Synopses & Reviews
On the morning of June 26th, 1991, twenty-six-year-old Englishman Stevie Smith stared at the computer screen in his Paris office and asked himself a simple question: What should I do with my life? By the end of the day, that broad question led to an amazing, if not fairly ridiculous, notion. What if he were to embark on an adventure? What if he were to do something no person had ever done before? What if he were to travel around the earth using nothing but his own two legs to drive him?
Oh, sure. He'd never ridden his bike farther than the local pub. He'd never spent a night on a boat. He knew nothing about navigation. He was a bit out of shape. And he had no money.
But how hard could it be?
From one crazy idea a great adventure was born. Three years later, Stevie and his friend Jason began an incredible journey, to be the first people to circumnavigate the globe under human power alone. No wind, no solar power, no engines. Just legs and arms and will. Blundering but determined, with no sponsorship and a haphazard selection of equipment including a custom-made pedal boat named Moksha (Sanskrit for "freedom") they would learn to survive hallucinations, salt sores, a mid-ocean capsizing of their boat, and even each other barely.
Pedaling to Hawaii is a hilarious, warm, and refreshingly non-heroic account of a voyage in search of true adventure and a different kind of life. For anyone who has ever dreamt of breaking away from routine, this story reveals what is possible.
Review
"Smith explores their desire to achieve the seemingly impossible and documents the ambition, courage, and physical and mental endurance the journey required." Library Journal
Review
"This has got to rank as the most warts-and-all account of an expedition I've ever read...talk about 'in over your head.' But precisely for that reason it's both fascinating and inspiring; if they pulled this off, what can't you do?" Bill McKibben, author of Wandering Home: A Long Walk across America's Most Hopeful Landscape
Review
"If it is crazy to follow your dreams, then Stevie Smith is crazy. But if you believe, as I do, that adventure is more important than security, you will find this uninhibited, hilarious, and sometimes terrifying account of an under-funded, human-powered trip around the world irresistible. I salute Stevie Smith, and hope for more!" Stephen Bodio, author of Eagle Dreams and uerencia
Review
"If you're looking for ways to ignite your sense of adventure, pick up Pedaling to Hawaii. The physical and logistical challenges of human powered travel are great. Stevie approaches them all with that typically British sense of wry understatement. Pedaling a small boat across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans may seem like lunacy...and it is. Luckily, Stevie Smith's writing style allows us to get inside his mind and see the value, and especially the humor, in the whole endeavor." Conrad Anker
Review
"If you believe, as I do, that we all have something extraordinary within us, this wonderful book will inspire you to begin your dream...and follow it through." Richard Branson
Synopsis
On a rainy, miserable Monday morning in Paris a twenty-something bureaucrat decides there must be more to life than the United Nations project on which he is working. Stevie Smith tries to figure out what he could do of great significance and hit upon the notion of a trip around the world using only human powerno motors, no sails, no balloonsmaybe the last great first. With no experience, no particular expedition skills, and no money, the adventure begins. A pedal-powered boat, a bike, in-line skates, and a lot of hilarious non-heroics take Stevie and his buddy, Jason, where no one has gone before. A bike ride through Europe by a guy who's never ridden much beyond the corner grocery; a pedal-boat trip across the Atlantic in 111 days by two guys whose combined sailing experience was a bout or two in a dinghy on the English coast; a bike and in-line skates get them across America; more pedaling to Hawaii No travel writing has more accurately captured the old adage, "it's the journey and not the destination." Therein lies the simple beauty of this entertaining travel talea search for simplicity, integrity, and freedom. 12 black & white photographs.
Synopsis
An amazing and deeply insightful account of how two normal guys decided to embark upon the unthinkable: an attempt to circumnavigate the globe using just human powered means.
About the Author
Englishman Stevie Smith, now a Buddhist priest and ferryman, is a former environmental consultant who conceived of the expedition to circumnavigate the globe under human power (now called Expedition 360) in 1991 while staring from his office window on a gray Monday morning in Paris. He continues to provide lectures on the subject around the world. When he's not traveling, he lives in Devon, England.