Men's Journal

Freya Hoffmeister is halfway through an attempt to be the fastest person to paddle around Australia. Many kayakers think there’s a good chance she’ll die trying.

By Joe Glickman

Freya Hoffmeister can’t sleep. Lying on the deck of her kayak, alone in the dark, she has flying fish bouncing off her body and waves breaking on her head. It’s day 102 of her grueling paddle around Australia and her sixth night in the Gulf of Carpentaria, a 350-mile open-water crossing in northern Oz, and she’s still 100 miles from land. Only one lone paddler has ever crossed the Gulf: Andrew McAuley, subject of the documen­tary Solo. He was later lost at sea.

She’s been warned that this crossing is the equivalent of Russian roulette, but it will save five weeks of paddling desolate, croc-infested coastline — if she makes it across. To stabilize the boat at night, she’s devised a set of “train­ing wheels” — a paddle with floats at each end lashed across the boat. It worked when the water was calm, but as she lies amid 10-foot seas with her arms spread along the paddle shaft like a soggy, rubber-clad Christ, she fears her sea anchor will rip a hole in the deck.

Hoffmeister has been sea kayaking seri­ously for only six years, but the 45-year-old gymnast turned bodybuilder turned skydiver is already an internationally known paddling instructor. Some of that is a result of her looks: The 5-foot-10 German wears all black (boots, shades, even a custom rubber “wetsuit” dress), and her promo shots have as much to do with paddling as SI’s swim­suit issue has to do with swimming. The one of her standing on her head in a kayak shows off her balance; then there’s the one of her smiling coyly as she straddles her boat.

Crossing the Gulf may be Hoffmeister’s boldest feat, but it’s hardly the first. Two years ago she and Greg Stamer notched the fastest circumnavigation of Iceland, covering 1,007 icy miles in 33 days. (“Easy,” Hoffmeister says. “More or less bor­ing.”) On January 1, 2008, she paddled all day and night, 103 miles straight, to finish a record 70-day solo circuit of New Zealand’s South Island. Then she set her sights on Australia.

In the end, she makes the Gulf look easy. After seven days at sea, she climbs out of her boat in the mining town of Nhulunbuy, takes a long shower, and spends much of the night checking e-mail (“a lot of marriage proposals,” she chuckles). Soon she’ll be on her way.

“What’s the problem?” she asks. “There are hazards for sure, but basically it’s just another trip.”

Update: Since this article was published 84 more days have passed on Hoffmeister’s journey. In that time, she has traveled from the Gulf of Carpentaria along the northern coastline to Port Hedland WA. On July 20, 2009, Hoffmeister took the day off from paddling to stay in Port Hedland for the day. In the heart of the northwest coast of Australia, this part of the journey is generally considered the most difficult. Besides dealing with a sheer cliff coastline and the elements, Hoffmeister had a brush with a shark that took a chunk out her fiberglass kayak (don’t worry, though, she’s fine and still paddling). To stay up to date on Freya’s journey, check out her blog at www.qajaqunderground.com.

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This article originally appeared in the July/August 2009 issue of Men’s Journal.