A man buoyed by his naked ambition
When Keith Whelan picks up the phone to me, he does so as he takes a break from a punishing training schedule and meticulous planning ahead of a scheduled solo trip across the Indian Ocean.
The 30-year-old will row 12 hours every day — two hours on and two hours off — for up to 120 days, completing 1.8 million back-breaking oar strokes. He casually paints a picture of white-hot heat, six-foot ocean swells, and violent storms that sneak up on you. But he’ll save on excess luggage costs — because he’s leaving the clothes behind.
He’ll complete the trip — he hopes — without wearing a stitch for the entire time. I got to ask you... why?
“I still struggle to come up with a concise answer. I first heard about ocean rowing on RTÉ news when I was at school. Two Irish men had just rowed across the south Atlantic as part of the Woodvale Atlantic Ocean rowing race. At first I thought this was madness but at the same time it appealed to me. I read books on it and it was always at the back of my mind. I am a risk taker and risking your life to achieve a dream is the biggest risk you can take. Some might say it’s foolish but to my mind it is only foolish if you don’t know the risks and you don’t prepare for them and train for every possible scenario.
“I want to be able to look back on my life in years to come and have accomplished things which I am proud of. I am no different from everyone else in that respect. Granted my ambitions may be at the more extreme end but for me that makes them all the more worthwhile.”
But why not pack a set of O’Neill’s shorts to keep you going?
“It’s very much a practical decision. The ocean is a very salty environment; clothing tends to become encrusted with salt. I will have no means of cleaning this from any clothing at sea — apart from in the salt water — and the clothes would eventually be like sandpaper. So wearing this clothing when full of salt would lead to severe salt sores on my body and things like that, which is why I will be naked for most of the journey.
“But the naked thing does catch the headlines though doesn’t it?” he laughs. “To be honest, it was almost accidental. I’d tell people about this trip and then almost incidentally mention the naked thing and that particular detail that would blow them away.
“So I realised it was something that interested people then,” says Whelan, who played National League basketball with Athy.
The event manager from Laois — who now styles himself as The Naked Adventurer — will make the entire journey in a 23-foot ocean-rowing boat which is a piddling six-feet wide at its widest point. It will pimped out with a new GPS unit and satellite phone allowing Keith communicate with those in trousers.
Though the Greens are gone from Leinster House, on-board solar panels will power the electrical equipment, which also includes a water maker and radio. And interestingly, he’ll have the means to blog, update his Facebook and tweet, regardless of his remote location.
But despite his connection to those back home, he’ll be very much alone. Is there times at night, as one would expect, when he pulls the duvet up tight, listens to the wind howl outside and have to slop creeping doubts overboard to stop his plans from listing?
“There’s never any doubts. But you do think about it when you’re tucked up in your warm bed and listening to the wind and the rain outside — and you realise that’s Irish wind and rain and the Indian ocean will be a lot different. And here you are in your warm, even bed... but it’s good to visualise all that.”
Adrian@thescore.ie
@adrianrussell
