Interview

1. What inspired you to take up kayaking, and how did the tragic loss of your first wife play a role in initiating your incredible paddling endeavors, especially the Malta to Sicily challenge?
It’s a bit of a longer story. I had never kayaked before, I got into kayaking quite by chance. In August 2005, I was asked by a friend of mine to join them in a game of canoe-polo, basically canoe-polo is a game of water polo with canoes. I went, I had enjoyed the kayaking side of it but I didn’t quite like the amount of sprinting one has to do and the toppling over, getting in and out of the kayak and all this. I was already quite middle-aged, at the time but I liked the idea of kayaking. So after that I joined the Malta Canoe Federation and I went down with them a few times to learn the ropes. I also did a couple of courses with them and we did more open sea kayaking. I am more of a cruising type of person.

After that in December of 2005, my first wife Tessa got diagnosed with cancer and I stopped all contact with work, sports, with everything basically and she battled the illness for 5 months and on the 5th of May 2006 she passed away. A couple of weeks before, I just got this fixation of wanting to kayak to Sicily to collect funds for a cancer organisation. I didn’t even have a kayak at the time, so I went online, ordered a kayak and 2 or 3 days before I got a phone call from the shop telling me that I can go collect it.

Obviously, I couldn’t go because she was in her final days. I called a friend of mine who went paid for it, collected it, took it down to the club and left it there in storage. After she passed away, this feeling of wanting to kayak to Sicily started eating the way to my head again.  So, I said look, let me calm down a bit and do things a bit more rationally because I am a bit spontaneous in these things. I said look, let me start training first.  If I can do around Malta, which is 42 nautical miles,  then I will paddle to Sicily. I started training and in June 2007 I paddled the first time around Malta.

After that I said fine, that’s it I'm going to see how I'm going to organise paddling to Sicily. I was lucky enough that a colleague of mine’s father had already organised two events, one with the Mirror Tens from Malta to Sicily and one with Surfers from Malta to Sicily. This colleague of mine told me, listen I spoke to my father about it and he was interested to help you, he said “would you be interested?” And I said “yes of course”. So, I spoke to him, we organised it and in 2008 we paddled for the first time from Marsalforn to Pozzallo, and Albert Gambina was one of the people who had joined the crew. Basically, that was it because after that things developed naturally.

2. From paddling around Malta to ambitious crossings from Pozzallo to Valletta and Tunisia to Malta, your kayaking challenges have been diverse. Can you share the evolution of these challenges and the motivation behind each significant journey?
Yes. I would say it was destiny that brought me and Albert together.  I knew Albert from when we were young, but anyway when we had arrived in Sicily, the following day the group went out for dinner and as a joke I said “next one Tunisia”.  Everyone shot me down straight away, except Albert. He was quite in the corner and all of a sudden, he said “you know it’s doable”. Obviously his experience as a sea captain, played a big role. He told me it’s doable, he said “75miles Mahdia to Lampedusa, 25miles to Linosa and 75miles to Malta, we already did about 50/55 so there’s not much more.” I looked at him and said “are you serious?” And he said “shall we do it? We’ll do it in 2 years’ time so it gives us time to train” and it took off from there.

Now when you put two people that are passionate about adventure and kayaking,  the rest comes more or less naturally and easily, but what I think keeps us motivated and going are really I would say 3 things. One; the thought of being a first of doing something which no one has done before, locally of course, secondly; always trying to do something different and always trying to increase the distance, and thirdly and more importantly; the people who make use of the services of the organisation who we choose to collect funds for because when we think about the suffering these people go through on a daily basis, it gives us that energy and push and motivation to organise it and get on with the job.

3. Your connection with Albert Gambina seems pivotal to your kayaking adventures. How did kayaking bring you two together, and how has this shared passion strengthened your bond over the years?
Yes, as I said before, I knew Albert from when we were young but then as normally happens in life, people take different paths and we sort of didn’t meet up. Coincidence or destiny made us join the Malta Canoe Federation, more or less at the same time. Albert, after he had finished his service and me after my wife had passed away. His experience obviously on the sea is crucial and is everything to us and I am fortunate to say that had I not started paddling with him as a team, I wouldn’t have probably done all that we have done.

We paddled from Malta to Sicily unassisted first time in September 2009 and then in 2011 together with another two Maltese; Michael Gellel and Mark Bugeja, 2 Italians and 2 Sicilians. We paddled from Malta to Catania unassisted as well. So, his experience on the sea is definitely very important. The fact that we have been organising these events together since 2008, I think speaks for itself and is testament to the bond that has developed between us. For me and I'm sure I speak for him as well, we see ourselves as brothers more than best friends.