On Saturday 29th September Ian Thomson (solo sailor and founder of ocean crusaders), Kyle Rose (Skipper Hamilton Island), Luke Mairs and Tristram Mairs (Skippers / Owners ISail Whitsundays) paddle 65 nm from Hamilton Island to Mackay to raise awareness of the challenges our ocean are facing courtesy to plastic. 

The course will see the three departing Hamilton Island on Saturday 29th September.  It is expected it will take the 4 between 15 to 20 hours of paddling to reach Mackay. The paddle was originally planned in the opposite direction to make use of the south easterly trade winds. As the forecast is currently predicting northerly winds, the route has been reversed. The riders will not get off the boards at any time, although regular rest periods will be taken to replenish themselves with food and water.  The date has been chosen due to the full moon to provide light at night and for the favourable tides.

The boards they will be riding are provided by Naish Surfing, the biggest brand in Stand Up Paddle around the world.  They are 17ft long and have a rudder system.  They will surf along swells if the conditions are right and the riders will be hoping for to glide them to their destination.

In June 2010, Ian Thomson launched Ocean Crusaders (Formerly Save Our Seas International) by smashing the solo circumnavigation of Australia world record when he sailed back into Airlie Beach having spent some 42 days at sea.  Now he's taking on a new challenge to continue raising awareness of this vital issue.  And this time he's joined by three friends who will paddle alongside him in this epic paddling challenge. Our oceans are being threatened by our plastic habits.  Paddle Against Plastic wants to raise funds to take the Ocean Crusaders Education Program to every primary school in the local region.

The tidal wave of garbage that is accumulating in our oceans is titanic.  Predominantly plastic, there is believed to be enough garbage in our oceans to cover Australia 3m deep.  Just because we can't see it doesn't mean it's not there as most of it has photo degraded into miniscule particles the size of plankton, the smallest living creature in the ocean.

The full article as well as updates on oceancrusaders.org/paddle-against-plastic/