I have two sons and two granddaughters. He was assaulted by hailstorms of flying fish. When Aleksander Doba kayaked into the port in Le Conquet, France, on Sept. 3, 2017, he had just completed his third and by far most dangerous solo trans-Atlantic kayak trip. His maternal grandmother was sent to Siberia. End of the expedition Doba's wizened but muscular frame and ancient, friendly face became familiar not just to the adventure world but to mainstream audiences when he kayaked across the Atlantic in . But by katorga, Doba does not mean an activity he does not wish to do. [7] "I realized almost immediately that an ordinary kayak can't handle the open . Chmielinski also had been coordinating Dobas logistics. I came very close to the line of my possibility and human possibility. Doba being helped by the crew of Baltic Light in June 2017, when he had rudder problems during his North Atlantic crossing. He is the king of the ocean., Aleksander Doba, Who Kayaked Across the Atlantic, Dies at 74, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/world/europe/aleksander-doba-dead.html. Doba, Aleksander, 1946- - Library of Congress He was famous for his long voyages crossing oceans and seas. He relieved himself by leaning off the side or the stern. He kayaked the coast of Norway to the Arctic Circle. Kayaker Aleksander Doba Dies On Kilimanjaro - Bernews Those were very, very hard times for both of us. He explored countless Polish rivers, and he amassed records and firsts. He communed with the turtles, whose shells he tapped while they swam alongside him to make sure they were alive, and the birds, who landed on Olo for a rest and often entered his cabin and did not want to leave. His odyssey concluded that September when he paddled into the port in Le Conquet, France. Aleksander Doba. There were small rivers, and we were squeezing through the bushes., Freed from the ballast of his sons, Doba started setting goals for himself: surpass the record of the greatest number of days paddled by a Polish man in a single year (108); kayak the longest possible route in Poland (1,189 kilometers). The key to surviving a serious storm, Doba says, was to keep his kayak oriented with the stern perpendicular to the waves, so that those waves hit the narrow end of the vessel, instead of broadsiding the boat and rolling it over. The first person in the world to paddle from Europe to America in a kayak across the Atlantic Ocean's widest point, Aleksander Doba also holds the record for the number of days (142) spent in a kayak in the ocean. But this voyage was too dangerous, she told me, to keep her head where she liked it to be, stuck in the sand. Then the AA batteries for his SPOT personal tracking device failed, and the retired engineer had to rig a new, delicate connection using AAAs. So, Gabriela told me, she laid out for her husband all the reasons trans-Atlantic kayaking was stupid. He was named 2014 Adventurer of the Year by National Geographic . The whole nation was starving. His chest looks 50. Reviews, News & Stories Paddling Buyer's Guide Paddling Trip Guide. (Honestly, you dont need the details.) Aleksander Doba - Transatlantic Kayak Expedition - YouTube After 98 days, 23 hours, 42 minutes at sea, Doba and his . But so what? This is an order. And the German man jumps. Yet, at least for me, the river was magic calm, mysterious and alive. Aleksander Doba kayaked the Atlantic EN: I drove from Brussels to Le Conquet (Brest) in France to greet Polish adventurer Alex Doba who finished his 3rd kayak transatlantic in exactly 110 days (16 May - 3 Sept). Through the ocean. Then I saw it: a huge head, sticking out of the ocean, he told Canoe & Kayak magazine in 2014. Subscribe. Then I asked the local guides with him, Do you know who this man is? And they said: Yes. Only one person had ever crossed the Atlantic in a kayak using solely muscle power, and he traveled island to island, from Newfoundland to Ireland. Aleksander Doba, Adventurers of the Year 2014/2015 - National Geographic The first time Polish kayaker Aleksander Doba tried to paddle across the Atlantic Ocean in 2007, he didn't get far. The two voyages were the longest open-water kayak voyages ever made. All rights reserved, Aleskander Doba is our 2015 People's Choice Adventurer of the Year. He texted Arminski and Piotr Chmielinski, a Polish kayaker who in the mid-1980s, shortly after hed defected to the United States, was part of the first team to paddle the length of the Amazon. Doba was born in 1946 in Swarzedz, Poland, right after the end of World War II, when the country had been run over by the Soviets and the Germans, then bombed to dust. He went on to win the gold medal at the Open Academic Polish Championships in Whitewater Kayaking in 2003 at age 57 and defended the title the next year. She felt bad about it, she said, and she felt judged, but here we were, werent we? He has no interest in dying in his bed. Several books have been written about his adventures, including three written by Doba himself.[21]. Gabrielas accommodations to Dobas lifestyle started in the late 1980s, when Doba became obsessed with kayaking and began insisting that Gabriela drop him and his kayak by the side of the road on the way to her mothers house for Christmas, and then pick up him and his kayak at a prearranged point on her way back home after a few days. A freighter picked him up, and its Filipino crew repaired the rudder. AD: When I packed things carefully and ate some food, I could lie down on my back. I am generally physically active, ride a bike, work in my garden, and enjoy walking.. We watched them in his living room together with Gabriela. Aleksander Doba, a 74-year-old retired engineer with a thick white beard and a piercing gaze, was a popular figure in Poland. He gives himself control. It was in 2010 that he started seriously planning to cross the Atlantic. The majority of sport. In October 2010, Doba voyaged across the Atlantic Ocean by kayak, from Senegal to Brazil and completed his trip in February 2011. Doba Gets Rudder Repair By Passing Ship on Atlantic Sea Kayak Crossing Doba accepted his suggestion that he paddle to Bermuda for a repair. I did it with no stuntman, Doba told me proudly. I sense some . The Pole has announced that he will set off in May on what will be his third - and possibly toughest - Atlantic Crossing. Polish Adventurer Dies Atop Kilimanjaro: Family On the warmer part of the Atlantic Ocean, flying fish were a big, unexpected attraction. It is basically an avalanche of water. At 15, Doba rode around Poland by himself. He kayaked across the Atlantic Ocean three times, the last time in 2017, when he was 70. He was, by then, 90 percent of the way across the ocean but had spent the last six weeks paddling in circles in the Bermuda Triangle, trapped by wind and currents. MARCH 22, 2018. Before they left, Gabriela would make Doba state for the record the condition of the children (Bartek has a small sniffle and is tired but otherwise is well. There were spiders. He died like an adventurer after . His skin was bronzed and weathered, his beard long and tangled, but the 67-year-old's mood was upbeat as he raised his arms in triumph after a remarkable crossing that spanned 5,400 miles. They offered to throw him ropes. Before the second expedition, there were similarly heavy struggles between us. The huge group of his supporters keeps growing . The voyage took him 196 days to complete, and he paddled 6,300 miles. This site is to promote polish paddler Aleksander Doba and his highly respectable . He is currently working on two books, Home Works and Cuba. He last shot a smoke sauna in Estonia for the magazine.Correction: March 23, 2018 An earlier version of this article misstated the timing of Piotr Chmielinskis navigation of the Amazon. The ships captain was hesitant to let the disheveled man back into the ocean alone. A week later, three bandits went through my stuff for half an hour. Aleksander Doba was the most accomplished trans-oceanic solo kayaker in the world, who continued setting records into his seventies. Aleksander Doba - Traveler of the Year 2015 - Active and Eco Extreme Gear to Kayak Across the Atlantic - Men's Journal Remembering Aleksander Doba, Who Kayaked Across Atlantic - OutdoorMaster Transatlantic crossings In the early 1970s, Mr. Doba graduated from Poznan University of Technology, where he studied mechanical engineering. Eventually they found him a ride, and Doba paddled away during a storm. ' laughs intrepid kayaker Aleksander Doba. A Polish grandfather on Sunday completed his third solo trans-Atlantic kayak crossing, arriving on the French coast 111 days after dipping his paddle into the waters off the US state of New Jersey. Aleksander Doba is a Polish kayaker known primarily for his long voyages crossing oceans. Video Polish Kayaker Is Paddling Across the Atlantic for the Third Time The whale swam here, and there, all around my kayak. After, on weekends Doba would put a kayak on a train, debark as close to a river as possible and walk the kayak, on a wheeled contraption built from bicycle and stroller parts, 25 miles if necessary to put in. Doba had been into hang gliding and sky diving, but the government often closed the airspace because Police was near the East German border. AD: When I was alone on the ocean I had no fear for my life. At the time of this writing, real-time tracking indicates that Aleksander Doba is on or near the small French Island of Ushant on the south-western end of the English Channel. Aleksander Doba is no stranger to long ocean crossings. The departure for the second trip, from Portugal to Florida, turned out to be very abrupt. The roughly 5,000-year-old human remains were found in graves from the Yamnaya culture, and the discovery may partially explain their rapid expansion throughout Europe. She threw herself into her work, which had become far more rewarding than she ever imagined it could when she trained as a social worker in the 1970s. I hope they will learn not to be afraid to dream, turn dreams into plans, and bring plans to reality. He then reached Acara at 17:50 local time (99 days, 6 h, 20 min). Doba returned to Police to a heros welcome and 14 months later flew to Washington to receive an award from the National Geographic Society as the 2015 Peoples Choice Adventurer of the Year. Bright green moss covered the trees, egrets stretched like sheets blowing on a line and the occasional ray of sun broke through the low clouds. He did it three times, setting records and becoming a national hero in Poland. Me, fine, he shouted in English, pointing to himself and giving the thumbs up. UPDATE: The votes are inmore than 521,000 of them, more than ever beforeand we have a winner. The Polish native had departed from Lisbon, Portugal, on October 5, 2013, with the intention of paddling 5,400 miles across the Atlantic's widest point and arriving in Florida in mid-February. Replies: 5 Views: 2,045. . kontakt: aleksanderdoba@gmail.com He was unaccustomed to wearing pants. El polaco Aleksander Doba, que se convirti en la primera persona en cruzar el ocano Atlntico en kayak y en solitario a los 65 aos de edad, falleci el . I did not see oil slicks and there were not large amounts of trash, just single pieces of rubbish. On April 19, 2014, Doba, who is now 68, paddled the final stroke of his 7,716-mile transatlantic journey, docking OLO, his 23-foot kayak, in a marina in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. The adventurous Pole always had a thirst for what he called katorga (hard labour), says Elizabeth Weil on The Daily. By choosing it, he casts himself in the role of hero, not victim. Mr. Dobas three trans-Atlantic voyages earned him Guinness World Records titles, and in recent years he enjoyed celebrity status in his native Poland. Doba maintains that his need to cross the Atlantic in a kayak did not originate within him. On April 19, 2014, Doba, who is now 68, paddled the final stroke of his 7,716-mile transatlantic journey, docking OLO, his 23-foot kayak, in a marina in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. He is paddling for New Smyrna Beach, Florida, 4,700 nautical miles away. Previous generations had not fared better. Polish sea kayaker Aleksander Doba - known for making the transatlantic journey from Europe to North America aboard a kayak - passed away this week. The 69-year old paddler who gained recognition as a Nat Geo Adventurer of the Year back in 2015 for his 7716 mile (12,417 km) crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, is getting ready to do it all over again. Among Dobas bigger regrets in life are the times when he has succumbed, when he has perceived and reacted to suffering in conventional ways for instance, the night in April 1989 when he built a fire in order to make tea and dry his clothes while paddling on the Vistula River near the city of Plock, in central Poland. Gabriela did not believe he would. Le kayakiste, Aleksander Doba - Quebec Kayak A Record-Breaking Atlantic Crossing by Kayak. Still, Doba refused. But the inside of the apartment feels much better: shoes in the entrance hall; pencil marks of grandchildrens heights in the kitchen door jamb; atlases, kayaking trophies and snow globes of family photos in the living room. A crisis, in Dobas worldview, is an opportunity for triumph. Doba declined the ropes the crew offered to throw him. In photos from the ends of his trips, he looks ecstatic and feral, in the best possible sense, intrinsically wild and free. A breaking wave can do whatever it wants to a kayak. There was no engineering Olo for this. Isolation? Meet the man who solo kayaked the Atlantic Ocean Dobas father, a master at building and repairing things from scraps, made his son a bike. His feats made him a national hero in Poland. Dedham Kayak Company | Boat Design Net Then shed leave. He didnt particularly want to be rescued, anyway. Today. When a few landed on my kayak, I didnt have to eat my lyophilized food for dinner that night.. The triumph of Aleksander Doba. His pension is $700 a month. I was just paddling down the river, he explained. . The Polish . #AleksanderDoba Archives - Bernews I was in a pickle! To avoid the nightmare of quiet conformity, Doba told me he said to his mother-in-law, This is a good soup! Three times. Arminski agreed to build the boat, and in spring of 2010, Olo, as Doba named his kayak after his own nickname, Olek was complete. He was known for his long voyages crossing oceans. The Search for Joshua Tree's Missing Hiker. Joakim Eskildsen is a Danish photographer based outside Berlin. His first crossing was in 2011, from Senegal, West Africa, to Brazil, a 99-day journey. Doba had only wanted his phone repaired. He slept no more than six hours a day in multiple installments, crammed into his cockpit on his side among five months' worth of food and equipment. When he arrived at his destination, he was greeted by one journalist. Heres the technology that helped scientists find itand what it may have been used for. Doba was a little disappointed. [4] He used a 23-foot kayak, weighing 1500 pounds when fully loaded. [5][6], Doba's first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean was from Senegal to Brazil in 2010 and spanned 5394 kilometers. The first time I visited my future mother-in-law, she served ducks blood soup. Or the afternoon, a week later, on that same river, when he succumbed to the temptation of eating pancakes, tomato soup and rice at the Milk Bar restaurant when he should have been at his campsite, by his kayak, eating cold canned goulash in order to condition his body for arctic temperatures. Raspberry vodka! Doba, for now, has a carefully constructed answer. In truth, my own trip had not been as peaceful as Id hoped. Dobas electric desalinator broke, as it did before, and he had to spend several hours a day manually pumping seawater through an extremely fine filter to produce the five to nine liters of fresh water he needed to stay hydrated and prepare his freeze-dried food. Without the wings, the kayak had greater lateral stability and was less sensitive to wind. For a while the crossing was drama-free. Doba started kayaking in 1980, after he and Gabriela moved to Police, where Doba took his equipment-repair job at the chemical factory and Gabriela was a social worker. He does love Gabriela, however, and he does not want to cause her more pain. I dont like it at all. It was accomplished in a 7-meter sea kayak and set a record for the longest open-water crossing ever undertaken by a kayaker, at roughly 99 days (the previous longest kayak crossing belonged to Peter Bray who traveled from Newfoundland to Ireland in 2001 and took over 76 days, relying on muscle-power only and no sail). He also snacked on dried fruit and his wifes plum jam, but he ran out of that halfway across the ocean. To prove themselves, Polish people will endure everything. His 12,417 kilometer journey began in Lisbon on October 5, 2013 and ended in Florida on April 17, 2014. During the worst of it, the rope on his sea anchor broke. It looks good, it smells good, probably everybody likes it. While the distance does not compare with the record for the longest ocean-crossing by kayak, held by Poland's Aleksander Doba for a 6558-kilometre journey from Portugal to Florida via Bermuda, the Tasman Sea is notorious for its unpredictable, difficult weather conditions. (Photo: Iwona) A 12,417 kilometer journey between Lisbon and Florida. Here, Fiann Paul from the Ocean Rowing Society International remembers this most accomplished of adventurers. For Aleksander Doba, pitting himself against the wide-open sea storms, sunstroke, monotony, hunger and loneliness is a way to feel alive in old age. Polish kayaker Aleksander Doba begins his translatlantic kayak adventure from New York to Lisbon on May 29, 2016 in New York. During the third rescue attempt he yelled a Polish vulgarity. After Gabriela told me about Christmas, Doba began telling a story. 1,277 talking about this. El aventurero polaco Aleksander Doba muere en el Kilimanjaro But I was my own little speck in the vast universe. According to multiple Polish media reports . A storm had damaged his rudder. He held a marine yacht skipper certificate. In 2018, a Polish retiree named Aleksander Doba, at 71, completed his third trans-Atlantic solo crossing, in a 21 kayak he designed. An ocean crossing is not something to undertake lightly. Polish long distance kayaker Aleksander Doba was planning to set off to attempt an Atlantic Ocean crossing alone at the age of 69 years. At 67 years old, a Polish kayaker completes the longest open-water kayaking expedition across the Atlantic in history. (That didnt work.) Actualizado a 24/02/2021 12:40 CET. Doba tried to heat the pin with his camping stove and smash it straight. Then there is [the] satisfaction of great achievements.. F. Pinterest. What he did not say, what was left hanging in the air, was that it would not be a big problem for him to go into the sea and die. When making potentially dangerous or financial decisions, always employ and consult appropriate professionals. found: Ocean to piku, 2018: page 4 of cover (Aleksander Doba; in 2010 became first person in the world to cross the Atlantic Ocean by kayak) found : Wikipedia, viewed Oct. 25, 2019 (Aleksander Doba; born Sept. 9, 1946, in Swarzdz; Polish kayaker known for his ocean-crossing voyages; lives in Police near Szczecin, Poland) Doba in Lisbon in October 2013, demonstrating how he would live aboard his kayak. . During a storm, the water below the oceans surface stays relatively still; what moves radically are the waves. With this design the paddler sits up off the water as well. All rights reserved. The trip could have easily ended five days earlier, when Doba was just a few hundred feet off the British coast. Many things can go wrong while at sea, and if something does go wrong, help can be . After four months at sea, Polish adventure kayaker Aleksander Doba has arrived in Bermuda where he will make repairs to his broken rudder before continuing o. After the transition, as the Poles call their countrys change to a democratic government in the early 1990s, Dobas trips became more extreme. The 70-year-old who kayaked the Atlantic - The Knowledge Doba wasnt on a schedule. He trained by jogging up and down the stairs of a high-rise building with a heavy backpack, and he took long daily hikes. He did not want to be saved, so he waved the Greeks off. Long distance kayaker Aleksander Doba is at it again. Kind, gracious, enthusiastic Poles kept bringing me shots of alcohol, which I tried to wave off. Doba was blown to the beach and called the trip off. He has kayaked solo across the Atlantic 3 times, most recently in 2017 at the age of 70. . In 2010 and again in 2013 he kayaked across the Atlantic Ocean westward under his own power. During the voyage, Mr. Doba endured a violent two-day storm that nearly swallowed him whole. Kayak legend Aleksander Doba (74 years) Dies on Kilimanjaro Summit. Over the years, he, like Gabriela, had made internal accommodations to his fathers adventures. Aleksander Doba kayaked the Atlantic | Louis-Philippe Loncke Even here at home, Dobas physicality is sui generis. The Search for Joshua Tree's Missing Hiker. "Video: People's Choice Adventurer of the Year Aleksander Doba", "Aleksander Doba Completes His Third Atlantic Crossing in a Kayak", "Police. Not according to biology or history. After he graduated from Poznan University of Technology, where he studied mechanical engineering, Doba met Gabriela Stucka, his future wife, on a backpacking trip. The 70-Year-Old Master Kayaker
Once Poland became a democracy, social structures and attitudes changed. Nonetheless, on May 29, 2016, Doba kayaked out from the New Jersey shore near the Statue of Liberty. (Doba doesnt speak much English, so we communicated through a translator.) The brain is removed from the process. Alone at sea without his hearing aids, Doba joked, he grew so disoriented that he started shouting at himself so that I could hear. (Doba is fairly deaf but didnt bring the aids along because theyre expensive and not waterproof, and there was no one to talk to anyway.) My flu lingered. In addition to Czeslaw, Mr. Doba is survived by his wife; another son, Bartek; a sister, Wanda Kedzia; and three grandchildren. [2], Doba has also paddled in a kayak with others around the Baltic Sea (in 1999, 80 days, 4227km), from Police to Narvik (in 2000, 101 days, 5369km) and around Lake Baikal (in 2009, 41 days, 2000km). After his salt-water-drenched clothes became too irritating, he navigated the rest of his trip buck naked. [18], Doba died while climbing Kilimanjaro on February 22, 2021. And then, suddenly, the whale went down and disappeared into the ocean.. (See map on left). He was named 2015 Adventurer of the Year by National Geographic. With my hand on my heart, it wasnt my idea, Doba told me when I met him in Poland in January. Aboard Baltic Light, he ate a hot meal and took a bunch of selfies with the Filipino crew. He tried to fix it and failed. Go, Olek, Go! 67-Year-Old Transatlantic Kayaker 300 Miles - Adventure No retired man in Poland can afford to do these things, Doba explained. 75 year old adventurer climbed on the highest mountain of Africa and soon after passed away. Navigating OLO was much more difficult than a usual kayak. Transatlantic crossings are passages of passengers and cargo across the Atlantic Ocean between Europe or Africa and the Americas. Cold Water Kayaker: Adventure: Aleksander Doba, the Polish Kayaker Who I came very close to the line of my possibility and human possibility, he told The Times. Sadly, he passed away this week while climbing Kilimanjaro. The combination of a stable kayak and a higher sitting position make the sit-on-top or SOT kayaks a better design for fishing. The fact that Doba knows this is clear in his eyes. Doba began planning it, of course, a few days after he returned from Florida. I dont know how I ended up here.. Along with jars of his wifes plum jam, he subsisted on freeze-dried goulash and porridge, chocolate bars and homemade wine. Polish adventurer Aleksander Doba, who completed three solo kayak trips across the Atlantic, has died at the age of 74 during an attempt to scale the highest peak in Africa, his family said on . Id been feeling buried, by stuff exactly as predictable as youd imagine for a working mother of two kids. He waited three days and still had no signal, so in hopes of getting Gabriela or Arminski to look into his phone problems, he pressed the help button on his SPOT device, a piece of gear that has become de rigueur among adventurers, as it can send emergency messages and GPS coordinates when a person is far off the grid. I did not think I could find myself in something so downing, he texted to Chmielinski, somewhat incomprehensibly, two weeks later. Polish Kayaker Is Paddling Across the Atlantic for the Third Time 69-year-old Aleksander Doba left New York on Sunday in a kayak bound for Portugal. He was happy to see his friends, team and the warm Welcome of the Bretons. After another storm, Olos rudder was seriously damaged, so he reluctantly contacted his team via satellite phone seeking help. Three times, he paddled 200 to 300 miles, only to get pushed back by the winds and currents. Aleksander Doba in the Atlantic before arriving in Florida in April 2014. His son Czeslaw said the cause was asphyxia resulting from high-altitude pulmonary edema. (He ate all the meat options first.) Shortly after, a huge Greek ship steamed alongside Doba, seeking to rescue him. He later spent 100 days paddling the circumference of the Baltic Sea. Please upgrade your browser. Alexander Doba back in the Atlantic Explorersweb The plan was that if Doba was late, Gabriela would write with a stick in the dirt: I WAS HERE. A sea kayak or touring kayak is a kayak developed for the sport of paddling on open waters of lakes, bays, and the ocean. Event producers asked him to just walk onstage and say, in English, Thank you very much. Doba, who wore jeans to the June ceremony, walked onstage and said, Polacy nie gesi i swoj jezyk maja. Polish people are not geese and have their own language. It didnt work. Doba also brought two sailing harnesses, which resemble climbing harnesses but are worn on the chest instead of the legs; he uses these to attach himself with a carabiner to the boat. The rope tethering Doba to the kayak came undone. Today, listen to the story of one man who chose to paddle toward the existential crisis that is life, crossing the Atlantic alone in a kayak. His kayak,I rowed varsity crew in highschool and got into kayaking and poling in college. He is a family man, whose positive attitude to life is contagious. This time Dobas trip was far more successful, which is not to say it was pleasant. [20] In 2019 he participated in the Polish version of "The Mole" (Agent Gwiazdy), he was eliminated in the 3rd episode and came in 11th. Aleksander Doba, Who Kayaked Across the Atlantic, Dies at 74 Aleksander Doba (born September 9, 1946), Polish sportsperson | World
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