in the wild
Jul 19, 2016
How did two guys with no ocean kayaking experience outlast seven teams of well-trained paddlers to complete the first official Cuba-to-Florida kayak crossing? Well, the answer is simple, Brent Rose and Frank Sedlar of the self-proclaimed Team Underdog persevered and took the slow, steady route of the proverbial tortoise. We have the GoPro footage to prove it.
As a tech and adventure journalist, Rose has done some pretty cool things for pubs like Gizmodo, Outside Magazine, Wired, and many more-the dude even drove around the US in a pimped-out van searching for awesome things to write about. However, crossing international borders by kayak might be the boldest move we've seen him make.
The whole voyage came about as a sign of international outreach to commemorate a new relationship with Cuba hosted outdoor-gear company Cotopaxi. The company, including CEO Davis Smith, sponsored a 113-mile kayaking expedition from Cuba to Florida. Cotopaxi hired the current world record holder in distance kayaking to coach teams and even enlisted an Olympic gold medalist as one of the paddlers. Despite zero oceanic kayaking experience, Brent was invited to document the trip and paired up with the equally unprepared Frank for the journey. Equipped with his GoPro, a balanced pre-workout meal of Cuban rum and a bright blue plastic kayak they cleverly named Fidel Fastro, Team Undergdog set off to see what would happen.
While Brent originally planned on simply documenting the experience, in a sick twist of fate, the favored teams fell victim to the rough ocean conditions within 10 hours of launch and were eliminated, leaving Brent and Frank in the lead. We were a couple of yahoos from the press in a plastic kayak. This was their trip. Despite their inexperience, Brent and Frank agreed to keep the expedition going and continued toward the Sunshine State.
Thankfully, Brent pre-arranged to strap his GoPro to the deck of the kayak to journal the entire experience. "In one of my first updates, Frank and I are laughing about being novice kayakers and being dumb enough and inexperienced enough not to be so afraid of this.
Ignorance may have been bliss, but their journey was anything but easy. Moving at an averaged 3 to 4 miles per hour, Brent and Frank battled blistering hands, the scorching Caribbean heat and some not-so-pretty indigestion problems during their 34-hour paddling expedition. Frank and I had been awake for more than 24 hours, and we'd been paddling for more than 18. Neither of us was an ultramarathoner, so we had no idea what we were in for.
With the help of some impromptu 90s hip-hop karaoke sessions, Brent and Frank jammed to Snoop Dogg and Wu-Tang as they defied the odds and made it back to the mainland. With about 20 miles to go, Davis McCay, CEO of Cotopaxi, congratulated the duo on being the the first. We were perplexed. The first what?' I asked. Davis looked exasperated. Nobody's ever done this in a kayak before,' he said.
Wait what? Yes- these two reporters became the first people to kayak from Cuba to Florida by complete accident.
You'd think that that would be a critical bit of information to impart to the journalists you'd invited along to chronicle your undertaking. That's the kind of tidbit that gets stories sold.
So there you have it-the secret to completing the impossible? Not knowing it's impossible. Kudos to Brent and Frank for pushing their limits and fearlessly paddling on.
Check out Brent's full Deadspin story here and watch the journey on video above.
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in the wild 
