The departure for the second trip, from Portugal to Florida, turned out to be very abrupt. Dozens of sharks checked on me, but one was ready to attack me, and I had to whack his head with the paddle really hard to make him leave, Doba remembers. Id been feeling buried, by stuff exactly as predictable as youd imagine for a working mother of two kids. But she was charmed by his impish streak his stories of smuggling ski boots back from East Germany by walking across the border in them; the beard he grew over a summer holiday, so he could return to university and his mandatory military training as the only soldier in Poland with facial hair. He spent 40 unplanned days and nights wrestling with unfavorable winds and currents that sent him paddling in circles around the notorious Bermuda Triangle. Aleksander doba. AD: Before the first Transatlantic Kayak Expedition, my wife tried very hard to make me drop such an idea. 64-Year-Old Kayaker Completes Trans-Atlantic Voyage | WIRED The combination of a stable kayak and a higher sitting position make the sit-on-top or SOT kayaks a better design for fishing. He found a piece of grass to end his trip as to him the . With a long grey beard, a big smile on the face and the looks of a pensioner on holiday, Aleksander Doba didn . But after she got the bill for $500, she says, the desire to talk decreased. Sean Dudley. I did it with no stuntman, Doba told me proudly. [3], Doba first tried kayaking at age 34 on a trip organised by the company he was working for. Without the wings, the kayak had greater lateral stability and was less sensitive to wind. On April 19, 2014, Doba, who is now 68, paddled the final stroke of his 7,716-mile transatlantic journey, docking OLO, his 23-foot kayak, in a marina in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. What is wind chill, and how does it affect your body? On the morning of Feb. 22, he reached Kilimanjaros summit with two guides. He had been taking long trips for decades, but he always slept on land. Doba alerted Chmielinski, who alerted Gabriela who didnt really want to know anything about how the trip was going. He put on a clean red-and-white shirt, the colors of the Polish flag, and lay down on the grass. Rather, he said, I was infected with a virus.. Through the ocean. Then shed leave. In 2018, a Polish retiree named Aleksander Doba, at 71, completed his third trans-Atlantic solo crossing, in a 21 kayak he designed. He waited three days and still had no signal, so in hopes of getting Gabriela or Arminski to look into his phone problems, he pressed the help button on his SPOT device, a piece of gear that has become de rigueur among adventurers, as it can send emergency messages and GPS coordinates when a person is far off the grid. He had always planned to go on three crossings: South, Mid- and North Atlantic. But Doba insisted. Then the devil gets to the Polish man. He tries the reasons he used on the German and French men, without success. A Polish adventurer who crossed the Atlantic three times by kayak unaided has died climbing Kilimanjaro, his family said on Tuesday. I never expected it would be so big, she said. After breaking off those wings, it took me only a few seconds to adjust and start to enjoy such an unexpected improvement of my kayak, says Doba. A normal person wants to sit by the fire with their family for Christmas, his son added. For a while, once again, on this second expedition, all was smooth. Doba's wizened but muscular frame and ancient, friendly face became familiar not just to the adventure world bu But. [1] In 2017 he completed an eastward kayaking trip across the Atlantic. Can we bring a species back from the brink?, Video Story, Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, Copyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. With my hand on my heart, it wasnt my idea, Mr. Doba told The New York Times Magazine in 2018. During a storm, the water below the oceans surface stays relatively still; what moves radically are the waves. He also kayaked the coast of Norway to the Arctic Circle; on that trip, he was thrown from his boat during a storm and woke up to the sound of his own screaming after washing ashore. His desire to conquer the sea grew from an innocent idea that gradually consumed him: He had kayaked everything else, so why not the Atlantic Ocean? When he docked his kayak at the port in Le Conquet, France, on Sept. 3, 2017, he was a few days shy of his 71st birthday. #AleksanderDoba Archives - Bernews Those were very, very hard times for both of us. In 2017 he completed an eastward kayaking trip across . Aleksander Doba has died age 74 on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania on Monday February 22. His eyes blew up with conjunctivitis. I was just paddling down the river, he told the border patrol when he inevitably was caught. 75 year old adventurer climbed on the highest mountain of Africa and soon after passed away. The second trip was to raise the bar, Doba says. Aleksander Doba kayaked the Atlantic EN: I drove from Brussels to Le Conquet (Brest) in France to greet Polish adventurer Alex Doba who finished his 3rd kayak transatlantic in exactly 110 days (16 May - 3 Sept). Doba also brought two sailing harnesses, which resemble climbing harnesses but are worn on the chest instead of the legs; he uses these to attach himself with a carabiner to the boat. Before he arrived in France, he made a few GoPro videos. Aleksander Doba: On both routes, I saw floating garbage close to the coasts of Africa and Europe. Then, on Dec. 19, Dobas phone stopped working. Aleksander Doba, a 64-year-old native of Poland, took off from Dakar, capital of the west African nation of Senegal, back on Oct. 26. He went on to win the gold medal at the Open Academic Polish Championships in Whitewater Kayaking in 2003 at age 57 and defended the title the next year. These involved such things as catamarans sailing in from the Bahamas and helicopters dropping rudder-repair gift packages out of the sky. Doba returned to his cabin somewhat shocked to be alive. On the way to my grandmothers house for the holidays, he wanted to be dropped off on a river and asked us to pick him up on the way back. All rights reserved, Aleskander Doba is our 2015 People's Choice Adventurer of the Year. When he saw shooting stars at night, he made wishes that, he said, later came true. A Record-Breaking Atlantic Crossing by Kayak. [18], Doba died while climbing Kilimanjaro on February 22, 2021. Trans Atlantic kayak completed by Aleksander Doba - Boat Design Net Three years later in 2013 he crossed the . "Na szczycie Olek poprosi o 2 minuty przerwy, usiad na kamieniu i po prostu zasn", "Kayaker, 64, completes marathon paddle across Atlantic", "Landfall: Aleksander Doba reaches South America", "Kajakarstwo - Aleksander Doba przepyn Atlantyk", Unofficial blog for Aleksander Doba Transatlantic Kayak Crossing, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aleksander_Doba&oldid=1104141716, Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 13 August 2022, at 00:00. Even with a sleek kayak I get exhausted on 20K paddles. Daily News. He spent 100 days paddling the circumference of the Baltic Sea. . These skeletons may have the answer, Scientists are making advancements in birth controlfor men, Blood cleaning? Unauthorized use is prohibited. The two voyages were the longest open-water kayak voyages ever made. Old cells hang around as we age, doing damage to the body. The fabric smelled horrendous and aggravated his skin, so he abandoned clothes. [15], Aleksander Doba was born 9 September 1946 in Swarzdz, near Pozna, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland and lived in Police near Szczecin, West Pomeranian Voivodeship. He then reached Acara at 17:50 local time (99 days, 6 h, 20 min). For 110 days, Mr. Doba paddled eastward on his specially designed fiberglass kayak, Olo. Doba had been into hang gliding and sky diving, but the government often closed the airspace because Police was near the East German border. I was not sure if they would leave me alive. Aleksander Doba, Adventurers of the Year 2014/2015 - National Geographic He was named 2014 Adventurer of the Year by National Geographic. This is an order. And the German man jumps. He kept no schedule. MARCH 22, 2018. Suffering tends to do more for the flagellant than it does for the flagellants loved ones. Then she sat me down at a nearby restaurant, ordered pierogies and borscht and told me a joke. But two months into the voyage, almost dead center in the North Atlantic, Dobas satellite phone stopped working, rendering him unable to communicate for 47 days. (Honestly, you dont need the details.) He gives himself control. Record-breaking kayaker Aleksander Doba dies after summiting Kilimanjaro ALEKSANDER DOBA | The Daily Star I dont know how I ended up here.. Replies: 5 Views: 2,045. . National Geographic . He started in Lisbon, Portugal on October 5th, 2013 and the goal was to arrive in Florida sailing 5,400 nautial miles. It is basically an avalanche of water. It was his 3rd crossing without a sail. My phone exploded with hysterical texts from home. ROZHOVOR: Olek Doba turista, kter tikrt pepdloval ocen He was assaulted by hailstorms of flying fish. Aleksander Doba - Facebook Doba, Aleksander, 1946- - Library of Congress This was his second crossing, and he estimates that, due to his drift in currents, he paddled some 7,000 miles - this from a 67 year old man sporting a long, grey beard. Aleksander Doba (9 September 1946 - 22 February 2021) was a Polish kayaker known primarily for his long voyages crossing oceans.In 2010 and again in 2013 he kayaked across the Atlantic Ocean westward under his own power. If you arent willing to suffer, you can do nothing. F. By ELIZABETH WEILPhotographs by JOAKIM ESKILDSEN He said it because he has reimagined the concept of crisis, just as he has reimagined the concept of suffering. Original resource from explorersweb.comThe wild-bearded Polish super-kayaker Aleksander Doba died as he lived, in pursuit of adventure, passing away on the very summit of Mount Kilimanjaro at the age of 74. ) so that she could compare it with the condition of her children upon their return. But Mr. Doba had tested the limits of possibility during his two previous Atlantic crossings. [13], On October 5, 2013, at age 67, he departed from Lisbon (Portugal) for a second transatlantic voyage, with the intention of paddling 5,400 miles across the Atlantic's widest point. Long COVID patients turn to unproven treatments, Why evenings can be harder on people with dementia, This disease often goes under-diagnosedunless youre white, This sacred site could be Georgias first national park, See glow-in-the-dark mushrooms in Brazils other rainforest, 9 things to know about Holi, Indias most colorful festival, Anyone can discover a fossil on this beach. But he had promised himself, when he left New Jersey, that he would kayak not just to Europe but to the Continent proper. He relieved himself by leaning off the side or the stern. But the inside of the apartment feels much better: shoes in the entrance hall; pencil marks of grandchildrens heights in the kitchen door jamb; atlases, kayaking trophies and snow globes of family photos in the living room. I dont know how I ended up here. The soldiers told Doba he had broken so many laws that they didnt know how to charge him. There were spiders. She is also co-author of The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After, which will be published next month. When Aleksander Doba kayaked into the port in Le Conquet, France, on Sept. 3, 2017, he had just completed his third and by far most dangerous solo trans-Atlantic kayak trip. I was the one who would have to pay! he says. Transatlantic Crossing - Encyclopedia Information The two voyages were the longest open-water kayak voyages ever made. Chmielinski also had been coordinating Dobas logistics. But storms and equipment failure threw Doba off course, tacking an additional 1,300 miles and two months onto a journey that already would have broken the record for the longest ever solo kayaking voyage. Doba had only wanted his phone repaired. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. After taking in the view, he sat on a rock to rest. Dobas stinking foam sleeping pad and other gear from Olo remain, at Gabrielas request, all these months later, on the balcony. Aleksander Doba on February 16, 2015 at the Belvedere Palace in Warsaw, Poland. After 98 days, 23 hours, 42 minutes at sea, Doba and his . Kayak legend Aleksander Doba (74 years) Dies on Kilimanjaro Summit. Le kayakiste, Aleksander Doba - Quebec Kayak The kayak would break into many pieces. So, wearing only his harness, Doba exited the cabin, crawled across the bucking deck with a spare sea anchor attached to a rope, tied the rope to his kayak and threw the anchor off the stern. The two voyages were the longest open-water kayak voyages ever made. This man rowed a fucking houseboat across an ocean, absolutely unreal. Trans-Atlantic kayaker Aleksander Doba, 67, was 110 nautical miles southwest of Bermuda on Wednesday [Feb 19], paddling towards the island to affect repairs to the rudder of his kayak. We know who this is. He communed with the turtles, whose shells he tapped while they swam alongside him to make sure they were alive, and the birds, who landed on Olo for a rest and often entered his cabin and did not want to leave. The 70-Year-Old Master Kayaker And a tourist does not prepare himself too much. One afternoon Doba parked his Mazda 5 minivan in the lot beside his apartment building, pointed to a nearby forest of Scots pines standing rigid and competing for light and said, amused, Sometimes we have the great adventure of going out there to drink a beer.. Someone had forgotten to fund the prepaid credit card that covered the bill. [2], Doba has also paddled in a kayak with others around the Baltic Sea (in 1999, 80 days, 4227km), from Police to Narvik (in 2000, 101 days, 5369km) and around Lake Baikal (in 2009, 41 days, 2000km). Aleksander Doba, Who Kayaked Across the Atlantic, Dies at 74 The ships captain was hesitant to let the disheveled man back into the ocean alone. The 68 year-old mechanical engineer from the Polish city of Police, talked to Polska.pl about wind traps, the glistening . It didnt work. Still unflappable, Doba, who had never cared for the wings to begin with, removed the remainder of the broken pieces and the navigation light attached to them and used an empty plastic jug and duct tape to reattach the lights to the body of the kayak before waving the sloop away for the final 700 miles of his journey. The Polish . Mr Doba, from Poland, came ashore at Le Conquet, Brittany, which is . I read a post on Men's Journal from 2014 that recounts Doba's paddle across the Atlantic from Portugal to Florida. My decision to continue didnt take longer than a few seconds.. [11] A real katorga, says Doba, who is Polish katorga being the Polish word for forced labor in Siberia. One of Earth's loneliest volcanoes holds an extraordinary secret. By choosing it, he casts himself in the role of hero, not victim. She felt bad about it, she said, and she felt judged, but here we were, werent we? The whale swam here, and there, all around my kayak. AD: When I was alone on the ocean I had no fear for my life. Aleksander Doba, a Polish traveler, adventurer, and world record holder who in his 60s became the first person to kayak unaided across the Atlantic and set the world record for the longest open-water kayaking expedition, has died while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro: The 74-year-old - once named by National Geographic as its Adventurer of the Year - had been "fulfilling his dream . All rights reserved. He was, by then, 90 percent of the way across the ocean but had spent the last six weeks paddling in circles in the Bermuda Triangle, trapped by wind and currents. Aleksander Doba died at Kilimanjaro | by Polish Herald in the UK - Medium An ocean crossing is not something to undertake lightly. Nobody cares if you cross the Atlantic in a kayak. Video Polish Kayaker Is Paddling Across the Atlantic for the Third Time Polish Kayaker Is Paddling Across the Atlantic for the Third Time 69-year-old Aleksander Doba left New York on Sunday in a kayak bound for Portugal. Doba drifted around for days eating freeze-dried goulash and chocolate bars. It was accomplished in a 7-meter sea kayak and set a record for the longest open-water crossing ever undertaken by a kayaker, at roughly 99 days (the previous longest kayak crossing belonged to Peter Bray who traveled from Newfoundland to Ireland in 2001 and took over 76 days, relying on muscle-power only and no sail). Transatlantic crossings are passages of passengers and cargo across the Atlantic Ocean between Europe or Africa and the Americas. But still, I was so happy Id gotten away. Aleksander "Olek" Doba, a retired engineer from Poland, left Lisbon, Portugal, in his kayak on October 5, 2013. Doba was blown to the beach and called the trip off. Polish adventurer and kayaker Aleksander Doba crossed the Atlantic by kayak a few days before turning 71 years old. Recently, just before his 71 st birthday, he sailed single-handed across the Atlantic for the third time in his kayak. Still, the trip was perfect. The First Transatlantic Kayak Expedition was to check myself and my kayak. It was in 2010 that he started seriously planning to cross the Atlantic. Gabriela joined us to talk at the dining table, where she had set bowls of peanuts, raisins, chocolates, cookies and cake and French presses of coffee and tea. [10], After resting there, he initially planned to paddle another 6,000 kilometers north along the shorelines of the Americas to Washington, D.C.[12] However, he eventually decided to transport his transatlantic kayak to Peru instead and embarked on a journey down the Amazon River but after being attacked and robbed twice in Brazil he had to quit. Aleksander Doba crossed the Atlantic by kayak - YouTube Aleksander Doba crossed the Atlantic by kayak - YouTube | Kayaking Yet, at least for me, the river was magic calm, mysterious and alive. So, Gabriela told me, she laid out for her husband all the reasons trans-Atlantic kayaking was stupid. UPDATE: 70-Year-Old completes transatlantic journey in 23-foot kayak It should be noted that he accomplished it using only weekends and normal, 26-day leave.