Two Norwegians Sebastian Plura Nilssen and Ljudvig Fjeld are are attempting to be the first people to paddle around all Svalbard Island.

Soon will Sebastian Plura Nillssen (23) and Ludvig Fjeld (22) take on the adventure of their lives paddling around Svalbard Island in SeaBird Designs kayaks.

The plan is to paddle around Svalbard Islands, the length of the trip is 330 – 370 km long, and they hope that it will last for three months.
According to our records nobody has been able to paddle around the Svalbard islands before. Sebastian and Ludvig have been well prepared both gear and physical wise and they are full on optimism.

They have been training hard for this World Record attempt by paddling long trips in Fjords near Oslo. They have been practicing towing the kayak on ice and snow, same things that they will encounter on their trip but in a much larger scale.

The boys physical condition should be on the best level possible after serious training period with kayaks, dog sledding, sleeping in open sky’s and skiing in Vasaloppet.
The biggest threat for them is the Ice movement, big blocks of ice moving, they may crush the kayaks. These conditions are the most critical in the north of Spitsbergen and the north and east of Nordaustlandet. There are also longer crossings on which there is not possible to go on land, they have to sleep on sea and the Barents Sea is known for its roughness.

The second worst threat is the polar bears in that region, for their protection own they have Old Guard Mauser with them.
They have packed 180kg food on each kayak. And the kayak hull is reinforced with extra Carbon/Kevlar layers to withstand use as a sled.

For more information about their record attempt visit: http://www.svalbard360.com/

article from news paper

article from news paper