Cyril Derreumaux: Epic Kayak Adventures, Crossing the Pacific & Atlantic Oceans

In Season 2 episode 3 pf the Adventure Diaries podcast, Cyril Derreumaux, a world-record-breaking adventure kayaker, shared his journey from the wine industry to becoming a full-time adventurer and motivational speaker. His story exemplifies mental resilience, the importance of preparation, and the beauty of embracing the unknown. Cyril's insights from harrowing storms, failed attempts, and successful voyages provide a profound look into the life of an adventurer.

From Wine to Waves

Cyril's transition from the wine industry to adventure kayaking is a tale of passion. He recounts, "The moment I left, there's really a sense of adventure, a sense of, okay, now it's me in the ocean, I love it, that's what I want to do and feel your joy and happiness." This shift highlights his pursuit of new experiences and the courage to change career paths.

The Journey of Endurance

Facing formidable challenges, Cyril emphasizes mental resilience. Reflecting on his failed attempts, he states, "Yes, I failed, I didn't cross. But why? And that's in answering the why that actually you learn the most." These experiences taught him that failure is a learning opportunity that drives improvement and success.

Encounters with Nature

One highlight of Cyril's adventures is his encounters with wildlife. From whales and dolphins to albatrosses and flying fish, the ocean's biodiversity adds a magical element to his voyages, underlining the profound connection between adventurers and nature.

Preparing for the Atlantic Crossing

As Cyril prepares for his next epic adventure, the Atlantic Crossing, he delves into rigorous preparation. His holistic training regimen includes physical endurance, mental fortitude, and strategic planning. "I would have to make my water. I have a water maker that's heavy," he explains, showcasing the practical challenges of solo journeys.

Inspiring Others and Paying It Forward

Cyril's passion for adventure and commitment to environmental conservation are evident. He encourages others to seek their own adventures and live their best lives, declaring, "Adventure is vibration. It has to come from the heart." He also advocates for environmental stewardship, emphasizing the importance of leaving no trace.

Takeaways

• Mental Resilience: Enduring challenges and learning from failure.
• Career Transition: From wine industry to full-time adventurer and motivational speaker.
• Holistic Preparation: Physical and mental training for ultra-endurance adventures.
• Success Criteria: Safety, enjoyment, and personal definitions of success.
• Wildlife Encounters: Highlighting the beauty and connection with nature.
• Environmental Conservation: Promoting leave-no-trace principles.
• Post-Expedition Blues: Adjusting to routine life after an adventure.
• Inspiration: Encouraging others to pursue their own adventures.

For more on Cyril's upcoming Atlantic crossing and to follow his journey, visit solokayaktheatlantic.com. Stay tuned to Adventure Diaries for more inspi

Transcript

The very first day people think you're gonna be afraid and it's actually a sense of relief. When you leave the dock, you've been wanting that for months and months and there's like a stress buildup. The moment I left and obviously there's a moment where it's sad you leave all the loved one behind and you have all this uncertainty, but there's really a sense of adventure, a sense of, okay, now it's me in the ocean, I love it, that's what I want to do and feel your joy and happiness.

There are so many lessons I gotta tell you on that failure. People don't like to call it failure because you say there's no failure, it's just learning opportunities. But I think actually we shouldn't be afraid of the word. Yes, I failed, I didn't cross. But why? And that's in answering the why that actually you learn the most. And one of the things is I realized that... So when I speak to a school or like here in California,

900 kids from 12 to 14. Imagine if I just put a little seed of adventure in their heart at 14, what they will do in 10 years. I love this. Welcome to another episode of the Adventure Diaries. Today I'm joined by Cyril Derreumaux. Cyril is a world record -breaking adventure kayaker whose feats include the Great Pacific Race, the Yukon Race and his daring solo kayak across the Pacific Ocean from the USA to Hawaii.

Now Cyril is a French native but now resides on the west coast of the USA and he's transitioned from the wine industry to becoming a full -time adventurer and motivational speaker. Cyril's story is not just about physical endurance but also about mental resilience too. And today he shares his insights from these voyages, the harrowing storms, the failed first attempts and we discuss the highs and the lows and what it truly takes to endure on such formidable challenges.

and we touch on his preparation for another upcoming and epic kayaking adventure, the Atlantic Crossing. So settle in and enjoy this fantastic conversation with Cyril Derreumaux. Cyril Derreumaux, welcome to the Adventure Diaries. How are you? I'm doing fantastic. How are you, my brother? I'm excellent. I'm excellent. I'm very excited about this. Taking a little bit of time to get organized. So thank you. Thank you for your patience.

(02:27.95)
And what I want to really focus this session on is your epic paddling adventures to date and an even more epic adventure that awaits next year. So a bit of a brief introduction without going too deep on it. You are an adventure, a bit of an ultra endurance adventure, really considering the...

the expeditions that you've been on and you're actually a world record holder, aren't you? So you have broken some records as recognized by the Guinness Book of Records for your great Pacific race and your solo kayaking from California to Hawaii. But I want to kind of roll back a little bit and understand more about your background because you are a French native, but you reside in the West Coast of America. So how did that come to be?

Well, okay, so I'm 47 years old and until I was 18, I lived in France. You know, I did my regular studies up to baccalauréat, which is the 12th grade before college. And I call these 18 years my roots. I was so lucky to be in a very strong family household in a small village and have, you know, just the really, really good childhood. So after I grew those roots, I found my wings.

And my wings is what is carrying me to new adventures all the time. And from the moment, so I 18, I left as an exchange student before I did a college or university. I did one year in Arkansas in the U S and because I was, you know, I wanted to live overseas, learn a new language and I love this. So I came back and say, I'm going to do an international studies. And that did this master's degree in international business, which took me a year in Oxford in near England.

a year in Madrid, Spain, and then a year in Paris. And then I moved to going to Italy for two years because I wanted to learn Italian after Spanish and English. And after Madrid, Milan, sorry, for two years, I had the project of going. Like everybody had their diploma. They started to work in banks and stuff. For me, I had the need to see the world. I didn't care about money. I didn't care about having my first car. So I saved a little bit of money and for 7 ,000 euros.

(04:53.294)
I did one year trip around the world backpacking, visiting the whole world, like South America, North America, Southeast Asia, and a little bit of India because it's such a big country. And then after that I said, okay, I'm in love with Brazil and I found a job teaching English and playing soccer in Brazil. So I went to Brazil for six months. I learned Portuguese. And after that, I was back to France. Okay, now I need to find a job. So I was in France for a year, but then I was recruited to move to Argentina.

two years. And that's when I opened the subsidiary for a barrel company in a French oak is really good for oak aging. So I went to Argentina for two years and asked Haugen to do the wine business. Long story short, after Argentina, I was sent by another company to California to take care of the subsidiary in the wine business. So I was for maybe 10 years in the wine business here in California and I'm still here now. Yeah, phenomenal. So

Going from, so how did you transition from the wine industry to being almost like a full -time adventurer and motivational speaker? Because I think, have you only been paddling like 10 years, under 10 years, or how long have you been paddling for? So my sport was always football or soccer, like they say here in the US, right? Imagine, look at the countries I've been to. Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Spain, England. Like everywhere I go, I play soccer.

football and it's fine. I can make friends right away. And I moved to the US and I played here but I didn't really like the spirit. It was not the same as Brazil where I saw the Jogo Bonito and all. So a friend of mine said, hey, why don't you come paddling? I'd never kayaked before. I'd done some windsurfing when I was younger because I used to go in Brittany, French Brittany in the summer. So I did windsurfing but kayaking, no, I was 32 years old when I started kayaking for the first time. And when I was 42, which is only 10 years,

After the first moment, I put my butt in a kayak. Then I dared myself to cross solo and unsupported, which is kind of mind blowing. Can you believe in 10 years? Yes. So then the journey was, I think it's very much, I think the spirit of this country and the state here where really there's this energy where they say you want to go for it. I mean, go for it. And the friends around you are this energy of entrepreneurship. And why not? You want to do this? Why don't you do that?

(07:22.638)
And that really combined with my personality of looking for experiences of life, looking for the next thing that would make me vibrate, you know, just work like perfect. And I grew, I felt so great here that little by little, I started to do more and more adventures on the water. So kayaking, first it was canoeing and then kayaking, rowing and then more kayaking. Yeah, I was going to say, so have you always been around the West Coast in the Bay Area?

then when you've been doing your paddling or have you done that further throughout the US? Yeah, the paddling was mostly on the West Coast where I live. Just because there's so much to do here. And I've done a few races, other races, but only lately in Texas and other races in Canada. But I'm just reminding myself that I actually didn't answer your previous question of how did I move from the wine business to doing an adventure?

So the wine business, it was my passion. I like products that are qualitative. I was helping making barrels back in Argentina. And I really liked to learn about winemaking, wine tasting. And part of my job was actually to taste wine. So I loved it. I did that for 10 years. I was a supplier for the wine business. So I was visiting wineries and tasting with the winemakers. But it's funny how your priorities change. And then after just doing that as a job, made it less interesting. And I was...

Okay. After 10 years, I thought, okay, I need to change. And then COVID happened, I created my own company. And then for a year, actually, it was an opportunity of a lifetime, I started to import furniture. And I did a lot of that. And then after a year COVID happened, you know, the container ships were super expensive, so it stopped. But then I said, okay, well, everything's blocked. I'm going to be an adventurer full time. And I said,

I decided to build this kayak in England for the crossing and that was a big challenge in itself just to decide to do this. I still remember seeing a clip on Instagram a couple of years ago, a few years ago when you were first planning this and I remember at that time thinking I'm going to speak to that guy because I hadn't long taken up kayaking not long before it. Did you? Yeah, myself. I haven't done any sort of...

(09:46.35)
distances or anything as mad as what you have achieved. But I only took up about four years ago and done some really interesting trips. But so I wanted to ask, so how do you go from recreational paddling to taking on a challenge such as because you've done it as a team event, didn't you? Firstly, your great Pacific race, I think 39 days.

a speed race with four friends? Yeah, so first I started, it's a Polynesian canoe. So it's a six -man craft, you know, and then that's what they do in Hawaii and Tahiti. And that's a national sport over there. And in those canoes, you do races up to maybe 40 miles, you know.

I can say miles because you understand them. So 40 miles, it takes about six hours. And then I push a little bit the envelope saying, okay, well, there's this race, 100 miles. Okay, that's 12 hours. Let's do this. It's on a river in Sacramento, California. Okay, how about doing another one a little bit longer? The Yukon River Quest. It's 440 miles. Okay, that's a different game because that's 45 hours. How do you prepare for that? And little by little, just recognize that although I'm not very strong or I'm not very fast,

I can keep going. There's something about what you have to develop to be an ultra endurance that just matches with me, where it's not mental strength. I like to say mental flexibility, where you allow yourself to change your framing of the situation so that it becomes bearable. And then, okay, you're hurting. Okay, how can you change that so you can keep going for the next 10 hours?

Right? And then never give up and then keep going on and being positive, optimistic. And again, it was a conjunction of my personality and the fact that I just loved achieving a little bit more, a little bit more. So then it was what you're talking about, which is a rowing shell, it's like a rowing boat from California to Hawaii. I stumbled upon this website. It's a great Pacific race. It says you don't have to be a rower to row an ocean. And until then, I had never rowed. I said, OK, well then.

(12:02.574)
Okay, of course you need to know how to row because there's a technique if you do a thousand times a million times You know there you have to have the right muscle the right technique but His point was it's really about your attitude and then how you manage the all the other and

important things in the crossing, which is your hygiene, your sleep deprivation, your seasickness and eating and making sure your team building exists, et cetera. So we rode from California to Hawaii and we went for the Guinness record. We got it in 39 days and 12 hours. The Guinness is always a chair on the top for me. And it never been a goal, never been a goal. It's cool to have because then the sponsor say, okay, I'm going to sponsor you a little bit more, blah, blah, blah. And it's pretty cool to be on the book. But other than that, I really don't.

That's never been my motivation for me. It's always been the adventure and be like just a thought of being out there on the ocean in the middle of this You're not seeing land for months. It was just very appealing to me. But as you said I've always done it with team and then I think Part of the reason I wanted to do the kayak. So just to give you a rough idea There's been 800 crossing and rowing boats over the history of ocean crossing all the oceans combined, right? I

230 you were solo, more or less. In kayak, there had been four. And the reason that there's been only four is because it's such a smaller vessel, it has to be narrow because you have to kayak not with oars, but with kayak paddles, right, left, right, left, right? So you have to be able to touch the water on both sides at the same time. So it's narrow, it rocks and rolls all the time. The cabin is smaller, it's much more confined. So how do you carry that much food, et cetera, et cetera?

So the difficulties are there and there's no blueprint. And you have to be alone. And that was part of the appealing side of for me because I had done all those super achievements, but always with other people. Right. And I'm an extrovert. I love people. I loved it. Like if I see a sunset, I can see by myself and enjoy it. But if I have a friend or, you know, it's so much better. I just enjoy team much more than being alone. So for me, I said, OK, well,

(14:17.998)
maybe I did it all this because of the people who were here. Like I want to see what would I do if I could do it by myself. And part of the challenge was also pushing my envelope, my pushing my boundaries, my comfort zone to see what I would do on my own. So, so how, how do you, so going back to your, before we come to the, the solo crossing then, cause I'm interested to know about, cause you talk about the mental flexibility, but physically, how do you prepare?

for something of that magnitude and that endurance? Did you do, did you have a plan? Did you, like, you think about marathon runners and ultra -distance runners, they run the miles, the kilometers, they build up to that. Did you do paddles? I suppose the Yukon is a fair challenge in its own right. Was that pre -Pacific race or was that post? yes, it was pre, it was in 2012, my first one. I did it three times.

First on a six man canoe, then on a four man canoe, then a two man canoe. So it's actually really hard to correlate one with another because if you think of it like the ultra endurance race of a hundred miles, well, that's going to be, you know, a day and a half to maybe max. So you're working like right now we're talking about two months. So you can't, the issue, you have to look at, okay, what are the possible problems that could happen physically, mentally, emotionally?

And then, you know, the gear, obviously. And then you say, okay, what do I mitigate each problem with another one, right? It was a solution. And for me, physically, let's say, okay, how do I train for paddling 10 to 12 hours a day? And you look, it's going to be, you're not rowing and paddling hard. It's like if you were walking 12 hours a day, every day, I'm not going to go hard. I'm actually never sweating. You know, that's the intensity that I'm going, but the problem could be repetition. What are...

The issues is not going to be muscular. If you have the right technique, it's not going to be, pull the muscle. Yes, it could, but most likely it's going to be the joints and the tendons. Everything that is repetitive could be, you know, maybe I have a tennis elbow or like a problem with the nerves. Right. So all this is if you look back, okay, I need to be ready in one year for this. What are the tendons and the joints that are going to be used? Okay. I need to train those. And then the question is, how do I train that? All right. And for me, I've done.

(16:43.566)
I did kind of my own recipe. I just felt if the body has to be just a very well -old machine, anything that I do, I should not have any cramp and I should not get injured. So I need to be very healthy and not injured when I start because everything is going to hurt. Right. But then how do you train? So if I only train kayaking, I might have an overuse injury. All right. So.

I just look at the body as a whole unit. So then I still need to work my lower limbs, my legs and the core, et cetera, even though I'm just paddling, rotating the shoulders. So for me, my training was long hours and then different months will have different quantities, obviously. But let's say I'm doing one hour of yoga, one hour of running one day. And then the next day I'm going to do one hour of biking and one hour of kayak.

The next day I'll do two hours of one hour would be lifting weights and the other hour will be another yoga or just jumping or even hiking for an hour. The idea is just to get your body that is so well trained that I could do any kind of activity. I will never get cramps or anything. Yeah, so you're essentially cycling and doing full body weight and yeah.

This friend of mine who's another kayaker, he crossed the Tasman Sea, which is from Australia to New Zealand. His name is Scott Donaldson. It's at zero. Look, and I could tell you the same, Chris. Chris, if I put you on a boat and I tell you, you have to paddle 12 hours a day or you're dead, like this is survival. You could be overweight. You could be not trained. You're going to do it. You have one way to go. It's there. So he's going to take what?

45 days or maybe months for your body to adjust, but your body is amazing, he will adjust. So the only thing you wanna do is by training, you wanna reduce this one month's of adaptation time to the shortest as possible, maybe two weeks, maybe one week. Knowing that the first week is the hardest, because you have the simple deprivation, you have seasickness, you have a change of food, change of rhythm and change of environment, you don't sleep well, all these things, hygiene, all this.

(19:08.494)
So there's only four guys that had done it before. How do you know? Just figure it out. So on that with four people, how does that work in terms of, so firstly, sleeping conditions. So if you are, so were you all rotatingly sleep every hour or two or how did that work in a team of four? So team of four, we only had two rowing seats.

So we want the boat to be moving all the time. So you rotate the people so that you're efficient for the time you're on the oars. And if you do more than two hours after that, like the two hours and a half, you're not pulling the oars as hard as you can. It'd be great for the people that are sleeping in the meantime, but you wake up and then your body could be aching. I think it's generally known that one hour and a half or two hours is the rotation time. So...

You roll for two hours, you stop two hours. You roll two hours, you stop two hours all day, all night. That means that when you're off, we were doing an hour, hour and a half. You only sleep maximum 45 minutes. Right. So pretty much it goes like this. You get off the or you have 15 minutes where you take off your clothes. Hygiene is crucial. So you remove all the salt from the ocean, from the water. And then another 15 minutes is eating. You need to eat right away.

Right. And then you have 45 minutes to sleep. You wake up and then you get ready for your next shift. You get your clothes back, get your hands fixed and then you're back rolling for two hours. That's really tough. I didn't like it at all. How long did it take to get into that rhythm? Did it take you a few days or weeks before you can adjust to that? Yeah, I think it's the sleep.

During the day, you're actually so sleepy that you fall asleep right away, or sometimes you don't have to sleep. But at night, it's really hard just to get up every two hours. And it doesn't matter if it's two o 'clock in the morning, four o 'clock, you've got to get up and change your shift. And then especially if you want to beat the record, it's seconds counts. Let me give you a quick example. If you shift the two people every hour and a half, that means you do a shift.

(21:26.446)
during the 12 hour of the day. You do eight shifts during the 12 hour of the night. Okay, that's 16 shifts. Now if you take five minutes per shift, that means you come out and you can all gotta pee or put some sunscreen, I gotta put my gloves, right? The body's not moving for five minutes. All right, that means five minutes times eight is 40 minutes. Okay, that's about 12 hours of the day. That's 80 minutes for the 24 hour period. 80 minutes, that's an hour 20 where the body's not moving. An hour 20 times 70 days.

at 75 hours. 75 hours is three days. So now just by saying, when we come out of the boat, we're ready to shift, shift, you're going to the oars. No, you could shave three days off your final time. And that's how you get the record. You know? Did that ever lead to any onboard conflict or competition? Of course. Of course. We had four nationalities. A French guy, that was me.

We had Carlo from the US, we have Fian from Iceland and Chago from Brazil. And it was actually so funny that, you know, Chago, we could never wake him up. Like we could never wake him up. And when we left California, he was cold all the time. And we were like, okay, this is fine. When we arrived in Hawaii, it was the opposite. We were in the cabin, we were cooking. He was like, I'm just fine. This is good. You know? Wow. Are you all still friends?

Well, you know what happens on the boat, stayed on the boat. But I guess we'd say we managed to keep it together until the end of the trip. The people that worked with which it worked, their brother forever. But the thing is, you know, it's really hard to find people that want to do this. So when you put a crew together, usually you don't, they're not your friends for the since childhood. You know, they're people that are in our case, like from four different cultures, nationalities.

And the people that you have on land don't really correlate to the people that they could be on the water when you're sleep deprived and really hard tired and all this. And it's okay. It's part of the trip to learn from it. And it's okay. So what did you learn then? Because you said you would never do it again and then you'd done it solo. Yeah, well, I did it in very different conditions.

(23:52.846)
I'm always wanted to do this for the adventure. I wanted to feel what it is to be in the middle of the ocean. I wanted to feel what it is to row at night, et cetera. And what put us on the same page with the others was the will to beat their record. So I did that. But for me, it was not natural. I could see a bird and I was like looking at the bird and say, hey, stop and keep rowing. You know, stop stopping and keep rowing. So I didn't enjoy it because it's not matching my personality. When I was alone, I was like,

I don't care when I get there. I just want to get there. I don't stop as much as I need if I want to see a whale, if I want to see a turtle coming by or the flying fish or like it was so much more about the experience and just doing my own way. And I think that the most important is how you define success. What do you think are the criteria of success for your adventure? And you only define it, right? Yeah.

It's interesting you say that. I've had a few adventurers say something very similar but in the context of their own adventures. And an example, one chap, Ash Dykes, he'd done a cycle throughout the UK and it occurred to him that he just wasn't past, he was on the clock and he decided to do something very different in long distance hikes but taking the adventure in without being on the clock.

I think there is very much something in that. And that isn't immersing yourself in the environment and the elements and sometimes the culture depending on whether it's on land or not. Yeah. So it's funny, I've done this race up in Canada, the Yukon River Quest three times and I'm competitive. So whatever I do, I'm going to do my best, right? I'm going to find my best and push myself. Now, the third one, I was supposed to go with a friend who heard his back and you know, it's like six months of...

He heard he's back two weeks before going. So I was like, what? I can't cancel. I'm not going to go on a one -man because I don't have the boat. We had to organize and rented a boat. So I found this other friend and I said, hey, you want to jump on the boat? Let's do that race. You know, it's 450 miles. So it's going to be 45, 50 hours. See, you crazy guy. Look, you want to race? No, no, no. Let's go for the adventure. We'll stop as many times as we need. And that's the race that I actually enjoyed the most.

(26:14.638)
Because yes, we took 15 minutes to stop by and make a little fire. And then, yeah, but we were still in the middle of the Yukon. And midnight, there's a sun that is still there. And I enjoyed it because there was not the pressure of performing. And that's when you say, OK, what are the factors of success? What does it mean? And on my crossing to Hawaii in a kayak, the factor of success is stay alive, number one. Number two would be to cross and get there. And three is enjoy the journey. Yeah.

And that was it. There's no time limit. There's no time pressure. And I followed that. Yeah, it's some achievement. First, I want to say congratulations and an amazing job on the Great Pacific Race and the solo kayak is a phenomenal two very, very great achievements. I want to ask about your kayak and the build Valentine, I believe it's named after your sister. Yeah.

So how did that come about being custom created? Right. I'll tell you, there are three people that had done it before me. Right. I called them all. The first one is Peter Bray. Peter Bray did crossing in the North Atlantic from Canada to Ireland in 2001. I called him, I read his book and I said, hey, would you like your boat? His boat has a cabin in the stern in the back.

I said, yeah, I love my boat. It's that frightening. I did it 76 days, amazing, in two attempts. Then I called Scott Donaldson, who I told you about. He crossed the Tasman Sea, Australia to New Zealand, took him three attempts. And he has a different boat, a little bit more slim, more kayak -like, less heavy. He wanted to be faster on the water. He had different arguments. His cabin was in the bow. I spoke to him. And then I spoke also to Ed Gillette. Ed Gillette crossed.

my ocean, the one from California to Hawaii. It's the mid Pacific. It's not the whole Pacific, it's the mid Pacific. But he had a kite and I spoke to him, what did you think? Blah, blah, blah. And actually the third one that did human powered is Alexander Dober. He's from Poland, he crossed three times the Atlantic. And I looked at everything online, he doesn't speak good English, only Polish, so I didn't speak to him. But in the end, I kind of made my argument, okay, what kind of boat do I want?

(28:37.966)
to build. I want to take all the technology that I had on my first crossing, but I want something safe. For me, I'm not such a maverick that I don't want to risk my life. I've got two kids. I want to enjoy the rest of my life. I just love adventure. So I wanted to have something, and the first criteria was safety. So Peter Bray said, you got to speak to this guy. His name is Rob Filo. He's in England. And speak to him. He built my boat 20 years ago. So I called Rob. Hey, Rob, are you going to build me a boat? Come on, let's do this.

And he said, zero, that was 20 years ago because that was in 2019. And he said, I'm retired. I don't have a shop. I don't know. What are you talking about? And then we spoke a few times and I guess some must have been, you know, enthusiastic enough that he felt my energy and they said, OK, I'm going to build my last boat for you. So that's how we come about. And and there's not a lot of people that beat boats for crossing oceans. And I trusted Rob. So.

He built my kayak, it took several months. And I named her Valentin for my sister. Can I ask a favour? If you're enjoying the show, can you give us a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel on YouTube? And if you happen to be listening to the audio only version, can you give us a follow along there too? It'll really help grow the channel. We've got some fantastic guests coming up with some truly inspirational stories. Now, let's get back to this episode. Thank you.

There's some great photos on your site of the build as well which I'd recommend people have a look at. Can you tell me about the cabin on that? Because obviously it's not like a traditional kayak, a recreational kayak, a touring kayak that has a cabin. So how does that work? Because it must sit quite heavy in the water then and when you go to sleep at night, how does it just...

I'm just curious about how does that work then because you're not at risk of capsizing are you or are you? I don't really know much. Well, the boats that are built for ocean don't steer very well. They're really heavy. Mine was fully loaded was 800 pounds. So it's like 400 kilos, right? Something like this. With all the food, I had 220 pounds of food. You have to be able to carry that much food because you're long time.

(31:01.71)
term on the water without seeing any support whatsoever. My crossing, I wanted to do it solo, only on the boat. Unsupported, that means no boat that follows me or gives me anything from the moment I leave the pier to the moment I get to the next marina. And human powered. So then you say, okay, we're going to be three months on the water. You're going to have any kind of weather from a storm at 35, 40 knots of wind to very flat water.

How do we combine that in a boat that is safe? And all these boats are self -rightening. That means if they do capsize, which could happen, they self -righten in the way they're built. First, the design. And secondly, the way they're, you put the weight. So I put, I've got solar panels, so I've got batteries, two batteries. Those are heavy. So I put them under the water line. I've got a water maker because I can't carry that much water. I was drinking about a gallon, you know, three, four liters a day. So.

I would have to make my water. I have a water maker that's heavy. I put that under the water line. All my food is under the water line. And then that cabin is actually very important because if you close it and it's waterproof, then that means there's a big air pouch. So if I do capsize and I'm outside or inside, then it's just, the air will come back naturally to the top. Now, you don't want to get to a point where it capsizes. So you still, when we add,

sheets of lead at the bottom of the boat to add for more stability, more ballast. And during the storm, you use what we call the sea anchor or a para anchor. It's like a parachute. And it's at the end of the line. It's a big parachute that you put in that puts the boat perpendicular to the waves. So then the wave will ride across you and it's kind of safe. It could happen that you have to stay for two, three days without moving, but...

If the hatch is closed, it's waterproof. You know, you just have mentally to be okay to wait it out. That's great. Now, before you passed successfully, you did have an aborted attempt, didn't you? Was that anything to do with the build on the kayak or was it something to do with your instruments? Well, it had to do, first of all, with me because I read...

(33:25.614)
I don't know. I could see. I don't know if people can see it. All these books are adventure books. I read all the people that have crossed oceans. All the people that have done it before have spoken to them. I actually did it myself rowing, right? But a kayak is so different. It behaves differently in the water. And you can listen to all the podcasts with all the books, talk to other people until you have your butt in a storm. You don't know what it is. So I guess I thought I was ready.

And in hindsight, I could see that I was overwhelmed by the situation. I was in a condition where it was 35 knots of wind, gusting 40 waves of 10, 15 feet. And I had to stay three days on the, my first attempt was in 2001. Three days was, you know, attached on the chest and then the hips and just couldn't work for three days and night and didn't sleep at all at all. And at some point my mind just...

said, okay, this is too dangerous. What happened is my anchor that was protecting me by putting my boat perpendicular to the waves collapsed. One of the lines that allows me to bring it back and collapse the parachute got entangled in my rudder. So then it didn't do its work. The boat goes parallel to the waves and then you're like, wow, okay. Found it. So, you know, there's option A, B and C. And with my land support, we decided, okay, well, A,

would not be a good solution because it would be go out and dive and be attached to the boat, but dive and decent to go the hand, the rudder. But then I get hit by the boat and pass out and I'm dead. Option number two would be to wait it out. I knew the storm would be another three days at least and three days where I was really high stress. I could see I was vomiting of stress, that kind of level where I wanted to escape. And okay, three more days is just unbearable. I'm not.

That's when I said, okay, I wasn't ready yet. And third option is to call the Coast Guard and say, you know what, I did my attempt. It's not going to be for this year. The ocean will always be there. I can go back and train even better. So at the point I thought it was really just bad luck. So Coast Guard came, picked me up with a helicopter, left the boat on the water. Three days later, I would be going with a tow boat and pick it up and bring it back to land.

(35:49.454)
And then for that, after that, it was just a year of trying to understand how I could get prepared better. But like I said, Peter Bray took him two attempts to go. He got rescued the first time. Scott Donaldson took three attempts. It's it's just like when there's no blueprint. It's really, really tough to to have it right the first time. How did you feel after that, Cyril? Did it get you down? Did you feel?

chance had gone or were you just steely determined that you were just waiting to get back on board? A mix of this and that and this, that and the other. It's like the first, you know, I felt like I was not given a fair shot and I want to do it again for sure. Should I go in two weeks? Should I go in a year? And then I thought, look, I had actually done pretty good through the storm. But then I had a conversation with Scott Donaldson and he said, Cyril, okay, well, do you think you were prepared? So yeah, I was.

The first three days were good. I did 30 miles a day. I was doing good. At night, I'm drifting, but I'm feeling good. My equipment, I was, yeah, but you were rescued, so were you prepared? I said, yeah, but when I was rescued, that was because of the storm. That was because of the sea anchor. That is a malfunction. I'm lucky, but during the rescue, I had all the protocols. I had the right PFD, the survival suit, I had the flares, I had the communication with the Coast Guard. Yeah, but Cyril, you were rescued, so were you prepared?

And then I was like, fuck, excuse my French. Okay, I wasn't prepared. So he pushed me to the point where I had to admit that there was somewhere I was not prepared. So then took a one year of ups and downs thinking, okay, well, you know, I'm letting my, all the people that believed in me down, how could I do to being prepared again? But the dream was always there. The dream was like, I'm not giving a baby. no.

I think I seen an interview with you. It was on some American news channel or something. And you could just see that in your eyes. I think when you were getting asked the question, you could just see that I'm waiting to go again. I'm just waiting, waiting to go again. This isn't, this isn't going, this isn't given. I'm not giving up. It was good to see. there are so many lessons I got to tell you on that failure. people don't like to call it failure because you know, you say there's no failure. It's just waiting, you know, learning opportunities.

(38:12.718)
But I think actually we shouldn't be afraid of the word. Yes, I failed. I didn't cross. But why? And that's in the answering the why that actually you learn the most. And one of the things is I realized that I had communicated a lot about the, you know, I wanted to share my experience on social media and press. But when I took off the day I left, there were like TVs and stuff. And I felt I had succeeded. And it's true because when you share, hey guys, I'm leaving tomorrow.

My boat is on the dock. I'm leaving. Then you get all these messages. This is great. You know, we're behind you. So you get like a reward in some ways, like a gratification. But in the end, it's for something you haven't done. I haven't done anything. You know, I haven't left yet, but I felt like I had done something. So then I felt, okay, well, this is wrong. I shouldn't get any reward before I actually do the thing, which is get to Hawaii. Right. So then I'd start to decide, okay, I'm going to do this one question.

and everything that I want to do for the next 12 months has to go through that filter, which is, is this what you're going to do? You're going to increase the chance of success to get to Hawaii, right? So being on social media and doing a video, hey guys, I'm preparing this. No, it's not helping, so I'm not doing this. Is having more press relationship. Of course I had the good intention, which is, hey, I want eyeballs. I want to be in the media so that sponsors give you money so I can be able to do that, right?

But no, it's not helping me. But what? Spending more time on the boat, doing training on the really bad weather. Like actually getting a job. I changed job and I got a job as a diver when I was cleaning boats under, you know, the algae in the boats because I would get used to cold and being underwater. So then if I do have to disentangle my sea anchor from the rudder, then I can go and I feel safe. You know, it's like all the lessons that I've learned from that was so good. That's great.

What lessons, so rolling back a little bit in terms of the mental side of things, and did you have a team to help you prepare for that the second time round? Because I have seen that you've got a bit of a team on your side and I think extends into like exercise, nutrition, but also a hypnotherapist. And I know you're a...

(40:31.982)
You're very much into visualization and stuff, aren't you, as well? So did that come together as part of your planning the second time round as well as just the physical and the safety side? Well, I think you have to look at your strengths and weaknesses, right? And the strengths could be a weakness, too. Like my strength is I'm very emotional. And when I get pumped up, like I can do it like, yeah, it's yeah, I put some energy and emotions in it, but it could be my weakness.

Okay, so then you ask your question, well, how do I use that to my advantage? And then how do I pilot it? If it's, I could see that it could be detrimental. In fact, when my crossing, maybe I cried every day. I always start to think of my friends and my mom, I start to cry, I love you, momma, momma. So the whole thing is for me, okay, the mental side, I'm gonna try everything. I did Zazen meditation, because I need to be able to.

cool down in a stressful situation. I did hypnosis, did a lot of yoga. I did cold water soaking, you know, beam, Wim Hof. Cold water. Yeah, I love this guy. And how do you do that in cold water and manage, you know, what you feel, what you think when you're in pain because of the cold. I did, I did have a coach, a mental coach, and he's a coach for the fireman. He does really super athletes and that kind of stuff. And for instance,

One of the things was, okay, if I'm in the cabin, how do I get not stressed? And he would say, you got to get like whatever you fear or you think you can't manage, you have to go progressively towards that. Right. And then you create automatism in your mind so that it becomes benign. For instance, you say, okay, well, the first time you drive, you drove your car. Remember the first time you were 18. What? It's stressful because you have to change the gear.

Accelerate, brake, look at the mirror, look at the left, this guy's passing me. And then you do it so much time that it's just no problem. Right? It's the same, you pass a lorry or truck that is in the rain. For 10 seconds, you don't see anything. The first time, you're like, what? And then you pass. It's OK. For 10 seconds, I don't see. If I keep going straight, I'm OK. So he said it's the same for you. If you have a wave that comes and swamps your cockpit, if it happens only once, the first time, you're going to be stressed. Like what?

(42:54.318)
Okay, I have to bail, I have to do this and that. Okay, if you do it 20 times, there's just a process. You say, I gotta stop the bailing, do that, it's okay. So the training will just go towards where you fear. And then another example is, okay, I don't know how I'm gonna be in this little coffin of a cabin when on a storm. How do you get used to this? It has to be a kokuni, you can't feel like you're trapped. How do you get there? Okay.

Well, I built a box exactly the same size as the cabinet, put it in my backyard and I would spend the whole afternoon in it. Yeah. And then I would be with my computer because I could work close enough that I got a Wi -Fi and my fiance would say, you're crazy. You're 45 years old. And what do you look what you're doing? That's commitment. That's real commitment. Excellent. Yeah. And then the boat arrives. It's on the trailer. I would sleep in the trailer and then I put the boat on the water on the dock. I would sleep on the dock, like on the boat.

and then I would put the boat on a buoy on a calm day in the middle of the bay and I would sleep it in. And then on a stormy day, just progressively go towards what is hard to do. So that you know in the moment this happens, I just need to do A, B and C and just keep sticking to the process. Yeah. Fantastic. What was it like in the cabin at night or what was it like on the boat at night? Did you ever have any calm nights so you could look at the stars and take it in? What was that like?

Yeah, I think it really only happens the second half. So after maybe 40 days, the first one, I was just so tired. I would paddle all day from sunrise to sundown and I would just be in the cabin. I felt like a cocoon. That was my safe place. I close the hatch and then I'm just resting and I was so tired. I would just pass out. But I still have to wake up every hour because I've got plotter, which GPS, right?

can detect with a system called the AIS, Automatic Identification System, that sends my coordinates and my profile to other boats and I see their boats. So I see there's a container ship 10 miles away, but the radius is maximum 20 miles and they go 15 miles an hour. So that means if I have a radius of 20 miles and there's no boat in there, I'm okay for one hour. So then I would sleep for an hour, wake up an hour, nothing on that, my radius of 20 miles, I can sleep another hour. So I would wake up every hour.

(45:16.334)
And yeah, I would look at my drift. Okay, I'm drifting the wrong direction. I could lose up to five miles. Do 20 miles during the day, lose five at night. 20 miles, lose. It's like a shark teeth, you know? But it's always good to be reassured by knowing where you are. But something happened once, so scary. So it had been quite foggy on the water and my solar panels couldn't really recharge the battery.

but I still need to make water. So one day I made the water and I still had 80%, 85 % of battery, but I woke up in the middle of the night completely in the dark. Everything, my GPS turned off. So that was really stressful because I tried to turn on the light, nothing, it's dark. And then you're like, okay, if I don't see other boats, they don't see me. Like what if there's a container coming? I can't sleep. I've got to go outside, but the weather is bad. I can't really go outside now. I mean, I'm naked. I'm in underwear. What do I do? It was so stressful.

But then it's funny, you get used to it. You get used to it. What kind of experience did you have then being alert as one thing, but did you ever come into contact with wildlife, whales, sharks, birds, boats on the way? yeah, that was probably the most beautiful thing. It's like National Geographic out there. I was so slow, I got two miles an hour. So when I left the coast,

Monterey is about three hours south of San Francisco. It's a bay and it's got a topography underwater that is really very good for wildlife. So there's a lot of fish that are growing there. So whales are a lot and there's a lot of whales. So I could see maybe whales the first two weeks and then dolphins and then the birds. I could start to see some albatross, which I love this bird. And then throughout the journey,

Some species go away, some other arrives. Maybe there's tuna that arrive. And then you could see mahi -mahi, which is another of these different kinds. And then you start to see the flying fish when the water starts to warm up a little bit. And the flying fish, but 200 flying fish. What? Fantastic. And then you see birds are trying to catch the flying fish, the frigate birds. So I saw birds the whole way, every day, even though if you don't see land for three months, I could see birds every day.

(47:39.566)
And that's where you recognize like this, this wildlife is so well adapted to these conditions and they are amazing. They fly day and night in storm and flat weather. Like, how the heck do they do that? And then you become to create this respect for them. And then how you feel bad at seeing all this plastic. I mean, there is something in that post adventure blues, isn't there? There's that kind of reflection sense of achievement, but it's like, what's next?

Yeah, well, it did happen to me and it's like you said, it's quite known the post expedition distress syndrome or and and it's like a baby blues, you know, it's quite difficult to understand like, like the women have a baby, why should they, you know, should they be sad? And for us, I think it's a change of pace by being completely free on the ocean and a very simple life where you do.

the same thing every day and then you're on your own. There's no stress. Going back to the stressful life of emails and phone numbers, phone calls and calendars and social media and press. But also the hard for me, it didn't last very long, maybe just a few days where I felt so emotional having lived what I lived. I wanted to share it. But then I quickly realized that whoever I was going to share it with,

could not really grasp what it meant. Like when I say the connection I had with the waves and like, they can't understand because they haven't been there, you know, and it's okay. And after a while, you just understand that, you know, they don't mean not to understand it's just they haven't been there. So I guess that felt a lot of relief when I spoke with another adventurer man that had done something similar say, you know that I get it. And then you know, he gets it. Yeah.

fantastic. It's some achievement. It really is. It's phenomenal. So the Atlantic, that's next. So California to Hawaii, what was it? 20, was it 2000 miles or just more than 2000? Yeah, it's 2400 nautical miles.

(50:06.19)
And it's a hard one because here's the thing, the Pacific, mid Pacific, you leave from the mainland, right? You leave from California and you're finishing an island. The hard part is to get to the trade winds. You need to have the winds and the current favorable to do that kind of adventure because otherwise you can't go against the current. Now the Atlantic is actually considered a little bit longer. It's going to be $2 ,600 a month. But starting from an island.

to arrive in Ireland, the trade winds are a bit more established. So if I pick the right time to leave, then it should be actually more favorable. In fact, I think it's going to take less time. My estimation is about 75 days, but I was very wrong on my first crossing. I thought it was going to be 70 days, I did 90. So I'll have food for 80 days and I can ration again if I need to.

But yeah, I'm very much looking forward to going back on the ocean. Yeah. And it's from the Canary Islands, isn't it? Which one of the Canaries are you leaving from? I'm going to be in an island called El Mierro, which is west. It's the furthest west. So first I have to bring the kayak to Cadiz, which is the south of Spain, and then take a ferry to Tenerife.

And then from Tenerife, I have to go to El Hierro. And El Hierro, I will go west. So it still is the North Atlantic, but it's east to west. And I'm going west all the way to Barbados. And at first I wanted to start and finish, well, finish in the French island, Guadeloupe or Martinique would be great. Cause there's a lot of rum over there, so it's perfect. But then I spoke to a friend who's a sailor and says, you know, as soon as you get into the islands,

The currents are shifting and there's a different dynamic with the currents. The depth are changing. So it could be chaotic in some islands and also the wind is shifting. So usually for a vessel like mine, stopping at the first island, which is Barbados, is usually the easiest to land. So I'm doing east to west, the North Atlantic. I'm above the equator line and that's December 2024. Yeah. Everything on track for that currently?

(52:27.918)
Yes, currently, right now I'm refurbishing everything I can on my own, doing a little bit of my giver kind of action here and really hunting for sponsors. My budget entails refurbishing the boat, sending the boat to Canary Islands and staying there for two weeks, preparing the boat with part of my crew and then bring the boat back from Barbados.

And then I'm going to be four months with no revenue, but I still have to pay for the mortgage. I have to pay for life. So part of it is I'm not really trying to make any money and I don't want to be just full time. I just need not to lose money. So now sponsors that are, I do speaking engagement where I talk about my whole adventure and that helps me finance the next adventure. But yeah, there's companies that really...

believe that there's values in my crossing that they really connect with and that they want their employees to be connected with. So it's going well. I still have six months. I want to close the budget in six months, but it's an un -good path. Excellent. Excellent. We'll see what we can do about raising more awareness of it through some of these channels. I mean, I'm in contact with some expos and things as well, so I'll make sure.

that people are aware of the episodes and everything that's going along with it to see how much more exposure we can get. thank you so much. I actually love it. I love to share the adventure because that's I feel the. I think, you know, you're always looking for what's my purpose in life, what's my talent, like why am I put where was I put on earth in the first place and what would make my life worth living? And I think for me.

It's just living these crazy adventures and sharing it and trying to inspire people to live their best lives. So when I speak to a school or, you know, like here in California, maybe months ago, I went to 900 kids, 900 kids from 12 to 14. Imagine if I just put a little seed of adventure in their heart at 14.

(54:44.43)
what they will do in 10 years. Yes. I love this. I'll do it for free. You know, I don't care. That's partly why the reason I reached out and that's part, I mean, that is a massive part of why I'm doing this show. Really. It's just to, you know, just make anything that just anyone can take away. You mean it doesn't need to be rowing or sailing or, you know, kayak in the Atlantic or the Pacific. It's just.

get the little seed, the little nugget and go and do something that's relative to your conditions or your environment or whatever it may be. And I think listening to some of your stuff, talking about the trials and tribulations a little bit, having an aborted journey, but what lessons did you learn from that mentally, physically, and then going again, it's just, it's these types of things. I mean, it carries forward into any industry or work.

or career or adventure. It's fantastic. It really is. You're an inspiration, Cyril. And I want to do a long distance kayak or canoe journey. And I've got the Amazon as a thing that I want to build up to. I'm not going to put my neck on the line just yet, because I think my wife and my family will go mad. But that's... Well, I had...

I had the plan to do it as well at some point and I've got a friend, his name is West Hanson. He's kayaked the entire length of the Amazon from sewers to sea and spoke to him. He just finished the Northwest Passage now with, I think he was a fellow Scottish guy. Like last week they arrived and they crossed the whole Northwest Passage in one season without pulling and being on ice, just kayaking on their own human power.

And West was telling me, you know what, that the Amazon was amazing, but it still is dangerous. There's been accounts of people being kidnapped and there's drugs and traffic, gun traffic. So for me, it's adventure. So maybe one day I'll be able to do it and maybe we'll do it together. I'd love to have a paddle with you. I tell you what, why don't you paddle from the Eastern seaboard and arrive in Oban in Scotland and I'll come back with you over to the...

(57:05.006)
Yes, be careful. I don't need more items on my bucket list. Excellent, phenomenal. Thank you. So, I want to be a bit respectful of your time, Cyril. I've thoroughly enjoyed this. I think people are going to get a lot, a lot out of this episode. It's been very motivational, very inspiring. So, we have two closing traditions on the show, one of which is a call to adventure.

and the other one is a paid forward segment. So the call to adventure is an opportunity for you, the guests, to give us a suggestion to get people, like you say, disconnected out into nature, doing something small, micro or macro. What would your call to adventure be? Well, I would start by looking at the definition of adventure. If I ask you what's adventure, you're going to say it's excitement.

It's a new thing, it's spontaneity. It's just fun, right? Adventure is fun. And if you look at the opposite of adventure, something that is not adventurous, what would you say? It's routine, it's normal, it's boring. Why wouldn't you want to have adventure? Per definition, you want an adventurous life, right? So then, look at what could be an adventure for you.

I like to kayak, I do kayak, but maybe I'm gonna hurt my wrist and I'm gonna do something else. I'm gonna cross Argentina with a camel or bring a sheep across Mongolia. I don't care. Whatever, what drives me is that. What drives you? And I think it also, if you're looking for adventure, you're looking for happiness, right? But sometimes we're looking for happiness in our lives, which is the wrong thing. Like what is gonna bring me happiness? Is it maybe a big job?

or responsibility, a bigger house, another car, blah, blah, blah. No, no, I think we should look for vibration. And what's vibration is remember the last thing where you felt so good and maybe having friends around, maybe is going and doing that two hour bike ride. Maybe it's going on a trip overseas. Maybe it's learning a new skill. So if you look for vibration and you look for adventure, whatever you want to do is good.

(59:28.334)
It has to come from the heart. It has to come from like that, that inner fire that you want to do and do it again. You do it for free. Right. And then, and it could be about taking photographs of butterflies around the world. I don't care. You want to start guitar? Start now. I started cacking. I was 32. You want to do what? See all the biggest trees in the world. Do that. You want to do, you know, help people learning how to speak Spanish. Do that.

whatever it is, like it's adventure, it's vibration, do that. Excellent. I love your passion. It's never too late. It's never just, you know, whatever. Whatever. Yeah. Just get on with it. Yeah. Amazing. Thank you. And finally, a paid forward suggestion.

Paid forward? Wait, what's your definition of paid forward? So this is for a worthy cause, a charity project, you know, something, something to spread awareness for good causes. It could be, you know, ocean related or not. OK, so I'm going to do something ocean related, something that's passionate. And I spoke about it, about the pollution on the ocean. Now, I want to offer perspective. Obviously,

most of your listeners that love nature know that you don't have to throw paper or plastic when you're at the beach or something, right? But I think what we have to change is if you go on the beach and you see something on the floor, if you don't pick it up, it's as bad as if you had thrown it yourself, which is not right. You didn't do it. But like caring, caring for that. Like if everybody, if I do it myself, yeah, it's going to change. You do it and somebody else does it.

But if everybody had this mentality where I'm going to clean wherever I go, if I leave it better than I found it, it's an improvement. And the power is in multiplying that. Right. So just a little message of, yeah, pick it up. Yeah. Leave no trace. Even if it's someone else's, leave no trace. Pick it up and do your bit. Excellent. Thank you.

(01:01:46.446)
Thank you, Cyril. This has been an incredible conversation. I love your energy. I love your passion. I love everything that you've done, really. And I really appreciate you taking the time to chat to us today. I've really enjoyed it. Thank you so much, Chris. Thanks to everyone listening. And if they want to follow the journey of the Atlantic, it's solokayaktheatlantic .com.

I hope to meet every one of you and share the passion of adventure in life. Yeah, likewise. And hopefully we can do a follow up and we can talk about your success across the Atlantic as well. 100 % and the next one and the next one. And the one to Scotland in the back and maybe the Amazon in town as well. Excellent. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to today's episode. For the show notes and further information,

please visit AdventureDiaries .com slash podcast. And finally, we hope to have inspired you to take action and plan your next adventure, big or small, because sometimes we all need a little adventure to cleanse that bitter taste of life from the soul. Until next time, have fun and keep paying it forward.