ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME

A pro surfer makes the journey of a lifetime for charity

Meet the pro surfer who journeyed solo across the Atlantic Ocean on a custom-built stand-up paddleboard

It was 4:53 a.m. and Chris Bertish was struggling to sleep. Drifting in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, something bumped his boat, a custom-built stand-up paddleboard with a tiny cabin attached. Then came a loud scraping noise. “That was the sound of a shark’s sandpaper skin going across the side of my paddleboard,” he tells In Touch. It wasn’t his first close encounter with a terrifying predator — a few weeks earlier, his boat was charged by a great white. “He was so close,” says Chris, 42, “I could have literally touched him.”

Sharks were just a few of the challenges Chris faced during the most grueling journey of his life. On March 9 — 93 days, 4,660 miles and 2.5 million strokes after launching off the coast of Agadir, Morocco, in Africa on Dec. 6 — he stepped onto dry land in English Harbour, Antigua, in the West Indies, becoming the first person ever to cross the Atlantic on a paddleboard. His solo feat was marked by system failures, leaks, unpredictable weather, grueling conditions and, of course, sharks (who, thankfully, quickly lost interest in Chris’ boat). But the champion big-wave surfer from Cape Town, South Africa, refused to give up: “Once I took that first stroke, I knew it was my destiny.”

Chris spent five years planning the adventure. But no amount of preparation could head off the problems. After just a few days, his steering system failed, requiring Chris to make repairs on the open water. He routinely pumped water from leaking hatches where his food was stowed. And he had to dive to cut a line after a giant squid or whale hooked his parachute anchor and nearly pulled the 20-foot,

1,350-pound craft under. “It sounds like something out of Moby Dick,” he says, “but it actually happened!”

Chris covered an average of 44 miles daily. He paddled 12 to 15 hours, often at night, and slept intermittently inside a mini-cabin. He used a satellite phone and Macbook to file weekly logs on Thesupcrossing.com and had a navigational device, solar-powered fresh water-maker, radio, life raft and first-aid kit on board. Chris, who lost 25 pounds on his trek (and now needs rotator cuff surgery) survived on a diet of protein shakes, beef jerky, nuts and freeze-dried meals like pasta carbonara and beef stroganoff. Sometimes, he admits, “I felt like I was hanging on by a thread. But it was just about slowing things down, taking one obstacle at a time.”

Since his triumphant voyage, the water remains Chris’ “happy place.” And the African children for whom he raised nearly $500,000 (through supporters and corporate sponsors) are still his inspiration. “When you have the capacity to change lives, you have got do it,” he says of helping charities The Lunchbox Fund, Operation Smile and Signature of Hope Trust. “I was not going to let those little kids down.”

— Reporting by Jaclyn Roth