Awarded ONZM in 2012 for services to water safety and sea kayaking. The most accomplished long-distance expedition sea kayaker in history. 40,000+ miles paddled.
Paul Caffyn lives on the edge of the Tasman Sea on New Zealand's West Coast. He worked as a coal exploration and mining geologist - a job which took him deep underground in the local coal mines and paid for his paddling expeditions until he retired in 2002.
Although Paul began canoeing at the age of 9 on the Brisbane River, he only took up serious sea kayaking in 1977. In the following 65 years he has notched up over 40,000 miles in his single West Greenland style kayak. His Australian trip is regarded as one of the greatest small boat voyages, compared by John Dowd with those of Shackleton, Franz Romer and Slocum.
Paul's first major sea kayak expedition in 1977 was around Fiordland with co-paddler Max Reynolds; he continued solo to complete the first kayak circumnavigation of New Zealand's South Island. His first book Obscured by Waves was published in 1979.
In 1980 he teamed with English paddler Nigel Dennis to complete the first kayak circumnavigation of Great Britain. The 2,305 mile trip took 85 days.
In 1981-82 he set out from Queenscliff near Melbourne and spent 360 days achieving the first kayak circumnavigation of Australia. The 9,420-mile paddle is acknowledged as one of the most remarkable journeys ever undertaken by kayak. He survived tropical cyclones, tiger sharks, crocodiles, sea snakes and three sections of sheer limestone cliffs, including a 34-hour continuous paddle along the Zuytdorp Cliffs in Western Australia. The trip is documented in The Dreamtime Voyage.
In 1985 he completed a 4,400-mile, 112-day solo paddle around the four main islands of Japan. Between 1989 and 1991 he completed the first solo kayak trip along the entire coastline of Alaska - Prince Rupert in British Columbia to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, 4,700 miles across three northern summers.
Paul's mentor Graham Egarr died of melanoma in September 1991. Paul spoke at his funeral and took over Graham's editorship of the New Zealand Sea Kayaker, a role he continued for 27 years until he retired in August 2020 after issue number 201. With Egarr he had also helped found the Kiwi Association of Sea Kayakers (KASK), which became a non-profit association in 1992.
Paul has edited and produced four editions of the KASK Handbook - the manual that became the recognised best practice for sea kayaking in New Zealand. His books include Obscured by Waves, Cresting the Restless Waves, Dark Side of the Wave (dedicated to Max Reynolds), The KASK Handbook (multiple editions), and The Dreamtime Voyage (re-released as a 25th anniversary edition in 2010 in soft-cover and limited-edition casebound formats).
His kayaks Isadora (used for both New Zealand circumnavigations) and Lalaguli (used for the Australia circumnavigation) are on permanent display at the Auckland National Maritime Museum and the Queenscliffe Maritime Museum in Victoria respectively. In December 2007 the Victorian Sea Kayak Club organised a 25th anniversary of the completion of the Australian paddle at Queenscliff, which included a piper-led carry for Paul's kayak to the local maritime museum.
In 2017 Paul chartered a yacht to take a team of 6 Kiwi and one Aussie paddlers from Ushuaia to the Antarctic Peninsula to mark the 80th anniversary of the 1935-37 BGLE.
Paul was awarded the ONZM in the 2012 New Year's honours list for services to water safety and sea kayaking.
Contact: kayakpc@xtra.co.nz · Web: paulcaffyn.co.nz