Polar Bears and Paddlebaords
This August, a team of UK based paddlers aim to set a world first by paddling 100km of the Sermilik Fjord on the east coast of Greenland. On the way the team will have to navigate the icebergs that litter the fjord, and avoid the wildlife especially the polar bears. We met up with Paul Hyman to learn about the motivation behind the expedition, and other than paddling the distance, what they hope to achieve…
WITH Paul Hyman Photos Greenland.com, Justin Hankinson
First of all, why Greenland?
Why not? The success of the ‘Polar Bears and Paddlebaords’ project hinges on capturing the attention of the public so we needed a wild, rugged and remote location which gave us access to Arctic waters and would offer us superb scenery as a backdrop for images and for filming the documentary. People may not be able to come with us, but producing stunning, dramatic and eye-catching images will bring the project to life.
We did a fair amount of research with the help of our partners at Newland and looked at possible locations all around the Arctic circle collecting information on ease of access, the type of expedition that we would be able to build and of course the scenery. Greenland won our vote on all counts! With its many glaciers, the icebergs around the coast of Greenland really are superb. If all goes well in August we will use that knowledge to work with Newland to develop paddleboarding trips to Greenland that we can invite other paddlers out to from 2014. These will be less intense but aimed at good SUP paddlers who want to test their skills somewhere very different to the usual beach and scenic locations.
Tell us about the access to the Fjord; is it a case of arrive by boat, drop anchor and hop over the side or is there some overland missioning too
Insertion for the start of the expedition is by boat. This is a pure SUP expedition, although we may look at combining overland and SUP at some point in the future.
What about the numbers, like daylight hours, temperatures…?
The air temperatures shouldn’t really be very much different to winter temperatures here in the UK, down to freezing at night and 9-10 during the day. The main difference is that when we’re at home we can pop inside and sit next to a warm radiator when we’ve had enough, but when we’re on the expedition there really is no respite from the chilly weather. Days will be long with around 20 hours of daylight.
Do any of the team have any special experience when it comes to expeditions in freezing conditions?
One of the team is explorer Justin Miles; he heads up in to the Arctic every year. In 2012 Justin had to abandon an attempt to reach the North Pole via a new route in Arctic winter due to an injury. Arctic winter expeditions on the sea ice really are hard-core; temperatures down to minus fifty and complete darkness for twenty-four hours a day.
Aside from the cold, what are the main safety concerns, and how will you overcome them?
The cold really is the biggest safety concern. The whole team are experienced paddlers so water safety is second nature. The one thing that we’re not accustomed to is the cold weather so we’re all taking wilderness first aid and survival training which helps us to understand the effects of the cold, how to spot it if we, or one of our team mates is suffering, and how to treat it. Other safety concerns include unfriendly wildlife, but Helen and Svante from Newland will be acting as our support during the trip, on hand with the necessary precautionary measures and we’re all being briefed in what to do if an emergency should arise. The whole team will take turns to be on polar bear watch every night while in the day Newland will take care of this so we can focus on paddling.
What do you hope this expedition will lead to in future?
Getting more people paddling SUP would be a good. Outdoor activity is part of a healthy lifestyle and sometimes people need to be reminded of that: we are not a bunch of sponsored in the SUP race or surf scenes, but we take the sport seriously and some us are making a living out of developing SUP, or hoping to when our business finally turns in a profit! You need to take SUP to some unexpected locations to show how flexible the sport is, and how accessible it is to most people closer to home. This expedition may be the start of something quite interesting, so watch the Polar Bears and Paddleboards website to keep up…
Go to www.polarbearsandpaddleboards.com/event-calendar to join the team on one of their events this summer. SUP