I joined the army in 1978 at the age of 16, a boy soldier in the Grenadier Guards, serving nine years and leaving in 1987 where I then moved to Cornwall to be near to the Ocean. During my time in the military I saw service in West Germany with NATO, U.N. peacekeeping forces in Cyprus, Royal duties in London, Counter Terrorism in Northern Ireland and Counter Insurgency in Belize, I finished my service with a love for the outdoors and living a simple life. In 1989 I moved to Cornwall to study traditional boat building and continued to work on or near the waterfront ever since until in 2003; having been made redundant from work with Falmouth Harbour Commissioners I invested my redundancy package into buying a small fleet of kayaks and establishing Sea Kayaking Cornwall. Wanting to deliver knowledge based on direct experience rather than just qualification in 2004 I headed to Japan and along with Hadas Feldman made the first and we believe only unsupported expedition to circumnavigate the four main islands of this unique group of islands. That year was the worst year on record for typhoon activity and we encountered six typhoons during our journey as well as many other natural phenomenon such as monsoons and earthquakes. Since then I have made many other expeditions which I am passionate about, these include circumnavigations of South Georgia, Ireland, most of Scandinavia and commercial trips to Alaska, the Med, Scandinavia, Iceland, Chile and the U.S.

I am passionate about positive engagement with nature, I love introducing people to the art and practice of sea kayaking and to remote wilderness environments. I am also passionate about improving sea safety for the community I am a small part of and to opening up the industry to more paddlers world wide.