Paddling & Windsurfing
I started paddling in a swimming pool at the age of sixteen. My friends and I began by practising Eskimo rolls. As we became more proficient paddlers, we left the swimming pool and entered more hazardous waters, including waterfalls and white-water rapids. Pain and injuries were unavoidable, but we persevered. The allure and thrill of kayaking in fast-flowing water became irresistible and led to more than a few close calls.
In 1994 I teamed up with three active mine divers and hatched a plan to cross the North Sea in kayaks from the UK side to the west coast of Norway. We were to be sponsored by McNulty Kayaks and Stolt Comex Seaway AS. Promised sponsored funding got diverted to my colleague and friend, ex-Naval SF and polar explorer Børge Ousland who also, at that time, worked for Stolt Neilsen Seaways as a North Sea saturation diver after he announced he would make a solo attempt to reach the North Pole, unsupplied. We never got to kayak across the North Sea, but Børge Ousland reached the North Pole. His was a marvellous achievement, much celebrated in Norway and difficult if not impossible to comprehend or appreciate the effort behind such a feat.
Windsurfing fast became a favourite sport. I would go out on the water as often as I could and continued to do so for a number of years after I left Norway.
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