Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Kayaking From California to Hawaii

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Any day now, Wave Vidmar will begin an unsupported kayak trip from California to Hawaii (see the New York Times article, also the source of the above photo, here).
If all goes well, he will kayak the 5000 kilometers in 45 to 65 days.
Why would anyone want to something so seemingly impossible? Vidmar discusses this in a Huffington Post piece here. Also, kayaking from California to Hawaii unsupported is not impossible, as it's been done once before. In 1987, Ed Gillet paddled from Monterey to Maui, a somewhat shorter distance than Vidmar will attempt. His account of his trip is here, and here's a 2003 interview with him.
Below are two video clips, the first from 1987 of Ed being interviewed on The Tonight Show by Johnny Carson, and a second more recent clip from the TV show The Survivor Series.

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