Ted Audio Collective.

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You're listening to Ted Talks Daily.

I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

You're about to hear a gripping true story of resilience and survival.

Iron Woman, paddler, and record-breaker Bonnie Hancock shares at 2023's

Ted at BCG, her experience of taking on part of the sea that no one has before

and the lessons that Mother Nature taught her out there after the break.

Let me take you back to a day in my life. July 2021.

I was sitting with my laptop on my lap, slightly sweating, awaiting a call that could change my life.

You see, a year ago I read a book about a woman who paddled around Australia, beating the

men before her to become the fastest ever to do so.

I'm sure most people would read that book and think,

wow, and forget about the idea,

but I cannot get it out of my mind.

I'm a surf life saver and an ex- But I cannot get it out of my mind.

I'm a surf life saver and an ex-professional iron woman and I want to beat that record. I want to become the fastest person to paddle around Australia.

But to do so, I'll need to paddle around Australia. But to do so, I'll need to paddle 80 to 100 kilometers a day

and cover every meter of coastline in less than 10 and a half months.

A ski is basically a kayak, but built to withstand wind and swells

and everything thrown up by the ocean. It's six meters long, just 45 centimeters across at its widest point, and made of carbon fiber, it weighs 8 kilograms.

Oh, I'll also need a support catamaran, and a jet ski ski and a skipper and crew crazy enough to come with me for the journey.

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