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GEORGE NEWS & VIDEO - You can achieve in life what you want to. This is the message that wave surfer, ocean adventurer, multiple Guinness World Record holder and speaker Chris Bertish has for the world.
Bertish was at Wordsworth Books in George last Friday, 18 November, to talk about his book All In! and sign copies.
The book tells the tale of his 7 500km solo stand-up paddleboard (SUP) TransAtlantic Crossing from Morocco, Africa, to Antigua in the Caribbean in 2017. The 93-day trip made him the first person ever to SUP across any ocean.
During his three months alone at sea, he had some harrowing adventures, including being targeted by a great white shark, being towed by a giant sea squid, capsizing multiple times and surfing down 10-meter waves.
Bertish told George Herald that he embarked on this trip to inspire people and encourage positive thinking, at the same time giving back to children by raising money for good causes and creating awareness.
He said everybody has to face their own storms or cross their own oceans. It is how you deal with it that makes the difference. Knowing yourself is crucial to success, he believes. Many people are terrified of being alone and because of this never get to know themselves. Over the years he learned everything about himself.
During the trip, he faced many challenges every day and he has learned that the best way to deal with them is to keep a positive mental state.
It appears that he has been a driven person since childhood, starting to set goals at age 11, and he says he has never missed one.
The book was printed in an environmentally sustainable printing facility, using only Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified sustainable paper. He has also undertaken to plant a forest for every print run of the book, which will be done in the Platbos Reserve, to not only offset the carbon footprint of the book being produced and make it carbon neutral, but in the next 50 to 100 years will actually leave a positive impact in the world.
VIDEO: An inspiring story
About Chris Bertish
Chris Bertish is driven by passion and commitment and has achieved some of the greatest feats in surfing and stand-up paddle boarding history. He is a water man who turns adversity into opportunity and no challenge is too great or impossible for him.
As an international speaker, Chris inspires audiences with stories of courage, determination, resilience and overcoming insurmountable odds to achieve seemingly impossible goals and dreams, while raising awareness for challenging ocean conservation and climate change issues globally.
Chris won the 2010 Mavericks Big Wave Invitational event in Half Moon Bay, California in some of the biggest waves in history, merely hours after touching down from a 36-hour flight from South Africa, on a borrowed board, against all odds.
In 2013 and 2014, Chris set three separate stand-up paddle world records, two of them in Europe. The third was the Open Ocean 12-hour SUP Guinness World distance record, achieved on the South African coast. In 2015 he co-directed and released the acclaimed film Ocean Driven and launched the best-selling book Stoked! - both autobiographical.
His world record ocean crossing in 2017 raised money for Operation Smile and the support of youth, education and ocean conservation initiatives.
The Transatlantic SUP Crossing won him the global Expedition of the Year Award at the 2017 US Global SUP Awards and the Genius 100 Foundation, leaders of innovation and creativity, named him as one of the Global Genius 100 in 2018.
His second film, Last Known Coordinates, about his epic transatlantic SUP journey launched globally in mid-2021, and can be viewed on streaming platforms including iTunes, Apple TV, or on Vimeo.
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