1969

Sumatra - retracing Operation Rimau

John Dowd · Ocean Crossings

John Dowd - founder of Sea Kayaker magazine - attempted to retrace the WWII escape route of commandos from Operation Rimau. Klepper. "We were eventually run out of Indonesia at gunpoint."

John Dowd, founder of Sea Kayaker magazine and author of Sea Kayaking; A Manual for Long Distance Touring, attempted to retrace the WWII escape route of commandos from Operation Rimau. He used a Klepper across the South China and Java seas. As Dowd later put it: "We were eventually run out of Indonesia at gunpoint." The trip established Dowd as one of the foundational figures of modern expedition kayaking.