South African Chris Bertish, internationally acclaimed Big Wave Surfer and Guinness SUP World Record Holder, on Friday reached the monumental 34°W mark in the Atlantic Ocean.
This brought him in line with the easternmost point of the mainland of South America, in his attempt to become the first person to ever stand up paddle across the Atlantic Ocean, on the Sup Crossing.
Bertish began this mammoth undertaking, on December 6 from the mainland of Agadir, in Morocco, 51days ago, paddling in a south-westerly direction past the Canary Islands, on December 20.
The entire journey will take Bertish across an estimated 4 000 miles/7 500 km’s of open ocean, alone, paddling the equivalent of over a marathon a day for over 90 days straight.
In the first 16 days of the expedition and in spite of harrowing weather conditions and numerous major systems failures, Bertish still managed to break the previous, solo unsupported and unassisted open ocean distance world record of 180 nautical miles set by Bart de Zwart and has gone on to set a new 300-mile open ocean world record.
He has also become the first person to ever paddle between the mainland of Morocco and the Canary Islands.
Every day since then, Bertish adds to the new world record and now by reaching 34°W longitude he has now travelled over 1,750 miles/3 240 km. – African News Agency (ANA)
