Pass It On Africa’s Channel Paddle and The Sunrise to Sunset Challenge
This summer the charity that brought the city The HEROES RUN are putting on two sea based fundraising events one of which will be a World first.
Pass It On Africa are a small charity run by a team of volunteers that raises funds to build, maintain and develop three School/ Orphanage initiatives in Ghana, The Gambia and Kenya.
This summer a team of (normal ish blokes) including 1 Cabbie, 2 teachers, 1 paradmedic, 1 pizza delivery man, 1 carpenter and 1 water sports instructor will be attempting to be the first people EVER, to paddle the 72 nautical miles from Fecamp, France to Brighton Beach.
They’re doing this for 4 reasons.
1) Primarily to try and raise the 6,000 pound deficit needed to finish the building of a Junior School/Orphanage for the children of The Dreamland School, Ghana and its local community.
2) They’ve all gone up an age demographic and from wearing Medium to Large wet suits over the last few years.
3) They have to attempt it this year or potentially never because two of the team’s better halves are expecting their 1st and their 3rd before Christmas.
4) No one they’ve spoken to so far rates their chances of making it
The challenge is costing the boys approximately 3,500 of their own money 2,000 pounds to have the boards especially made for the crossing and 1,500 pounds for the hire of a boat and crew. They’ve paid for all of this themselves so that 100% of any donations they receive will go straight to the funding of this Junior School build and not on posh wet suits, GPS watches or mars bars.
If it all goes to plan there will be a big post Channel Paddle party in September and anyone who has donated more than a ten pounds will receive an invite and a free drink on the night.
They’re also going to be paddling continuously from The Palace Pier to round the West Pier and back for approx 16.5 hours from Sunrise to Sunset on Saturday 30th June as a fundraiser/training exercise.
How much training are they putting in for this cross channel paddle attempt?
When they’re not being a Dad or teacher, cab driver, charity worker, paramedic, carpenter or Water sports instructor each paddler is getting on the boards 1-2 times a week for about 1-1.5 hours at a
time. They’re each averaging a paddling speed of 2.5-3.5 miles per hour which is pretty much where they need to be at this stage of their training.
How grueling do they expect the challenge to be?
The muscles groups used when paddling are very specific. To give you an idea of the stress being placed on their necks back, shoulders and arms lie on the floor and see how long you can hold your arms, chest and legs off the ground for while moving your arms in a front crawl paddling style for. If it’s longer than a few minutes you are doing pretty well. Each team member will have to do this for at least an hour at a time maybe longer if anyone gets ill or injured during the crossing.
What are the main difficulties they will encounter?
The main difficulties facing the team will obviously be the sea and the hour to hour weather conditions. Regardless of how strong a paddler they are if the sea is against them they could be going backwards. The other difficulties will be fatigue, dehydration, salt water blistering, heat stroke, exposure, sea sickness to name the obvious ones. They are also at risk of channel ferries, tankers, trawlers and container ships who are too big to see them not to mention getting knocked out by the board itself in very rough seas. They will also need to be aware of the local inhabitants like a number of species of sharks like Blue Sharks, Short Fin and Makos who are all regular summer visitors to Channel waters.
As well as hopefully raising the funds needed to finish this School build they’re hoping they can bring an endurance World First to Brighton Beach. This particular Channel crossing route has never been successfully attempted on a paddle board.
How will the team make it happen?
Each paddler will do an hour to an hour and a half paddling shift in rotation. After his shift each paddler’s job will then be to keep an eye on the guy after him. The boys will keep going in rotation until they have successfully made it to Brighton Beach.
How long do you expect it to take?
Depending on the tides and their present average paddling speeds in training it could take anything from 24 hours to 40 hours to complete this endurance challenge.They are presently looking for locals Brighton and Hove companies or individuals to support them.
As well as donating to their online fundraising page at
www.justgiving.com/ChannelPaddleDuckRescue
You can also support the lads by texting the following PADL72 (pound sign) 1 to 70070
.They also have a facebook page and a twitter page and would love to hear what you all think about their sea channel paddle attempt.
www.facebook.com/events/167017900092092/
Twitter page = @abigpaddle
For more information drop James a line at james@pioafrica.org.uk or give him a ring on 07967 189 482
Training Routes
