Craig Masselink is part of a trio that will attempt to paddle board across Lake Michigan on July 7, 2013. (Cory Olsen | MLive.com)

MUSKEGON, MI — A two-decade long friendship, brought even closer by a love for paddle boarding has bred a desire in two brothers and their friend to cross Lake Michigan in their own special way.

Craig Masselink, 23, his brother Trent Masselink, 19, and their friend Ginny Melby, 21, will depart Milwaukee, Wisc., on Sunday, July 7, tackling more than 80 miles of waves on Lake Michigan, sharing time on a single paddle board in a 30-plus hour trip to their families' cottages in Muskegon.

The journey, originally an idea of Melby's older brother, Drew, became reality when the three realized time was running out for all of them to be able to pull it off. Melby, who lives in Grand Rapids and is about to enter her senior year at Wheaton College spent her summers getting to know the Masselinks, who have a cottage next door to her parents' on the Lake Michigan beach in Norton Shores.

"Pretty much every year we've said, 'Oh, what if we could paddle board across Lake Michigan,' like kind of a joke but kind of dreaming about it," Melby said. "So this year, we decided it's now or never, we're just going to go for it. My brother Drew is really adventurous and wanted to paddle board across but he lives in Baltimore now and he has a job, so we're going to do it."

The three will set off together with one person on the board while the other two drive a 24-foot boat filled with food, water and supplies. Each hour a new paddler will take to the water to maximize rest time for all three.

Their common goal started with the reading and sharing of a book titled "Love Does" by Bob Goff.

"Bob Goff the author, he's a lawyer who started Restore International where he goes over to Uganda and fights for girls who are being sold into prostitution and young guys who are being turned into child soldiers," Craig, a missionary pilot said. "He also fights to prosecute those who are doing that."

Inspired by his plight, the trio decided to raise money and awareness for Goff's cause the only way they knew how — paddle boarding.

"One of the things in our training paddles that keeps us working hard and digging is thinking about the kids in Africa we're going to be helping with this," Craig said. "That's a big part of the motivation, the impact we're hoping to have on the people we're trying to reach out to."

The team is asking anyone who would like to support their cause to visit RestoreInternational.org to donate.

"It's cool that we can use what we have to help," Melby said. "We're all creatively and ambitiously loving people and so when we're done we want to be able to say we were able to use what we had to give to others. Maybe it'll catch on and other people will get cool ideas and dream big."



Craig says they are prepared to face changing weather and wave conditions.

"Our sponsor, Third Coast Surf Shop hooked us up with a 14-foot Ocean Racer and we're pretty comfortable in six foot waves but progress is limited in those conditions," Craig said. "We're praying for three-foot waves or less, so we'll see."

They will have a window of four days to make their start if the weather isn't cooperating on Sunday, but one thing they won't be able to dodge is darkness.

"Craig has a little headlamp so besides the lights on the boat we'll have that and we'll have glow sticks as well," Trent, a student at Grand Canyon College in Phoenix, Ariz. said. "We've tried to think of every worst-case scenario that we can and then plan accordingly so nothing bad happens that we're not prepared for."

Training has been a mixture of putting miles of water behind them and adapting to the pressures of standing on a board for hours at a time.

"We're going to be switching off so we'll do some training in the morning then take a break, do something in the afternoon and take another break," Craig said. "We found that our feet start to get numb and we need to switch our grip on the paddle because that's another thing that can cause some pain. It's one thing going for a nice 30-minute paddle but when you're really trying to move some water, it's more challenging."

Looking out over the calm waters present on Monday, Craig, Trent and Ginny smiled at the opportunities afforded by the view.

"We were trying to think what could we do with our summer to glorify God and do something worthwhile," Craig said. "We've got a beautiful thing going here but we wondered, 'How could we use it to help others?'"

On Sunday they're determined to make their impact.

Check back Sunday for a live chat session with the lake-crossers as they start their journey. To learn more visit their website or Facebook page.

Follow Cory Olsen on Twitter or email him at colsen@mlive.com