This morning, Chris Bertish of South Africa finished a 4,050-mile journey and became the first human to ever cross the Atlantic Ocean on a standup paddleboard (SUP).
Chris Bertish’s journey began on December 6th, 2016, when he left Agadir, Morocco and he’s been paddling across the Atlantic Ocean every day. He encountered countless sharks, huge wave swells, miserable trade winds, and a literal shit ton of other obstacles along the way. But that’s all in the past now.
Chris cataloged his journey on the website TheSUPCrossing.com, where blog posts and videos were shared from his 4,050-mile paddle across the Atlantic. At 8:32 am AST today, Chris landed in Antigua and successfully became the first SUP paddler to traverse the Atlantic.
When we think about typical standup paddleboards the normal wide-shaped surfboard style comes to mind, but Chris Bertish needed something unique for his unassisted crossing of the Atlantic. He was more or less paddling an entire fucking boat across the ocean. Check this thing out:
Chris tweeted his progress all the way from Morocco to Antigua, so if you want to go back and follow what his memorable journey looked like you can find him on Twitter HERE.
Over on the SUPtheMag Facebook page, they’ve put up all sorts of interviews with Chris from earlier today, taken from a press conference after he landed in Antigua. Here’s a quick story about his harrowing time in the Canary Islands:
You can also head on over to Grind TV for coverage of this monumental achievement.