Yesterday, listening to the CapeTalk radio station, I heard an interview with KZN sugarcane farmer Kyle Dohne (28) about his recent surfski adventure. He paddled 530 kilometres from Maputo, Mocambique, to Durban and during the journey he notched a record (unofficial) for the longest distance paddled non-stop in the open ocean in 24 hours.

On the radio Kyle mentioned challenging logistics. This Facebook post on 5 May (a day after setting off, I think) speaks of this.

“After being stuck in mozambique without being able to paddle since Sunday due to bad sea and weather,and without any signs of letting up soon,we’ve had to hustle like crazy and implement a very last minute,homemade plan B. We have abandoned the yatch and ski boat in Mozambique and have just entered back into SA by car heading for Kosi bay,just south of the ponta border. Some of my dads friends have amazingly dropped everything back home and are on their way up to meet us at Kosi with another ski boat so we can at least meet up with my GPS weigh point off ponta and continue with the paddle. With the wind and a 3m swell predicted to blow out of the south for the next few days is going to make for tough paddling,but it at least gives us the opportunity to continue. It is not ideal but from here on out we have decided to wing it and hope for the best each day.old Poseidon has not played into our favor so far which has created a bloody logistical nightmare but with a legendary support crew everyone is all still positive and all smiles. “

The 24 hour non-stop surfski distance record was set on the stretch of ocean between Cape Vidal and Durban – in the final stretch of his journey. On his Facebook page Kyle writes:

“I finished the 24hr record attempt at 7:30am today [9 May]. I managed to put in 229km, which is 34.4km more than the official Guinness record and 19km over the ‘unofficial record’.”

I’m sure he’ll now be going through the relevant verification processes to get Guinness recognition.

Kyle completed this surfski journey around 10h00 on Saturday, 9 May – landing on the beach in front of the Durban Ski Boat Club.

Here is a pre-journey media release on his sponsor’s (SA Fire) website. He’s doing a bunch of fundraising for Miles for Smiles.