Adrenaline Junkies: The Naked Adventurer

In April 2011, Keith Whelan - aka The Naked Adventurer, will become the first Irishman to row solo across the Indian Ocean.

By Conor Hogan

Whelan will have to row some 6000km from Western Australia to Mauritius and the whole undertaking will take him in or around 110 days. Interestingly, he rowed for the first time only very recently.

"I had to start from beginning and learn how to row," Whelan told JOE. "Watching on television it looks quite easy, but actually it isn't. Learning a new motor skill at my age was very difficult and it was a bit disheartening at first watching kids fly by in their boats. It took a while before I reached a stage where I was kind of comfortable with it."

Whelan first heard about ocean racing when he was watching RTE news in 1997. He saw a report about two brothers from Arklow who competed in the Woodvale Atlantic Ocean Rowing Race (a race between 30 different boats that takes place between Antigua and Gran Canaria), becoming the first two Irishmen to row an ocean.

"Most people would kind of go, 'that's complete madness' but I took a different approach," Whelan says. "For some reason the idea stuck in my head."

Inspiration

In February 2006, 29-year-old Limerick man Paul Gleeson and his 21-year-old Canadian girlfriend Tori Holmes, both non-rowers, managed to row a tiny boat in the 2005/06 trans-Atlantic race. Their 86-day journey was documented in their book Little Lady, One Man, Big Ocean which was ghosted by Liam Gorman. Whelan read it and it inspired him to finally pursue his dream.

"I thought about doing it in a pair too, but unfortunately I couldn't find anyone stupid enough to do it with me. My first thought was the Atlantic, but then I did a bit more research into the Indian Ocean and I discovered very few people had ever done it which was a massive incentive to me. In fact, no Irish person had rowed Indian Ocean in any capacity.

"The Indian will be a little more difficult than the Atlantic Ocean would have been. While the distance is 6,000km, in reality I'll have to row more like 7,500k. There are situations where you can row 40 or 50 miles and find yourself back where you started. There is no way really to prepare for 60 feet waves - It's not like you can find them in the Irish Sea."

Perspiration

Whelan has been training extremely hard, but as well as preparing physically, he also has to prepare mentally. He will have to spend 110 days in the boat, and spending that length of time on his own is a daunting prospect.

"My trainer is a man called Toby Garnett, who is a double world champion and two-time Olympian. He has helped me with learning how to row and has given me a seven day week training programme. Some of my sponsors have helped me out with equipment and I've been working on rowing machines to build on my endurance.

"When I'm out there and rowing, I'll have to keep rowing for ten hours a day. Mental preparation is very important too. Visualising is part of the process to help me deal with the solitude. I'll have to stay positive if things are going badly."

For the majority of the distance, Whelan will be rowing naked, and while getting sunburn could be dangerous because he is so isolated, there are many logical reasons for this choice. If you are at sea as long as Whelan will have to be, salt will get encrusted in your clothes, which in turn will cause salt sores to break out.

"It would be like wearing sand papers," Whelan says, "and this could damage your skin really badly. Anyone who ever rows an ocean, generally rows it naked."

Charity

The charity Whelan is attempting this feat for is the Keep a Child Alive Foundation, who provide anti-retroviral drugs for kids who have HIV in Africa. An estimated 24.5 million people suffer from HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. If he completes his aim, he will be the youngest man to ever row the Indian Ocean solo at the age of 30 years and two months.

To find out more visit his website at www.thenakedadventurer.com. You can also follow him on twitter or read his blog.