We have heard about some grueling adventure challenges over the years, but the latest ambition for two brothers to paddleboard 2,200 miles from Alaska to Mexico sounds insane.
The brothers Casey and Ryan Higginbotham set off from Ketchikan, Alaska on Friday March 18 with the goal of covering 10-25 miles per day. The pair is travelling by two 18-foot paddleboards, equipped with custom racks to carry 70 pounds of food, clothing and gear.
And get this: The brother’s are paddling by hand. That means they will be leaned over pumping those shoulders for a grueling 100 days at least.
The pair said they hatched the plan simply out of a need for adventure. The two were seniors at Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo when they came up with the idea.
“We were just shooting ideas back and forth in Ryan’s room, and it all kind of came together,” Casey Higginbotham told the Associated Press. “And, you know how a lot of ideas kind of never come to fruition, but we just kept processing it, like, `All right, let’s really do it. We’ll start working with shapers (for the paddleboards), start working with companies (for sponsors) and all right, here we go. Let’s do it.’ And now we’re here in Ketchikan.”
On the first leg of their journey, the brothers plan to cover 100 miles to Port Rupert from Ketchikan. You can follow their adventure on Instagram or through their web site at NorthAmericanPaddle.com.
In a similar feat of paddling endurance, last year a German woman circumnavigated South America on a kayak, though not all at once.
If the brothers complete their journey, they will break the Guiness World Record for longest paddleboard journey by far. The current record stands at 347 miles in a trek up the Florida coast in 2007.
Besides adventure, the pair say they are driven by escaping the 9-t0-5 grind.
“…in your everyday life, there’s so many different things you have to worry about — I don’t know, people calling you, paying rent, normal things that you worry about on a day-to-day basis,” Ryan Higginbotham told the AP. “Now all our day is going to be about food, water, warmth, and getting to where we need to go — completing the day’s goal of paddling — and hopefully getting some footage.”
Photo credit: Intagram
