title: Fiann Paul
text: # Fiann Paul
  
  Fiann Paul (born Paweł Pietrzak; 15 August 1980) is a Polish-Icelandic explorer known for his exploits in ocean rowing.
  
  Paul is the fastest ocean rower (2016) and the most record-breaking ocean rower (2017). In 2019, he led the first human-powered transit (by rowing) across the Drake Passage, and the first human-powered expedition on the Southern Ocean. As of 2020, he is the first and only person to achieve the Ocean Explorers Grand Slam, performing open-water crossings on each of the five oceans using human-powered vessels.
  
  ## Early life and education
  
  Fiann Paul was born Paweł Pietrzak on 15 August, 1980 in Warsaw, Poland. In the mid-2000s, he moved from his native Poland to Iceland and became an Icelandic citizen, changing his name to Fiann Paul. He currently lives in Reykjavík.
  
  In 2021, Paul completed training to become a Jungian Analyst at the C.G. Jung institute in Zürich. His main focus is the psychology of ultra endurance performance and the psychological dynamics within the psyche of explorers and endurance athletes.
  
  ## Ocean rowing
  
  Fiann Paul has crossed all five oceans in an unsupported human-powered row boat with world-record-breaking speed, setting the overall speed records for the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Arctic Oceans. He achieved the only human-powered crossing of the Southern Ocean and, as a result, no speed record was adjudicated due to lack of competition.
  
  Paul achieved the highest success rate in the history of ocean rowing, measuring the number of attempted-speed-records to successful expeditions. He was on stroke position for each row, the role that sets the boat's pace. His total effort performed in ocean rowing was compared to consecutively running approximately 300 marathons. In an interview with The Washington Times, he mentioned that his resting heart rate during off-shift times throughout the record-breaking crossings was 95 BPM, almost twice the normal resting heart rate.
  
  His record-breaking performance was listed by The Reykjavík Grapevine as one of the 7 most notable "smitings" delivered in the history of Icelandic sports. Because of this he was suspected of comradery with Ægir, the Norse personification of the sea. Presently, he is one of the world's most accomplished rowers.
  
  ### Rowing History
  
  **2011**
  
  In 2011, Paul acted as a stroke of Sara G which earned the title of "the Fastest Boat in ocean rowing history", established an overall speed record for the Atlantic Ocean and won the Blue Riband Trophy of Ocean Rowing. Their course, The Atlantic Trade Winds I is the most competitive ocean rowing route, sought by rowing legends such as James Cracknell OBE, and endurance athletes such as Mark Beaumont BEM.
  
  **2014, 2 oceans**
  
  In 2014, Paul became the first person to simultaneously hold overall speed records for the fastest rowing across 2 oceans (Atlantic and Indian). Throughout his career, Paul broke four oars. Three were destroyed in maritime storms and the fourth was shattered during an evacuation mission on the Indian Ocean aboard Avalon, when a tanker, Nordic River arrived to save an injured crew member, yet began to pull the small craft disastrously into its propeller, five times the height of the boat itself. The oar broke in Paul's hands while pushing the rowers’ boat away from the tanker, saving the crew from collision, as the crew radioed the tanker to cut its engines just in time.
  
  In addition to another collision, this time with a blue whale, the critical steering cable broke, which forced the crew to manually steer the boat, thereby reducing the rowing deck to two rowers per shift; half of what it is designed for. Finally, after sustaining injuries passing through a hurricane, the crew narrowed down to only 3 rowers in total (1.5 per shift), who had to power a 2-ton heavy boat designed to be rowed by 8. The incomplete crew had to row 2:40hr on, 1:20hr off shifts instead of the standard 2h:2h pattern in order to maintain their course. This extreme challenge put crew members into a lengthy delirium, lasting many days due to severe exhaustion and sleep deprivation.
  
  **2016, 3 oceans**
  
  In 2016, Paul became the only rower ever to achieve all three overall speed records (Atlantic, Indian, Mid-Pacific) and the only rower to hold all three records simultaneously. Upon this achievement, he was awarded by Guinness World Records the title of "The first person to hold simultaneous overall speed records for ocean rowing all three oceans", one of the highest honors in the history of ocean rowing.
  
  **2017, 4 oceans**
  
  In 2017, Paul expanded his title by rowing the Arctic Ocean, becoming the first person to row 4 oceans and earning the Arctic Ocean overall speed record.
  
  In order to receive a permit to row to Svalbard, Paul needed to apply to the Governor of Svalbard, to introduce an evaluation of the chances and the team's ability to accomplish the expedition. Paul estimated an average speed for the expedition of 2.7 knots (kn). The Governor's representative declared the claim a bluff, due to the present Arctic Ocean rowing overall speed record being 0.7 kn and that small sail boats average 4 kn. Thus, they pressed the highest possible insurance bond, which became the biggest element of the expedition budget. The accuracy of the ETA declared by Paul deviated by 4h. As per plan, the rowers flawlessly caught the rising tide of the 108 km long Isfjorden off of Longyearbyen.
  
  Polar Row I was the biggest record demolition in the history of ocean rowing: the existing Arctic Ocean record was broken by 3.5 times, despite the Polar Row I team being buffeted by headwinds 60% of the time. Paul stated that the headwinds they faced were "a validation of our manpower performance". Upon this achievement, he received the Guinness titles of "First to row 4 Oceans" and "First to hold current speed records on all 4 oceans".
  
  **2019, Ocean Explorers Grand Slam and "The Impossible Row"**
  
  The Antarctic or "Impossible" Row was conceived in April 2017. Upon completion of Polar Row II in August 2017, in an interview with The New York Times, Paul vowed he would row an even more difficult route. Next he needed to irreversibly prepay substantial sums of money 18 months in advance of the expedition in order to secure the assisting vessel, which is a requirement of the Antarctic Treaty and IAATO in order to receive a departure permit. Maritime law requires that small human-powered boats and primitive sailboats be accompanied by an assisting vessel during open-water journeys within the actual boundaries of the Southern Ocean. Paul mentioned that it was all the money he had at the time.
  
  In September 2017, Paul recruited the first team members, Andrew Towne and Jamie Douglas-Hamilton. The row was initially scheduled for December 2018 but was postponed due to lack of availability of the assisting vessel. In January 2019 he recruited Cameron Bellamy and John Petersen, completing the two-year-long team recruitment process in April 2019 when the final member, Colin O'Brady — without prior rowing, ocean rowing, or seafaring experience — joined the team to serve as Paul's first mate and aid the project financially.
  
  The row took 12 days, 1 hour and 45 minutes, with the team experiencing sub-zero temperatures, snow, hail, and giant ice bergs unique to Antarctica. The row was completed on December 25, 2019, with the team accomplishing three historical feats: being the first to row across the Drake Passage, the first to row to the Antarctic, and the first to row in the Southern Ocean. The row was the subject of a 2020 Discovery Channel documentary, The Impossible Row.
  
  ## Charity
  
  In 2007, Fiann Paul collected funds and supervised the construction of a new Götusmiðjan facility building in Iceland. Götusmiðjan is a specialized treatment facility for at-risk youth.
  
  In 2011, Paul and Natalie Caroline founded the Fiann Paul Foundation, which built a primary school in the Himalayas in 2013. The school educates 150 pupils per year.
  
  ## Honors and accolades
  
  In 2019, Fiann Paul was appointed a coordinator for Ocean Rowing Society International, the governing body for international ocean rowing.
  
  In 2020, he was awarded an Honorary Master Mariner from the Association of Master Mariners at the Gdynia Maritime University in Gdynia, Poland. Master Mariner is the highest seafarer qualification, and in Poland, one needs to study for approximately 8 years to achieve this qualification.
  
  In 2021, Paul pro-bono developed a geodatabase that documents and processes the entire history of human-power ocean exploration, dubbed by Guinness World Records “The first real adventure database”.
  
  He has conducted multiple lectures, and workshops in different parts of the world.
  
  ### Other Honors and Awards
  
  * Blue Riband Trophy of Ocean Rowing, 2011
  * Winner of the Great Pacific Race in classic class, 2016
  * Winner of the Great Pacific Race in all classes (against open class), 2016
  * Oars of Anders Svedlund from friends and family of Anders Svedlund
  * Diploma from Military Personnel of Jan Mayen for accomplishments in ocean rowing
  
  ## World Records
  
  ### Guinness World's Firsts
  
  **Pioneering and explorations Guinness World's First titles**
  
  * First to row 4 oceans, 2017
  * First to row the Arctic Ocean open waters south to north
  * First recorded complete human-powered crossing of the Barents Sea, 2017
  * First to row the Arctic Ocean open waters north to south, 2017
  * First recorded complete human-powered crossing of the Greenland Sea, 2017
  * First to row the Arctic Ocean in both directions, 2017
  * First to row across the Drake Passage, 2019
  * First to row on the Southern Ocean, 2019
  * First to row to the Antarctic continent, 2019
  * First to row in both Polar Regions, 2019
  * First to row on 5 oceans (first to complete Ocean Explorers Grand Slam), 2019
  
  **Other Performance Guinness World's First titles**
  
  * First person to hold simultaneous overall speed Guinness World Records for ocean rowing all three oceans (hat-trick): 2016
  * First person to twice hold three simultaneous overall ocean rowing speed records on different oceans (hat-trick): 2017
  * First to hold current speed records on 4 oceans, 2017
  
  ### Guinness Mosts
  
  **Accumulative Guinness World Records for total number of accomplishments in Ocean Rowing**
  
  * Most ocean rowing speed records held simultaneously on different oceans (3), 2016
  * Most ocean rowing speed records held simultaneously on different oceans, (4), 2017
  * Most ocean rowing overall speed records within two consecutive years (2), 2017
  * Most Polar Open Water rows completed by a rower (3), 2019
  * Most latitude records held by a rower (6), 2019
  
  ### Overall Speed Guinness World Records
  
  * Fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, 2011
  * Fastest crossing of the Indian Ocean, 2014
  * Fastest crossing of the Mid-Pacific Ocean, 2016
  * Fastest crossing of the Arctic Ocean, 2017
  
  **Other Speed Guinness World Records**
  
  * Highest consecutive number of days rowed a distance over 100 miles a day (12 days), 2011
  * Fastest row across the Indian Ocean by a team, 2014
  
  ### Geographical Guinness World Records
  
  **Latitude Guinness World Records**
  
  * Northernmost latitude (78°15'20'' N) reached by a rowing vessel, 2017
  * Northernmost departure point (78°13' N), 2017
  * Northernmost latitude reached by a rowing vessel (Arctic ice pack edge - 79°55'50'' N), 2017
  * The southernmost start of a rowing expedition, 55° 58′ S
  * The southernmost latitude reached by a rowing vessel, 64°14′S
  
  **Longest distance Guinness World Records**
  
  * The longest distance rowed on the Arctic Ocean Open Waters within one expedition, 2017
  * Longest distance rowed by a crew on the Indian Ocean, 2014
  * Longest aggregated distance rowed in the Polar Open Water.
  
  ### Ocean Rowing World Records
  
  * Most record-breaking ocean rower
  * Most record-breaking ocean crossing, 2017
  * Fastest ocean rowing boat in history as compared to the average speed of any row on any ocean, 2011
  
  ### Other world records
  
  * Most record-breaking expedition in history, 2017
  