 miles and at 39 kilometers an hour, you know, you’re flying along. So [00:17:00] they’re, they’re exhilarating and amazing.

Some of the beaches surfing in, you know, fantastic, but really other than the amazing geography that we’ve got, it’s the, it’s the wildlife that create those magic moments. And there, I mean, I saw everything you know, hundreds of dolphins at one time, 10, 20,000 seals at one time, you know, in different places.

Whales, I saw pilot whales, Minky whales, and of course, killer whales. I saw porth Beadle shark. I saw massive stags, you know, on the beaches in Scotland, you know, watching sea otters play as you paddle past them in all these magic moments, create. Create a big smile on your face for the next 10 hours of pilot.

Cause you’re just thinking about, wow. I’ve just seen that, you know, as I come around a corner. So those moments really the magic ones come. And how close were you to the orcas or the killer whales? Yeah, so I this is just past Cape wrath and it was about seven o’clock at [00:18:00] night. So just started, I mean, there’s Scotland.

It doesn’t get light at that time. Midnight it doesn’t get dark until midnight but it goes that sort of desk issue at seven, eight o’clock and I’m paddling thinking nothing are there and it’s not no nice night. It’s it’s drizzly. It’s gray. It’s it was, it was perfect. Perfect predator conditions.

So we say, and I’m paddling and basically an Orca came up behind me. And I actually saw was a fishing boat that I just hadn’t heard come up behind me because. And I, I, you can’t describe just how big these things are in the water and just how Saul that finished stand out of the water. So proud. Yeah, and it, it, it actually surprised me so much.

I fell off the board and now I’m in the water thinking, do I panic and get out? Or do I just lie there? Interesting. You know, I mean, it’s world, there’s nothing. If it wants me, there’s nothing I can do about it. And I just let it cruise past the other side of my board. And it was like a submarine go by. It was that big.

And [00:19:00] then as I’m climbing back on my board, because I think I’m all good and safe and it’s cruised off another one just came up, brushed past my feet. And you know, that that moment of vulnerability can never be matched on anything I’ve ever done in any, you know, standing on top of a maintain or wherever it might be.

I’ve never felt that sort of. Minuscule that redundant that vulnerable ever. And then I had two more encounters with a back that evening where other mom and babies came to check me out. And then another encounter where they just felt like they were hunting me rather than. Just come in to have a look.

And at that point, I thought, you know what? It was about 10 o’clock at night. I’m getting off the water now because it’s just getting a bit too familiar. So yeah, that was my Orca experience. Amazing creatures. You know, they’ve never harmed anyone in the world, but it doesn’t help your mind from just going crazy.

Cause they’re so big. They’re so big. And if they, they got you mistaken as a seal and [00:20:00] chumped you up, no one would ever know because there’d be nothing left of you. Cause it would be one may fall for these guys. God, well, time to sounds absolutely incredible. Well, I speechless. It was, it was a crazy experience.

And one they’ll always have an, and then people say to me, oh, that’s amazing. Like I want to go up to Scotland and see orcas and, you know, best of luck to them. But I would quite happily never see one again on the water, because as I say, and the vulnerability of it, it’s just phenomenal to understand.

And I, and I encountered other way. When I was at there, the same feeling wasn’t there, you felt they were beautiful things and you were really watching them, whereas the killer whales, you know? Yeah. It’s that vulnerability that a killer whale offers when it’s, when it’s up close and personal. I mean, the adrenaline pumping through you at that time.

I mean, you can almost feel your hearts [00:21:00] through your chest. It is pumping. I mean I must have watched enough documentaries on watching them hunt seals and all sorts. So to actually feel like you were being hunted must have been quite the experience. Well, the last ones that I encountered, I actually saw a big male ahead of me.

Two, 300 meters. Cause you suddenly see the fin come and that in itself is just like takes your breath away and then it’s coming towards you and you think, yeah, it’s all good. He’s just coming to check me out. Just come to see. And it’s getting closer and closer and about 50 meters from me, I thought, well, I’m not going to keep heading at it.

I’m just going to turn off, you know, get bit, bit closer to land. And as I attempted to turn to came in from either side behind me, and you just think that is total predator. You know, if I was a seal, that would be the end of me. And it was at that point that I thought I just, I just, I’m not, I’m not comfortable anymore in this environment.

I need to jump off the water. So within about 20 [00:22:00] minutes, I found an exit pointing. Because in the wild, they sometimes with their prey, they just play with them in terms of like, they, they didn’t sometimes hunt just for the sake of killing. They like almost hunting and playing with them, teasing them to the point of like, I didn’t know, it’s like that.

I don’t know. I don’t know what it is, what they call it in the Y eh, this sort of technical term, but they. I think they sort of do it with great whites as well. They hunt them. They, and everyone’s just sort of, as you say, because probably see what they sort of feel the Mercy’s lovable creatures, but in the wild they are terrifying.

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I, up in Scotland, there’s lots of people and you know, all about coach watch seeing where they are and they tell you when they’re about and that sort of thing. And only be like a week earlier was watching some video footage of the seals, [00:23:00] Nia Gianna groups, sorry, the kiddo Wales near Gianna groups.

Close enough that the people could see it happening, but they were literally, as you say, brutally playing with seals and the throwing them around. And I had this blood in the water and you had this image. The only was about a hundred kilometers from where I was when I saw them. And you know, that’s their hunting ground.

They come, they sweep through there and. Nope. The seals, you see, you just think, crikey, you are taking your life in your hands, swimming around this. What do you need to head safe through? It’s safe. But yeah, it’s, it’s a wonderful thing to see in the wild. And so that always stayed with me, but something I don’t want to necessarily repeat well, what an experience and I suppose, well, that was one of your more exciting moments, but.

I mean 143 days, 141 days. Were there any sort of moments of trouble, like experiences where she’d look back [00:24:00] on and think, well, we’re supposed suppose we’ve just had one with the killer whales, but are there any other moments where you sort of look back and think God, that was quite testing? That was quite the day?

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And what I mean by that is cause, cause to, to be able to do what I did in. 41 days and 400 kilometers, you have to pretty much go Hedland to Hedland to cut that distance down and end up in Scotland. There are so many thinkers of, of land that you have to try and get. So I call them cross ends and crossings can, may anything from 30, 40 K.

And that can take all day. So your open water, I could be 30 kilometers off land, but you do a huge amount of planning to eradicate any dangerous. You know, you would only do that when you. You’ve got favorable conditions and all those aspects, the only [00:25:00] issue, and this is where knowledge and understanding and ability comes in up in Scotland.

And in other parts of the country, you’ve got things that can change and make weather within 15 minutes. And they are basically maintains and massive concrete you know, cities. So those things can create weather that no one’s planned for. And especially if it’s got and can change within 15 minutes.

And I had two occasions in Scotland where, you know, you read the weather and you can see the signs and it’s changed. And it was one particular time up in Scott. I actually. Saw it or change in his, started heading out further to see, because you’ve got a bit more understanding coverage in open water than being too close to the land.

And I mean, close to land within the first 10, 15 K can be brutally horrible. Because it’s right near it’s on the coast, whereas the weather system can be safer, [00:26:00] further. Right? So I plan, I, you know, I, I spent an hour going further out to sea and this weather system, this storm that had brewed, literally fell off the mountains in Scotland, hit me and I spent six hours basically paddling for your life.

Really. But I knew I had the ability to paddle for that sort of time. And the idea was that in those six hours, I just hold my position as best I can because within six hours I could have been another 50 to a hundred K off eight into the Atlantic, the north Atlantic as well. So not a place you’d want to be.

So for six hours, I just tried the best I can to help holding my position. And pretty much did that given. 10 or 15 K and then of course, once the storm passed and I could see, and I knew it would, those types of storms, you know, they roll through quickly. You just had to paddle in and it still had four hours to paddle after that to try and get into land.

And the beautiful thing about things like this is once I got [00:27:00] in that, that evening and I was destroyed, you know, I was, I was mentally and physically broken off that day. I spoke to my Latin crew and I said, guys, you know, It’s pretty close to dying that to this day, my Lanka are awesome because they just kind of carry on doing what they were doing and sort something out and they just looked up and well said, cool.

What time you in tomorrow now? You know, that’s what I needed. I didn’t need anyone to feel sorry for me, or I didn’t need anyone for for sympathy. I just needed to get on with it. And they were brilliant. They can show that happened. I remember having mark Baymont on and when he was talking about him, Around the world cycle.

He said, if you can just cut out unnecessary things that would sort of let you down. And he said, you know, no one needs to know how I fit. No one needs to ask me how I feel, because I’ll always feel crap, but just sort of be on the planning and say, okay, we need to do this. You don’t have to say, oh, how [00:28:00] do you feel.

You know, after site clean or paddle boarding like yourself for 16 hours, you’re not going to feel that great, but it, but as soon as someone asks you how you feel and you start telling them, then you start to bring yourself down. Whereas if you take that away from it and just focus on the job in hand, then that’s really what you need in that situation.

Because even in your mind, even in your mind, you want to sort of say, oh no, I should, I need to be feeling down and this, but if you have someone there, who’s just like, no, we’re not going down that route. You’re like, okay, great. I need to now focus on tomorrow. That’s exactly it. That’s exactly it. If I think if you articulate the troubles, they go to.

So you don’t and you know, from day one, I never moaned about anything and I always had a smile on my face and people would say, ah, you must be, you must be feeling so tired after that day. And I’d be like, no, no, because exactly that, as soon as you start saying, oh yes, it was really tough. And [00:29:00] you know, it starts to bring everybody down.

So smiley face it, you crack on with it. Otherwise don’t start it in the first place. Or it’s like, someone goes, you know, your knees must be killing and you haven’t even thought about your knees. Oh, yeah. Maybe they are feeling a bit weak at the moment. Yeah. That’s exactly the amount of times people say, oh, your shoulders must be.

You’re like, no, they’re all good. They’re all good. You know what? There’s only one person I mowed too. And he’s up there, you know, not, no one on planet earth would like mode. Exactly. Wow. And so coming into the finishing line, And a talkie and seeing all your family there and everyone that sort of greet you on the beach.

What was the feeling like? I mean, that is the million dollar question in that, you know, I said earlier how I started off by going right to them. They just kept turning. Right. And that last right hand turn into tour bay where suddenly the bay open. And I could see the people on the beach. [00:30:00] I mean, I was joined by a couple of hundred paddle boarders, so they were with me and that really helped to get the strength from them.

Cause I think I would have been on my knees, just you know, the, the emotion of it. But yeah, seeing the pupil on the beach here in the picture of people on the beach and then that last 500 meters paddling in beautiful conditions was something I’ll always remember, you know, always be with me Said, you know, I’ve, I’ve bottled it up and I’ve got bottles of it held that I can just open up in the years to come for sure.

Wow. And, and of course, I mean, this was any, a couple of weeks ago and it must have been quite a Welwyn sort of time for you the last couple of weeks, as you say, speaking to people like myself. And I mean, how is this sort of feeling being you’ve gone from a hundred. 41 days solidly getting up every day to go paddle boarding to subtly resting.

[00:31:00] Yeah. That’s. You have a uniform approach to life. When you’re paddling in that you get up, you eat, you paddle, you eat, you sleep, you get up, you eat you paddle and so on. And that’s incredibly uniform and you get used to that. After about six to 10 weeks, you kind of get used to that. It’s your system. All of a sudden it stops and it, and life is chaotic where there’s everyday totally different and there’s nothing uniform to it.

But I spent a lot of time preparing myself for it on the board. You know, you have 10, I have, I’m an average 10 hours, 15 minutes a day Padlet. So you got a lot of time to think about there. Put things in the boxes that need to be sought your life out mentally and the meditation, some people call it.

I mean, I just, I mean, I don’t know if it’s meditation, but I know that I had a lot of personal time to think about things and within the structure of the thought process because I put a [00:32:00] real structure in place is a lot of what happens next. So I had a lot of things to happen next to actually now I can do.

You know, when you’re paddling, you can’t, you can paddle and asset. There’s nothing else you can do. So it’s actually a really exciting time and I love it. And, and I also cool to just share stories with you and, and people as well, because I never got to share the stories whenever. You know, this, the, the Orca story, for example, I didn’t see any other humans other than whether the Harriet with, for another 10 days, because you just don’t see humans up in Scotland there like that.

So there’s no one to tell. So yeah. You know, to share the stories, relives it in your own mind, relives it in your own body, and that helps it. Yeah, it really does. And you’ve done a sort of documentary. So you did, you sort of keep a video diary of like day-to-day and you know, these sort of moments, because I always find, especially on a long trip like that, it’s very easy for it to slowly mold [00:33:00] into one.

Thing. And you forget those little moments along the way, whether it’s, you know, some old lady inviting you in for a cup of tea in the Hills of Scotland, or, you know, something like that, you wouldn’t be in anywhere near the Hills, but you know, it’s the, yeah. Did you keep it sort of video diary or journal or.

Yeah. So basically I kept a, a written journal just to remember those key points, you know, even simply of where we stayed, for example, that night, because after the next day you forgotten what happened the day before. So I kept that we’ll be in a professional videographer, photographer was cataloging.

Everything was meticulous with doing that. And it’s all those little moments. I mean, really. Issue. You’ve got it. I had, I found was capturing the absolute, most exciting moments on the board because I had a GoPro GoPro’s last an hour. [00:34:00] So you can’t have it on the whole time. So, you know, trust me when a, when an Orca comes up behind you, the last thing you think about doing is hang on a second there, just turn the camera on.

You know, it’s, it’s, it’s a really tricky and I’ve got some moments, magic moments, but Mississippi. That is just the way it is sometimes. But yeah, it’s important to have that. And I’m so excited about how we’ll and others will create the documentary and what, and how we produce what is paddling, but, you know, paddling the paddling sets a bit boring to watch after awhile.

It’s not really a spectator sport, is it? But paddling within. You know, the, the, the culture, the communities of this fantastic island is what it’s all about and the different conditions and the different coastlines and the different people. That’s what it’s all about. And that hopefully will depict that within and be able to see, I mean, in my mind, I see great Britain very differently.

I see Britain very difficult. I see this [00:35:00] whole island now in the way that if you visited a small island, you’ve just got the whole thing in your picture. And I’ve got that.

No very true. I think I think those sort of stories, as you say with paddleboarding, I imagine the story would be more about people and yourself and the sort of message, which is, as I say, a really interesting story to convey, and if Willow Harry who ever the videographer is can portray that. Yeah.

It’ll be a fascinating documentary to. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it’s, it’s almost, you know, I’m, I’m probably belittling video photographers that little here. So I apologize if that comes across at that, but capturing the magic of a beautiful scene as in the cliffs and the albatrosses and all those sorts of things almost seem easy compared to catching that one moment, like you said, let, the little old lady invites you in for a cup of tea and what that [00:36:00] means or vitamin for a shower, you know?

Cause showers are like, Yeah, pinnacle. As, as, as a warm shower, you know, you go, you go months with a bucket, share the back of the van. So when someone says, do you want to come in for a shower? You’re like, yeah. You know, it will catch you in those moments. They’re there the kind of. I think that, and that we’ve seen that with our social media, people love those moments to see those moments and can get a little bit blahzay about, oh, here’s another beautiful cliff.

You know, it’s so yeah, you’ve hit the nail on the head. It’s capturing those moments and prep portray in the mid, within the documentary. It’s so fascinating when you do these trips, such little things that mean. As you say, like a warm, hot food or warm shower, which, you know, day-to-day now you’ll probably just take for granted, but in those moments, it’s just like absolute gold at absolute gold.

You’ve hit it there. Absolutely. I mean, they made two times that, cause I [00:37:00] expressed that I love coffee and I paddle in, you know, seven beaches I’d actually paddle into. To just take a moment, you know, 10 minutes walking around on the beach, just revitalizes you to paddle another six hours and some, they would come down on the beach and just sort of hand me a coffee, you know, to say, we thought you’d want this just ham and just like, oh yes.

You know, absolute moments. And you know, you said, as you say, it’s the little things and I even now to go and make a coffee where I can just flick a switch. Rather than spending 10 minutes setting up the cooker, put it in on the gas, the gas takes 15 minutes to warm the water, you know? Yeah. It’s the little things.

Well, well, Brendan, it has been absolutely incredible listening to your stories and just what an adventure. Thank you. Just as amazing to share it. And yeah, I said he has been a very special time in my life. Well, there’s a part of the show where we ask them. [00:38:00] The guests the same five questions each time with the first question being, what’s the one gadget that you always take with you on the paddle board?

Oh, well, it’s gotta be the safety equipment really. That’s a bit boring though. Isn’t it? You could go with two, if you like. Well, the safety equipment has to be there and I had lots of different safety equipment where I could just literally press a button and satellite signals would do all that. So yeah, that’s super important.

But other than that, I probably have to say my, my aftershock headphones just cause they keep you company, you can listen to your family. You can listen to friends. Yeah. Really important and waterproof. I hope and totally water and float as well, which has come in handy a couple of times. Hi, Ben. What about your favorite adventure book or travel book?

Ooh. I would have to go with books that massively helped my, [00:39:00] and that’s any of Ghoulies books on how to read water haters. The weather. I mean, the guy is a phenomenal ability to, to bring together all the experiences around planet earth into, into his books and that hate to read water and had to read the weather are essential books, and he puts that into the adventure format.

So, yeah. Any of Christian Goonies books. Okay. Why, why are adventures important to you? They released. They take the soul to a very different place. And if you can bring that back then and share it, I think that’s a very important thing to do, especially with my work in schools. Lots of children don’t understand that they can do these things because they can’t see them, you know, and by going in and speaking to them, you are labeled them.

What the body can do and the body, our human bodies are amazing things and can be put through such tests. [00:40:00] So if I can share, you know, the little bits that I’ve done hopefully these people in the future, these kids in the future will smash what I do and then better it and go on and create and be better from it.

Yeah. I always think that’s the one thing is that people underestimate what their body is capable of or even their mind when it’s sort of focused in. I mean, it’s just, as you say, probably with what you’ve done or, you know, stuff I’ve done, it’s, it’s sometimes shocks you what you are actually capable of doing.

Yeah. You just got to. Yeah. Once you, and then once you do these things, you trust your own ability and you trust actually what you can achieve. And then all of a sudden, you’re, you’re five rungs up the ladder further than you ever thought you could, you could give you, yeah, we, we had Jamie Ramsey on episode five and he sort of said it was like blowing up a balloon.

And then it sort of deflates, but it’s slightly bigger the next time. And it just slowly gets bigger and bigger and bigger as it just inflates more. [00:41:00] Yeah, that’s a good way of putting it. There’s good way of putting it. And and then also, you know, when it’s gonna pop in a way that no one else does. So I always say that whatever your, your wildest dreams are, you, you’ve got another 20% after that actually.

If you push yourself and that’s still a safe limit before the balloon pops. Yeah. What about your favorite quote by, well, I’m a man of faith, so there’s lots of Bible passages that keep you going. But a single quote. Well, that’s, that’s a hard one. Anything that, anything that adds. Depth to motivation, really anything that adds the ability to hope.

I love most things that center around hope. I think hope is a fantastic word and is something that can be used so well to create bigger and better things on the planet. Nice. And people listening are always keen to [00:42:00] travel and go on these sort of granted ventures. What’s the one thing you would recommend for people wanting to get started?

So local first go local first, you know, it’s amazing, actually, what’s just around the corner to prepare you for what’s further a field you know, within Britain, we’ve got some of the best, we’ve got some of the gnarliest, we’ve got some of the ugliest coastlines and experience those. And then when you go abroad, because when the different spoons being in a different country is you’re adding you add in elements, the unknown whenever you’re.

Whenever you’re on the edge, then the least amount of unknown that you can put in there, the better you are, the better that you can actually succeed, what you’re trying to do. And the more chips you do abroad, the less I know things are, but, you know, start, start local and, and build us experiences at first.

Don’t go, don’t go big too soon. Otherwise you will be coming home to SU very true. And finally, what are you doing now? And how can people follow your [00:43:00] adventures in the future? So the next six months, they’re a huge six months for creating as much funds to, to make this app happen. This gamified water safety app happens.

So please check me out on the long paddle.co.uk, the long paddle as well can be found on all social media support. And I often say. Do you know what to be able to share what we’ve doing, whether it be on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or share our website with your database of human beings that you love and cherish on your social media is worth more than someone putting in a tenor.

And, and it only takes a few clicks to do that. So if you can share what we’re doing, you never know who that then reaches, and those people might be able to have help us in a way that we’ve never dreamt. So, yeah. Check us out on the long paddle.co.uk. Social media and just share the mission of what we’re trying to achieve, which is, you know, to reduce drowning in this country and then across the [00:44:00] world.

Cause you know what? 340,000 people drown every year on planet earth. It is off the scale. Wow. That’s a statistic. I did not know.

Well, Brandon, I cannot thank you enough for coming on the show. You’re very welcome. It’s fantastic to talk to you. I love talking to people who have a shared understanding and share a way of thinking on a venture in, so it’s been a pleasure. Yeah. I can’t wait for the documentary and hopefully the app to come out.

And as you say, you can [email protected] dot co.uk.co.uk and donate there. And. God, I can’t wait for the next big trip, wherever that might be. Yeah. There’s lots of things planned for next year. Just trying to work, work it through. Well, well, thank you so much. Absolute God bless. Thank you so much, John.

Really appreciate your time. If [00:45:00] you have you, haven’t already please feel free to subscribe to the shape because we have some incredible guests coming up week after week.

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