Family Adventure Store Blog

Justin and John in training!

The expedition, called the last great challenge, is going to be a gruelling test of the pair’s physical and mental strength.  If they succeed, it will be the first time anyone in the world has conquered this feat of endurance. So you can imagine how thrilled we were to score an exclusive interview with the man himself.

What projects are you currently involved in?

Well, mainly there’s the last great challenge. Seeing as it is such a huge thing it would feel immoral not to do it for the benefit of a charity. So, after a lot of thinking, John and I decided that the expedition was going to support the British Heart Foundation (BHF). The BHF is responsible for educating people about heart problems, and with their help we developed the Great Heart Challenge, a health and fitness initiative for schools. I’m also involved in just for the ride, cycling from Trafalgar square to the Eiffel tower.

So, what are the main reasons for embarking on this trip?

Well, ever since I was young I’ve dreamed of being an adventurer, and it was that dream that pulled me through when I was recovering from a near fatal car accident. No-one’s done it before, so it would be good to bring a polar title home to Britain. And also the charity work side of it and getting kids active and interested in their health.

What are you doing to train for the last great challenge?

Doing a lot of hours in the gym, cycling and walking, either carrying a backpack or towing a string of tyres along the towpath.

What do you think will be the hardest part of the last great challenge?               

I honestly think that the hardest part will be re-adjusting to normal life afterwards.

So what are the facts?

Well, altogether the journey is 2200 km, and we’re doing it over 77 days, which means we’re doing 25 miles per day for about 2½ months! It’s the first time anyone’s done this journey before, and we’ll be facing temperatures as low as -40deg to -50deg! Also, apart from the odd scientist, we will be the only things alive down there.

What are you doing about food? You’ll have to carry meals for 77 days.

Our food is one of the main considerations. To survive, we need to consume 6500-7000 calories per day! Fat has the highest calorie content out of all the food groups, about 9 calories for every gram of fat, so that’s what we’ll be surviving on. Our meals will all be freeze dried, to make them as light as possible. For breakfast we’ll be having this meal that closely resembles porridge. It’s made out of porridge oats, extra fatty milk powder, oil and butter. No matter how hungry you are it still tastes vile!

Follow Justin in the build up to the last great challenge and on his London to Paris cycle ride at http://www.lastgreatchallenge.com/  or show your support by joining his face book group; http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=112635402119039&ref=ts

FAS have been selling the Ocean Kayak Prowler 13  for quite some time and the Prowler 13 has to be our top selling sit on top fishing kayak

The Ocean Kayak Prowler 13 has the perfect balance of speed, manoeuvrability, performance and stability  - everything that you need for a comfortable and successful days fishing. The Ocean Kayak Prowler  13 performs well in almost any water, but you’ll notice the superb performance in breaking surf and rough seas, meaning that you can get out after the fish when other boats would leave you sat indoors watching kayak fishing videos!

The Ocean Kayak Prowler 13 has a whole host of accessories available including a kayak compass, various types of rod holders, drinks holder, a trolling device and an anchor to help you stay in the best kayak fishing spot once you’ve found it.

Before you set out to sea on your new Prowler 13, it’s important to consider your comfort and safety. At FAS we have a range of buoyancy aids, lifejackets, dry suits and kags and we’re more than happy to help you choose the right one to suit you.

As well as the Ocean Kayaks Prowler 13 we can offer all of the other boats from the Ocean Kayaks range. Please feel free to call us, call in, or take a look at the Ocean Kayaks section on the main web page.

Well, we never quite expected the level of support we got for this annual event on the 3rd July, the weather was perfect and we had queues through the village to get on the water & try the various canoes kayaks and sit on tops that were on offer, if you attended, thankyou so much for your support and if you were unable to make it don’t worry as we can usually manage to give folk a taster on most types of craft, just give us a call to make sure we have enough staff in to do you justice.

A particular thanks to Globe 360 who are a local voluntary organisation who just seemed to make it all happen so well on the day and to the guys from Dagger and Ocean Kayak for giving up their valuable time. For some it was all too much and they started to believe they could paddle anything! check out the stand up paddle block (made up name) piccies. The last great challenge boys did well to pull all those heavy tyres for their sponsored pull from Bradford On Avon. The tyres are supposed to be the equivalent weight as their sleds will be on their forthcomming trip to the south pole in October. Brave lads!

A particular triumph of the day was getting Chris Gee who is allergic to water in a canoe!

Looking forward to next year all ready!

Globe 360 in action

Justin and John the polar explorers

go cheese!

oh dear cheesey!

what a fitting end to a hectic day . Thanks for the Chilli Liv!

Preparations are now well underway for the 2010 FAS canoe and kayak open day. if you are free on 3rd July between 10am and 4pm we would be delighted to welcome you along to meet the team , including Justin Miles the polar explorer who is finishing a charity tyre pull from Bradford on Avon at the FAS open day venue.

There will be plenty of fun for everyone with open canoes, kayaks and stand up paddle boards to have a go on and best of all it’s completely free. Last year there was a lovely atmosphere with families making a day of it , this year there will even be a BBQ so you can treat yourself to one of LOL’s famous burgers!

We’ve hopped from having one adventurer living in the attic to another.

First we had the legendary long distance skateboarder and stand-up paddle boarder Dave Cornthwaite here planning his next adventure, and now we have polar adventurer Justin Miles here preparing for his epic trip to the South Pole.

Justin and his expedition partner John Wilton-Davies are heading south later this year to attempt to complete the mission started by Captain Scott nearly a century ago –to walk from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back. Since Scotts ill-fated attempt, nobody has ever actually managed to do it. Once completed, the 2,200km trek will also become the longest unsupported polar journey in history.

The expedition is about much more than just two guys walking across a cold continent; they’re heavily involved with national programmes and initiatives in education, health promotion, schools fitness, and raising a seven figure sum for the UK’s leading heart charity, the British Heart Foundation.

The Last Great Challenge expedition has spawned a national schools project called the Great Heart Challenge which is all about getting kids active through adventure – so there’s  an ideal fit with our values at the Family Adventure Store!

When he’s not working he’s training, and to help him maintain his upper body strength and develop the core strength that he needs for pulling the sled with all of his provisions in, he’s taken to using one of our kayaks on the canal and in the river - the Wilderness Systems Tempest which we may well ask him to review for us in the near future.

We’re more than a little worried for his safety, or John’s safety – we’re not sure who is in more danger, because late at night when nobody else is in the shop and Justin’s sat there bashing out emails and working on the charity projects, he gets the urge to talk to our manikin and bring it to life with film and pictures – and oddly enough, Dave used to do something similar!

Find out more about Justin and the projects he’s involved with at http://www.lastgreatchallenge.com

Our Dave and ocean rower Sarah Outen travelled 150 miles across the UK by Stand Up Paddleboard, from Bath to London, reaching Tower Bridge on Tuesday 8th June.

Dave, a world-record breaking skateboarder and endurance kayaker, is currently exploring the boundaries of distance Stand Up Paddleboarding with one eye on a world record journey in 2011. Sarah is preparing for a two and half year global circumnavigation starting in London in April 2011, her first major expedition was a 4000 mile solo row across the Indian Ocean in 2009, which earned her three world records.

As passionate supporters of Blue’s aims, Dave and Sarah decided to undertake this expedition to celebrate the inland waterways of Britain, concluding their journey beneath London’s Tower Bridge on World Oceans Day. Throughout their journey they were joined by paddlers, cyclists and walkers, amassing a total of 875 Blue Miles (miles travelled on or by the water) during their week-long paddle.

Along the length of the Kennet & Avon Canal and the latter section of the River Thames Dave and Sarah faced a number of obstacles. Remarkably, an early June heat wave took its effect on the pair, and as expected 115 portages in the shape of locks and weirs turned this effort from a mere paddle into a true endurance event. Without doubt, though, the greatest difficulty was standing up for an average of 11 hours a day!

On their approach to London a deserved climax beneath Tower Bridge seemed to be in jeopardy as the Harbour Master ordered them out of the water just three miles from the end. Dave and Sarah hoisted boards onto shoulders and marched alongside the Thames past Westminster and the London Eye, determined to reach their destination even if it was on dry land. Thankfully, the Harbour Master had a change of heart and sent out a boat to escort them between Waterloo and Tower Bridge.

It was a truly iconic finish to the longest Stand Up Paddleboarding journey seen by the UK to date.

Read more on www.thegreatbigpaddle.com

Meet Dave @ www.davecornthwaite.co.uk

Meet Sarah @ www.sarahouten.co.uk

News hot off the press from the World wild water racing championships in Sort Spain is that our own Hannah Brown has won herself a silver medal. This girl is so dedicated.

In Hannah’s own words,

Just a quick email to let you know that yesterday I competed in my first race of the world championships, it was the individual classic race. I had a brilliant race, some of the best lines down the river that I have had all week, I did have a couple of close calls on some tight lines with breakouts but held it all together. But I do know of a famous quote from a legendary river racer that there is a fine line between glory and disaster. So anyway the exciting news is that I won a silver medal! behind a German and just in front of fellow Brit Jessica.

Local paddler Hannah Brown who F.A.S have sponsored and followed avidly for the past year or 2 is off to the Wild Water World championships in Sort (near Barcelona) competing in the womans K1 class, she has been on good form leading up t0 the event and the local word on the street is that she could well be bringing home the gold, We will of course keep you posted on her performance over the coming weeks or you can follow the wild water championship as a whole at www.sort2010.org

Hannah goes for Gold at the worlds! good luck H

Between June 2nd and June 8th 2010 British Adventurers Dave Cornthwaite and Sarah Outen will take to the water and Stand Up Paddle between Bath and London, a distance of 150 miles. The two are not strangers to this sort of journey, last year Sarah rowed over 4000 miles across the Indian Ocean, and in April 2011 will begin a global circumnavigation from London to London, Via the World! Dave had paddled the length of Australia’s longest river and in 2006 he broke the world record for skateboarding further than anyone else, ever! He’s also planning a world distance record on a Stand Up Paddleboard in 2011.

The pair’s journey will start at Bath’s Top Lock at 10am on Wednesday 2nd June, following the length of the Kennet & Avon canal via Devizes, Pewsey, Hungerford and Reading, before paddling onto the Thames and making their way to London. They will finish at lunchtime by paddling underneath Tower Bridge.

We’d like to invite members of your club to join Sarah and Dave for a stretch of their journey as we pass through your neighbourhood. You could paddle in canoes, kayaks or on Stand Up Paddleboards, or even walk, run or cycle alongside. We’d like everyone joining us to help us raise some funds for our charities.

Dave and Sarah are big supporters of The Blue Mile project. A Blue Mile is a mile travelled on or by the water. If each paddler aims to raise £10 per Blue Mile paddled with Dave and Sarah this would be absolutely wonderful. We are aiming for a total of 1000 Blue Miles and if we achieve our target, this will mean we’ve raised at least £7000 for our charities, which would be amazing!

All donations and sponsorships should be donated online at www.justgiving.com/greatbigpaddle

Finally, Dave and Sarah will be supported by a small and very fun team who will be making a documentary and taking photos of the event. We’d love to hold fundraising events each evening and if you’d be interested in organising one, please take a look at the schedule on www.thegreatbigpaddle.com and get in touch. We’re also organising where can stay each evening, so any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

This event is all about getting people on the water and promoting exercise, water sports and a passion for the environment, so the more people who take part, the better!

We hope you can be involved, and look forward to hearing back from you.

Best wishes

The Bath2London 2010 Team

Email: hello@thegreatbigpaddle.com

Tel: 07872 986084

For full details of the event, please visit www.thegreatbigpaddle.com

To find out more about Sarah, visit www.sarahouten.co.uk

And to learn more about Dave, visit www.davecornthwaite.co.uk

Our Charities

The AV Foundation boosts the quality of school education in several African countries. Funds raised through The Great Big Paddle will be used to install solar and drinking water projects into these schools and their communities.

CoppaFeel works hard to ensure that breast cancer is detected sooner, rather than later. The disease knows no age and has no discrimination, and CoppaFeel encourages healthy conversation and awareness about breast cancer and surrounding issues.

PaddleFree was born out of  Sara Roberts desire to do some good, for adventure and for escape. And now here it is! An initiative set up to raise awareness and money for rescue services, environmental and animal welfare campaigns through water based activities.

It has long ago stopped being an individual effort, and the PaddleFree team has been expanding steadily. Each person has brought a new perspective and dimension to the project. The first journey is just around the corner and even now the project is still growing!

The two groups to benefit from PaddleFree 2010 activities are British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), a charity who rescue the sea life that finds itself stranded on our coastline, and the Isles of Scilly Veterinary Support Group, a community group dedicated to helping provide the island’s animals with the same standard of veterinary equipment and care taken for granted on the mainland.

Sara recently picked up her expedition kayak from The Family Adventure Store : a lovely Wilderness Systems Tempest of composite construction, however, as the clip on the link below shows Sara was maybe a little too intent on not scratching the kayak by getting out to close to the canal bank on her very first trip in the new kayak!  you can see for yourself at: www.youtube.com/PaddleFree2010

Not long now Sara, good luck from all at FAS! we’ll follow you all the way, and for anyone who wants to support Saras charitable causes, please check out www.justgiving.com/PaddleFree2010.