Nearly three weeks of anxious waiting is over for the 6-time SUP Race World Champion from Denmark, Casper Steinfath. Sunday morning, he will begin his 120-kilometre downwind SUP foil attack on Kattegat – the ocean between Denmark and Sweden.
The adventure starts in Grenaa in Mid-Jutland, and will take him downwind through treacherous waters north of the tiny island of Anholt before hopefully reaching the shores of Varberg on the Swedish west coast.
The trip is nicknamed Viking Crossing 3.0 and comes after his successful voyage over the Skagerrak strait between Denmark and Norway back in 2018, as the first person ever on a SUP.
“It has been three long weeks. The weather has been on the wrong side for me and extremely unstable. Last Thursday looked promising for several days, but the forecast changed few hours before departure and broke my dream, Casper Steinfath says.
This Sunday, the conditions seem somewhat optimal with a wind blowing from the southwest at about 20-25 knots.
He will spend eight to ten hours going to Sweden on his Naish SUP board with a foil underneath.
“I can’t wait to get airborne and start going soon! I’m pretty sure I’ve flown thousands of kilometres on the Westcoast of Cold Hawaii as training and testing all of my different foil setups – but the ocean of Kattegat is completely different and has its own temper, so I am prepared for anything. There are soo many factors that I can’t control about this crossing, which I am sure will make completing it that much more meaningful, Steinfath says.
Three years ago, he paddled as the first in history from Denmark to Norway on a SUP, and he will be facing Kattegat on the east side of Jutland, as part of a lifelong plan.
“I grew up between these three legendary oceans, Skagerrak, Kattegat and the North Sea. Just like mountaineers attracted by huge peaks, I find it natural to explore the oceans that surround Denmark. I call them liquid mountains and I love the challenge of trying to see if I can cross them like the old Vikings”, he says.
