Olly Hicks – Keynote Speaker

Olly Hicks is the only person to have rowed alone from America to England and from Tasmania to New Zealand earning several unique world records along the way. He has developed innovative techniques to make long ocean passages in a sea kayak, and then lead 2 world first voyages.

Olly Hicks believes that extraordinary feats are achieved by ordinary people; you can do anything you set your mind to. He certainly has the CV to show for it having spent over 2% of his life to date alone at sea. To date his expeditions total over 24,000 miles across land and sea.

At the age of 23 Olly Hicks completed his first record-breaking adventure with a 4,000 mile solo row across the Atlantic, which is yet still to be matched. Four years later he completed the first ever row from Tasmania to New Zealand, another 2,000 miles alone in the middle of the deep blue. This was part of a so-called failed attempt to circumnavigate the globe, again on his own on a rowing boat, only succumbing to technical difficulties with steering. Not to be beaten, he is currently planning his next attempt, which he will begin in 2018, spend the whole of 2019 at sea, and return in 2020.

Since his last attempt he has completed the Fastnet Yacht race, kayaked the North Sea,cycled non-stop from London to Paris, passed a gruelling selection process into the army airborne reserve and completed led a 9 week 66 day, 1,500 miles voyage from Greenland to Scotland by sea kayak to prove that the same journey may have been made by Inuits in the 17th Century.