Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Havana to Key West
She’ll go by paddleboard. Standing the whole way.
When Victoria Burgess launches her paddleboard from Havana to Key West today, she is hoping her risky trip across the Florida Straits does more than possibly break records.
The 34-year-old Pompano Beach Fire Rescue inspector said her purpose is to motivate and inspire people, especially women and young girls, “to know that you can achieve your wildest ideas no matter what obstacles get in the way, if you set out to do so.”
Burgess will stand on her board for the 90 miles — or more if currents lengthen her course — and hopes to make the crossing in less than 30 hours. She has applied to Guinness World Records for speed and distance records.
She also sees it as a personal test, “by putting myself in a place I’m not familiar with and pushing my limits, physically and mentally.”
Burgess, who also trains by running, doing CrossFit and yoga, will need that strength to push her 14-foot-long blue ECS board through the waves.
She’s hoping that moonlight will help guide her.
“I won’t wear a light at night, because I have to be able to see in the dark and don’t want to attract fish,” she said.
Burgess will leave from Hemingway International Yacht Club of Havana at 7 a.m. Her team will follow in a 50-foot Catamaran and includes boyfriend Roray Kam, a surfer and paddleboarder; “a retired lifeguard friend, a crazy one who will save me from a shark if needed;” a paramedic, videographer and two boat captains, she said.
Beachgoers in Fort Lauderdale and Lauderdale-by-theSea may have seen Burgess and Kam paddling along the shore during past Christmas weeks, she in a Ms. Claus bikini, he dressed as Santa.
Burgess has raced on paddle-
boards in shorter distances for nearly five years. She has also crossed channels in Hawaii, from Molokai to Oahu, and from Maui to Molokai.
Her journey can be followed on Facebook, on her Chica Libre SUP (stand up paddleboard) Crossing page, though she warned it may not always update while they are at sea.
“I’m hoping I can get it below 24 hours, but conditions at sea may change that,” Burgess said. “It’s not a race pace. I don’t care if it takes me 40 hours, as long as I get there.”
During every hour of the journey, she plans to sit on down on the 25-inch-wide board for a few moments to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit, pasta or burritos prepared on the boat that her team will hand to her.
“I’m not planning on getting off my board unless there is lightning or a lifethreatening situation, like maybe an aggressive shark,” Burgess said.
Each break she takes has to be documented with video, GPS coordinates and witness statements, evidence that will be sent to Guinness World Records, Burgess said.
The whole adventure — the boat rental, gear and other expenses — will cost about $15,000 she said. She hopes to defray expenses with a GoFundMe page and sponsor support.
The Women’s Sports Foundation, founded in 1974 by Billie Jean King to promote leadership and access to sports for girls, said it applauded Burgess’ “daring attempt” to cross the Straits.
Burgess, who grew up in Lighthouse Point and attended Deerfield Beach High, worked as a firefighter/paramedic for six years before becoming an inspector.
Randy Skinner, owner of Surf World Surf Shop in Fort Lauderdale, has known Burgess for many years and said she is up to the challenge “She’s not someone with a hare-brained idea with no training or background,” Skinner said.
“She’s competitive and athletic. There is something in her that’s fierce to even attempt this.”
He said her biggest tests will be standing most of the time and dealing with bad weather if it comes.
“When you stand on a board that long, you don’t really move a lot,” Skinner said. “After about 40 minutes, your feet get numb.”
Since trading fighting fires and emergency medicine for inspections and investigations, Burgess doesn’t miss the frantic summons of sirens.
“I prefer to create my own adrenaline,” she said.