Sea Shepherd Australia: What made you decide to take on this huge challenge?

Duncan: After years of sitting behind a computer in a career in marketing I found myself getting to the end of my days and wondering.. how am I making the world a better place? Am I living life to the fullest or am I just on the hamster wheel keeping my head above water? This realisation lit a fire in me, a desire to do good in the world whilst also living a life full of adventure. Life is fickle. I want to make sure that I leave the world a better place when I’m gone and leave people with a good story to tell about me at the end of it all! 

SS: Can you tell us a bit about why you chose Sea Shepherd Australia as your charity of choice? Why do you think protecting our ocean is so important?

Duncan: Sea Shepherd have always been front of mind when I’ve thought of a charity organisation I would like to represent. I remember when I was younger watching the selfless acts of volunteers back in the day fighting the Japanese whalers. Willing to put everything on the line (even their own lives) to protect our oceans and the beautiful creatures that inhabit them from greed and corruption. Even when governments and laws wouldn’t protect them, Sea Shepherd were a last line of defence, at all costs! And I loved that! 

Mother Nature is so mighty and powerful but humans have managed to pollute, corrupt and commodify her. Leaving her in this fragile balancing act, most evidently in our oceans! I believe that we need to become better custodians of not only the oceans but nature as a whole. We as a species need to return to a harmonious relationship with nature.. working with nature rather than against it.   

SS: What was the most challenging part of your journey, and what was the best part?

Duncan: The most challenging part of the trip was the constant threat of the elements. The wind, rain and low temps meant that some situations became quite life threatening and in a place as volatile as Iceland the weather can turn on you in an instant. So I was constantly keeping myself informed of current weather patterns and making informed decisions on when to make a move especially over big mountain passes. I also made the decision to stand by my ethical beliefs and chose not to use or support any wool or down camping gear. This limited me especially on the warm lightweight gear front, but I managed to come out the other side alive so that was something I was proud of. 

It is hard to pinpoint a best part of the trip. I made it a priority to “enjoy the journey, rather than the result”.  So even when I was having a bad day I made sure I was grateful and present in my environement. When am I going to have the opportunity to do something as incredible as this ever again! But to answer the question, I think any nice downhill run was a highlight or whenever I got a tailwind! Another big moment was having a small part in helping to bring an end to whaling in Iceland through campaigning and petitioning to the Icelandic government. Hopefully it will be definitively the end of whaling in Iceland.

Finally, any future plans to take on any more epic adventures?

Yes of course. This is just the beginning! I plan to do at least 2 challenges each year. All different, wacky, and in obscure places of the world. With the intention of raising awareness and funds for different charities. I can’t tell you exactly what is next, you will just have to follow along. But I can tell you that it will be closer to home and might include a world record… Stay tuned. (IG @skatingforchange and DuncanDOES on YouTube)