London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Oct 06, 2025

Former teacher to paddle into Torquay after epic voyage around Britain

Former teacher to paddle into Torquay after epic voyage around Britain

Brendon Prince to become first to circumnavigate mainland on standup paddleboard, all to raise awareness of water safety

He has had close encounters with orcas, sharks and more dolphins than he could count. He has negotiated fierce tidal flows and picked his way through offshore windfarms, shipping lanes and busy ports.

After a 141-day adventure, Brendon Prince, a 48-year-old former teacher, is poised to become the first person to complete a circumnavigation of mainland Britain on a standup paddleboard, covering nearly 2,500 miles.

Prince, a father-of-three, paddled up to 16 hours a day, with the last leg on Tuesday a 25-mile trip along the Devon coast to his home in Torquay in relatively benign conditions.

“It feels great,” he told the Guardian as he paddled to his final destination on his board, which he nicknamed Scarlet after the elusive Scarlet Pimpernel (“They seek him here, they seek him there”). “There have been some challenging times when I’ve felt exhausted or fearful at a big swell or giant waves but it’s a matter of understanding the fear, channelling the fear and getting on with it.”

Prince began his trip at the end of April when, in his words, he turned right out of Torquay – and then headed clockwise around Britain. He estimates that he has plunged his paddle into the water 8m times.

It was all done in the spirit of adventure but also to raise awareness of water safety. Prince was an off-duty lifeguard when he took part in an attempt to save a group of holidaymakers who got into trouble in the water at Mawgan Porth, in north Cornwall, in 2014. Three of the visitors drowned.

From that day, he has made it his life’s mission to teach drowning prevention, founding the charity Above Water. Money raised during his circumnavigation will be used to develop a water safety app for schools.

Coming into the harbour at John O’Groats.


He said: “The most important part of this whole adventure is to spread the important message of water safety and drowning prevention.” If just one child stayed safe when near water having heard about his feat, it would have been worthwhile, he explained.

Prince said the north was the coldest, the east the windiest, the south the most “gnarly” (which he defines as a state that leaves you feeling somewhere between feeling uncomfortable and feeling in danger), while the west was the wildest.

He saw the irony of doing something hazardous at sea to promote water safety. “There’s a balancing act. You’re doing something that has not been done before because it is dangerous and difficult. You have to have that level of experience to understand the risk.” He stayed out of the water on 22 of the 141 days because he deemed the conditions were not safe.

His brushes with sea life have been a highlight. A 2.4-metre long porbeagle shark cruised close to his board just off the Mull of Kintyre in the south-west of Scotland. Then he saw orcas three times on one day. “I fell in the first time I saw one and it glided on by – massive, majestic. Later one appeared in front of me. I turned around and there were two behind me. I felt like I was being hunted but when they realised I wasn’t food they went on their way.”

He saw dolphins on 60 consecutive days and never got used to gannets diving into the water centimetres from his board. “It made me jump every time,” he said.

Brendon Prince has a quick snooze before getting back on the board to continue his daily paddle. P


Prince paddled without a support boat and the longest distance covered in a single day was 47 miles. The shortest, when the weather was particularly poor, was just over a mile.

Prince said paddling in human-made environments proved trickier than in natural ones. “Nature is easier to predict than humans,” he said.

As long as his record attempts are ratified, he will be crowned the first person to circumnavigate mainland Britain on a paddle board – and will take the world record for the longest ever journey on such a craft.

As he neared land, he was looking forward to a hot shower, a cup of tea, his own bed – and seeing his family. “It’s always about loved ones in the end.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
×