Inspirational: Mike Jones Kayaking Solo Around Ireland

Need some inspiration? As we speak, Mike Jones is attempting to Kayak around Ireland by himself in 35 days. How’s that for ambition?

You can check out Mike’s progress here. He’s doing it with a great cause in mind, too. Mike is raising €10,000 to help Children’s Sunshine Home. They are a children’s hospice who help children with life limiting conditions. So far readers and followers have donated over €1,115!

To meet his goal of getting around Ireland he’ll need to row an average of 30 miles a day, spending as much as 12 hours at a time in his sea kayak. He consumes 5000 calories every single day to fuel that energy burn. He sleeps in a tent that he pitches every night when he makes it to land. And every morning he wakes up with the sun, packs everything up, and heads out on the water again. You can find even more detail (like the time a bear showed up to his kayak over night) in his blog posts documenting the trip, as well as his YouTube channel.

To help him out ZAGG sponsored Mike with some ZAGGsparqs, ZAGGaquabuds, an iFrogz waterproof bag, and a GPS tracking beacon that updates his position on the website. (Which again you should really check out. You can see his live progress and path traveled on a Google Map. Very cool.)

Mike has a long history in adventure and the outdoors. He’s traveled the rivers of the Himalaya, climbed the highlands of Scotland and the High Alps of France and Switzerland. At the ripe age of 18 he even summated Mont Blanc, no small feat at an impressive 15,000 feet high. And just two years ago he was a member of the first crew of six people to ever row across an entire ocean. The crew used the 11m long ‘Sara G’ably to successfully traverse over 3,000 miles of the Atlantic Ocean, from Africa to the Caribbean. WOW.

Mike has run into some rough weather lately and had to stay on shore for two days, so he could use a little boost! Go over to his Twitter page to say hi, or donate to Children’s Sunshine Home to support him in setting this new record.

Mike is two weeks in and almost halfway through his goal of circling Ireland in 5 weeks. As I type this he’s in the city of Kikee, on the south western side of Ireland. We are thrilled to be sponsoring Mike and look forward to following and rooting for him as he completes his journey!