An interview with…
Lizzie Carr
Environmentalist, activist,
paddleboarder and record breaker
Interview: Peter Tranter and Anne Egan
Photos: Maximusinnyc and Joel Caldwell
UK paddler Lizzie Carr became the first person to successfully SUP
the navigable length of New York’s Hudson River, a 275km journey
from Albany to the Statue of Liberty in New York City. Lizzie
completed the endurance challenge in eight days, calling for
companies to take responsibility for the plastic they produce.
Lizzie paddled for up to nine hours a day and confronted
unpredictable conditions throughout her journey. The
incoming Hurricane Florence brought gusts of wind up to 30mph with
large swells along the east coast. This, coupled with intermittent
thunderstorms, torrential downpours, strong currents and commercial
shipping traffic on a river that spans 3.5 miles at its widest point,
makes this feat of endurance all the more impressive.
Lizzie, a passionate environmental advocate who founded the
Plastic Patrol initiative in the UK following a cancer diagnosis that
prompted her to take up SUP to recover, took on this challenge to
bring attention to the issue of plastic pollution, ocean health and
more broadly, climate change.
9
s
t
a
n d
u
p
p
a d
d
l
e
m
a
g
u
k