Kiwis to Embark on Epic Jet-ski Journey

MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release 23 July 2010

Kiwis to Embark on Epic Jet-ski Journey from London to Auckland

The Ultimate Ride team will on August 1 set off from London in an attempt to break the world personal watercraft record, in a 32,000 km epic journey through some of the planet’s most treacherous waterways, with the objective of boosting awareness about cancer prevention.

Hundreds of personal watercraft (PWC), or jet-ski, riders are expected to accompany the Ultimate Ride team as they depart from London’s Excel Marina on the River Thames at 8 am local time. Pilot and author Jeremy Burfoot is leading the team riding by sea and the waterways of Europe, around the Arabian Peninsula via the old Arab Spice Sea trade wind routes, down the western coast of India, via Singapore then all the way to Auckland.

“The world will be watching the progress of my team so it’s a tremendous opportunity to get the message out about the early prevention of cancer, and the need for regular health checks, to a whole new audience around the world,” says Burfoot. “My own melanoma was totally preventable and many cancers respond well to early detection.

“There’s also the aspect of this challenge that is an epic adventure, and that appeals to me and my team. We’ll be out to enjoy it as well as minimise risks, which will include giant canal and river barges, along with storms, huge waves, sharks and whales, but hopefully not pirates!”

The Ultimate Ride is a fresh challenge for Burfoot after he was the first to circumnavigate New Zealand in a PWC to raise funds for cancer research in 2006. Burfoot is motivated by his own battle with cancer and seeks to put funds into researching the one disease that both the developed and developing worlds struggle to combat. The team is working with several national cancer organisations globally to help raise the profile of the challenge and its goals.

New Zealander Burfoot will lead fellow Kiwis Travis Donoghue and Jed Martin, along with Ivan Otulic from Croatia. Otulic last year broke the Guinness watercraft endurance record with a ride of 1,014 miles (1,641 kilometres) off Krk, one of a thousand islands on the Croatian Adriatic coast.

They’ll break the current world record of 18,400 kms a couple of days past Singapore. That’s after a route that will take the team from their London departure point to Rotterdam, riding the rivers of the Rhine and Danube and out to the Black Sea. http://london-sydney.com/maps.htm

The most challenging part of the journey starts after the team makes their way to Suez. The three remaining riders will leave their support team and skim into the Red Sea, curve around the Arabian Peninsula, and head northwards taking up the old Arab Spice Sea trade wind routes to Pakistan, and then around and southwards down the western coast of India.

The team will then be accompanied by a support crew across the Bay of Bengal, a wide and rough stretch of water and through to Singapore. Then they’ll set off southwards again down through the Indonesian islands to Papua New Guinea to scout across the old Dutch sailors’ route to the east coast of Australia. The journey will culminate in Auckland sometime in November.

The Ultimate Ride has partnered with cancer organisations in New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, the U.K. and USA. Recent additions include the Singapore Cancer Society, the National Cancer Society of Malaysia, Association P.A.V.E.L. of Romania, Austria’s Kinder-Krebs-Hilfe, along with cancer organisations in Hungary and Serbia. (To donate to your local cancer organisation via The Ultimate Ride, click on http://london-sydney.com/donate-local.htm)

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