ENGLAND
EXPEDITION England & Wales Coastal Circuit
START/FINISH Land’s End to Land’s End
DATES Aug12 (South) June– Oct 16 (East-West)
DISTANCE 2,050 M | 1,780 NM | 3,300km
STYLE Solo, unsupported, barefoot
CAUSE Dare to Express - SAS
A stripped-back run around England and Wales, taking on the coastline in two distinct chapters. The first leg was paddled barefoot along the South Coast from Land’s End straight up into the tidal Thames. Heading back out to complete the rest meant keeping things just as raw—no tent, sleeping rough under an open tarp, and running a deliberate social experiment by travelling with minimal gear, no money, and relying on the kindness of strangers.
Stand Up Paddle Mag UK – circumnavigation and beach cleans.
Canoe London – England and Wales route profile.
SUPboarder Magazine – Expedition community support.
Stand Up Paddle Mag UK (Q&A) – endurance interview.
Following London, the expedition shifted from an endurance paddle into a live social experiment in radical vulnerability. With minimal gear and no fixed plan, I partnered with Dare to Express to tackle the hardest challenge of all: the lost art of asking for help. The journey turned into a real-time game of ‘Where’s Wally’ as strangers tracked my progress, offering food, shelter, and open doors.
Knowing I was just a passing ghost who’d be gone by sunrise, people dropped their guards and poured their hearts out. Holding the weight of their untold grief and trauma—before leaving it out on the water the next morning—was a profound honour. For someone surfing the spectrum with a dyslexic mind, these raw encounters taught me far more than any conventional path ever could.
Yet it was bittersweet. I was gaining faith in everyday human warmth just as quickly as I lost faith in the broken systems meant to care for them. That emotional pull led me to take bad advice—pausing before the isolated Scottish winter to stay where the people were. It was a regret that hung over me for years, until I finally returned to complete Scotland in the dead of winter on my own terms.
LANDS END TO LONDON
Start Date: 18 August 2012
Finish Date: 11 September 2012
Duration: 25 days
Distance: ~450 miles / ~391 nautical miles / ~724 km
Craft & Kit: 14ft production touring SUP, completely barefoot, bare essentials, first camera phone
Cause Supported: Ecover Blue Mile (WWF-UK)
In late summer 2012, I set off from Land’s End bound for Tower Bridge with little more than a 14-foot touring board, no shoes, minimal kit, and a basic camera phone to document the water for the Blue Mile. It wasn’t planned as the start of a decade-long circumnavigation; it was meant to be a quiet ocean test run for an Atlantic crossing that never found its funding. Along the way, the journey took an unexpected turn off the Kent coast near Herne Bay when I spotted a shivering, stranded Shih Tzu puppy—later identified as Bam-Bam (Molly)—moments from being submerged by the incoming tide on an isolated breakwater reef. Scooping her onto the nose of the board and paddling her ashore to safety captured global headlines before I slipped back out to finish the run under Tower Bridge. What felt like an effortless first leg became the unexpected catalyst for the entire British coastline.
Daily Mail – National news feature and rescue footage
KentOnline – Local coverage of the Herne Bay rescue
OnTheWight – Journey feature and offshore rescue report
YouTube – Headcam footage of the puppy rescue on the water
