Man powered by swell rides waves for 250 miles

A ground-breaking adventurer has pulled off a remarkable 250 mile (403km) journey along the UK's south coast, gliding for hours at a time across open water on a foil board.

Guy Bridge, 26, from Exmouth, Devon, completed the three-day challenge, with a total of 19 hours 48 minutes on the water, by "downwind foiling", riding above the waves on a board attached to a hydrofoil.

He took on the trip from Exmouth to Folkestone in Kent, including notorious headlands like Portland Bill off Dorset where tides collide in treacherous seas.

And he was supported by wife Emma, 30, who also joined him for one leg of the journey in West Sussex.

Guy's endurance journey, which he completed at the start of June, now adds a different kind of challenge to the family's growing list.

His brother Tom, 25, made headlines after leaping from a cruise ship, describing it as "probably the scariest thing I've done", while his other brother Olly, 28, stunned onlookers by jumping about 200m across a sand spit in Dawlish.

Guy said the idea of riding the waves down the coast had grown from years of shorter coastal runs. He explained that "it'd be so cool just to keep going" and that he "just wanted to see how far you could get down that bit of stretch of coast".

He added that "we kind of kept it really open" rather than setting a fixed target before setting off, accepting that the weather could scupper the attempt.

Downwind foiling involves standing on a board fitted with a hydrofoil, which lifts above the water once it gets to a certain speed through the the power of paddling or a parawing, a small, soft, foil kite flown on short lines.

Guy explained that foiling means "you lose the total drag of the board" and travel by linking the energy of moving swells, adding: "You feel like the ultimate freedom."

"It's about reading and mapping the bumps… you're only on one piece of the water for only five or 10 seconds before you've got to jump into another section," he said.

"It's pretty crazy when you think about what you're actually doing."

But that freedom comes with serious risk, especially around Portland Bill in Dorset, a headland long feared by sailors.

Guy said that stretch was among the hardest of the journey, describing it as "really challenging" because of powerful, shifting currents.

The seas were "not only moving, like, wind against tide, they were kind of moving in diagonals as well", he said adding it created steep, unpredictable waves, forcing constant concentration to stay upright.

Guy, a veteran of long downwinders in Australia and in south-west England, said there was also a sense of the unknown, because it is thought that no-one else has foiled some of the zones he passed through.

To manage the risks, he carried safety gear including a buoyancy aid and an emergency beacon, with drinking water and snacks as he went.

He used a phone for navigation, was in regular contact with coastguards and carried both the paddle and parawing as backups, explaining that "if the paddle snapped, you have your parawing and if your parawing broke, you can paddle in."

Emma said they had planned carefully, breaking the route into sections with exit points and staying in constant contact.

Overnight stops were taken in Swanage, Dorset, and at Bognor Regis in West Sussex.

She said she had been confident in his abilities, although she admitted feeling uneasy when conditions worsened and the sea turned "absolutely wild".

Emma explained she had not originally planned to join him at sea but changed her mind for the relatively short stretch between Bognor Regis and East Preston in West Sussex because "something didn't really sit right with me, with him just doing it on his own".

Balance was "quite a lot harder" at eight months pregnant, especially in rough conditions, where "it's really windy, really choppy, and a lot of water moving", she said.

Emma said she adapted by using a larger foil to help make things more manageable, explaining "the bigger the foil is, the easier it is to get off on".

After arriving at East Preston the pair had the slightly surreal experience of getting on a train with their boards to get back to the start point at Bognor.

After navigating one of the UK's most treacherous coastal sections and continuing all the way to Kent, Guy said completing the challenge felt surreal.

And seeing the idea "actually to come to life was pretty mega, to be honest. It was awesome".

Guy said he was already eyeing up even bigger challenges, including a possible Channel crossing.

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