A 28-year-old Dane is battling storms, snow, and waves several meters high in an attempt to become the first person to make his way around his home country on a stand-up paddleboard (Sup).
Casper “The Viking” Steinfath, a six-time Sup world champion, set off from his home beach in Klitmøller – known as Cold Hawaii – on 2 April with nothing more than a tent, a sleeping bag, a cooking set and some meal packages .
He plans to camp inland each night and rely on the kindness of strangers to help him get through the 870-mile (1,400km) journey around Denmark’s jagged coastline in some of the worst weather Danes have encountered all year.
“Growing up by the North Sea in Jutland, I’m used to playing in any type of conditions,” Steinfath said. “But yesterday was pretty horrendous… I’m currently sunburned, windburned and I have frozen fingers. It’s a weird combination.”
He said his strategy for coping was “chapstick, SPF 40 and dancing to Rage Against the Machine every 45 minutes to stop my feet going numb.”
Steinfath was inspired to take on the challenge while grounded during the pandemic. “Before corona, I spent 10 years traveling the world for watersports competitions and was away for at least nine months of every year, so the pandemic is the longest period I’ve spent at home since I was a child.”
After a brief “rest”, he said, he became curious about Denmark and the Danes. “I dreamed of rediscovering my back yard and the hidden gems of it I haven’t seen yet.” He was most looking forward to seeing South Funen, or the Danish Caribbean as it is optimistically known, and Møns Klint, the 70m-year-old chalk cliffs crumbling into the Baltic Sea two hours south of Copenhagen.
Would-be Vikings can follow the progress of what’s being called The Great Danish Paddle via a live GPS map or via @cj_steinfath on Instagram, and then join Steinfath to sail, row or paddle along with him. “I loved watching Forrest Gump as a kid and the scene with the running really stuck with me,” Steinfath said, recalling the 1994 film in which the title character is joined on a cross-country run by others who see him as a guru.
Steinfath’s hopes are more humble. “I don’t mind if one person, 10 people or 100 people join me, I’ll just be stoked with any company. Danes come out of their winter caves in spring and there’s a real energy in the air, so it’s a great time to see Denmark.”
He aims to paddle about 25 miles a day, carrying 30kg of equipment on his board. On a calm day this means paddling for six or seven hours and taking on in the region of 6,000 calories. “I’m about to eat my second lunch,” he said.
While Steinfath was looking forward to the rest of the trip, he was also nervous. “Denmark seems tiny on a map, but there’s a long way to go to get around it on a Sup.”
The Great Danish Paddle is expected to take between 40 and 50 days. “But who knows, with the Danish weather,” Steinfath said. “There is one immovable deadline on the horizon: ‘I’m getting married in August so I have to be on dry land by then.”
www.theguardian.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism