we were all basically alone / despite what all his studies had shown
that what’s mistaken for closeness / is just a case of mitosis
sure fatal doses of malcontent through osmosis
and why do some show no mercy / while others are painfully shy
tell me doctor, can you quantify?
the reason why
- andrew bird

In 2005 two teams of sea kayakers jostled to be the first to circumnavigate South Georgia Island. A “British” team consisting of Peter Bray, Nigel Dennis, Jeff Allen and Hadas Feldman (of Israel) were first to announce their intent. Up until this point “announcing” was for lack of a better word, traditional. By announcing your plans, paddlers had time to build up interest which is of course important when seeking funding for such excursions. As we all know now it also gives others an opportunity to beat you to the punch.

With Operation South Georgia‘s schedule set another team, “Adventure Philosophy” consisting of Graham Charles, Marcus Waters, and Mark Jones had an opportunity to (as Outside Online put it) “Compete for Bragging rights.”. The Adventure Philosophy team set their start date for October 2nd, nearly a full month before the British team citing concerns about weather and the mating season of the indigenous fur seals. The Game was afoot!

Of course there is just not a lot of wiggle room in expedition planning. Budgets, travel, time off, shipping gear and the like, have to be set up far in advance. It’s often just not possible to “join the race” if others are able to jump your dates. In the end Adventure Philosophy was able to get to South Georgia first and the Brits had to just accept that the dynamic had changed. Two teams would, in a very short period, take the “Shackleton Challenge”. In a sense the competition ends there. It has to.

Expedition paddling sits among a small group of unique sports in which humans face the elements in what is a deeply personal event. The competition if there is one, is primarily competition with one’s self, the fickle heart of nature and simple logistics. Teams can jostle to be the first out of the gate, but once on their way there is no room to take sides. In fact any experienced paddler can feel nothing but kinship and concern when others are out on the sea. It is only after everyone is home and safe that we can, as an afterthought, talk about firsts. This was especially true when looking at a challenge like South Georgia Island, a place where terms like “savage”, “cold”, “brutal” & “unforgiving” are typical descriptors. A place where there was every possibility that someone may have not come back.

In the end the South Georgia expeditions were a victory in my mind not for one team or the other, but for both. It says something about our sport that two teams, seven paddlers, from 3 different countries could all complete this challenging circumnavigation within just a few short weeks. Still, the South Georgia experience did set tongues wagging a bit about the nature of competition in expedition paddling. Some set about re-examining the concept of expeditioning; “Is is a competition?”, “Can it be?”, “Is it a race?”, “Are there winners and losers?”. There are many views. In fact we’ve seen more “competitive” situations occur since then. Maybe the hard truth is that as sea kayaking has grown and the business of sea kayaking has taken root, we’ve crossed into a new world. One where the market will reward the competitive and squeeze out the others. Who knows!?

I think I have a bit more to write on this subject, but I’m going to have a break and move on to what got me thinking about South Georgia in the first place. . .

* original image wiki commons

Related Posts:

1. South Georgia Update
2. South Georgia Clip
3. South Georgia On A Desktop
4. Saturday 5:39am
5. A Journey Takes Hayley