Paddling Around Long Island

Distance

270 mile circumnavigation of Long Island

Duration

8.5 days

Craft

Sea kayak, solo paddle

Backstory

Followed a 200+ pound weight loss

Twenty years ago, Doc Russ lost more than 200 pounds. The weight loss was not the finish line; it was the permission slip. One of the things that new health made possible was an audacious endurance adventure: paddling a sea kayak the entire 270 miles around Long Island, alone, in eight and a half days. The film below tells that story, and the dispatches that follow were written from the water, day by day.

The film

Dispatches from the water

The paddle was chronicled on Patch as a running series, starting with the first humbling day on the water.

The Long Island Paddle, Day 1: “I Am About to Be Schooled” (Patch)

12 things I learned while kayaking around Long Island

A little more than two years after the paddle, Doc Russ recorded a session on the twelve lessons the water taught him, starting with the first: the course you set does not have to be the course you take. Keep paddling.

The video log

Short clips recorded before the launch and along the way, in order from the first blog to the finish.

1. 
   1. Before the launchLong Island Paddle blog 1
2. 
   2. Before the launchPaddle blog 2
3. 
   3. Day 2Day 2
4. 
   4. Day 2Day 2 finish
5. 
   5. On the waterVery windy on the top of the lighthouse
6. 
   6. Before the launchPaddle blog 3
7. 
   7. Day 3Day 3 begins
8. 
   8. Day 4Day 4 begins
9. 
   9. Day 5Day 5 starts. Promises to be a rough go through the Narrows.
10. 
    10. Day 6Day 6 start
11. 
    11. Day 8Day 8 begin
12. 
    12. Day 8Day 8 finish
13. 
    13. Day 8Day 8 finish, part 2
14. 
    14. May 25, 2015Kayaking, 2015-05-25
15. 
    15. MontaukAlmost done: Montauk
16. 
    16. Day 9Day 9 finish