Norfolk Woman Samantha Rutt crossed the North Channel in staggering time smashing the official Guiness World Record. She is also the very first woman to have completed this feat. She officially completed the long and daring journey in a time of five hours, two minutes, and thirty-five seconds which was set and verified as a world record on July 19th 2023.
“I’m feeling immensely proud,” she said. “As a child, I’d see people becoming the fastest or first in the world to do something, and thought they must be like superheroes. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to put myself in that category when I was diagnosed with PTSD, but I decided to challenge it and not let it define what I can do.
“Also doing it faster than the men’s record feels unbelievably special for an ordinary woman from Norfolk.”
Her mammoth achievement seems even more impressive and spectacular when you consider she had only started paddleboarding seven years ago when she tried the sport for the first time in Portgular on holiday. Her first experience was on such a windy day that beach towels would twirl in the wind, however, she now enjoys her sport and teaches it to others out of Wells Harbour.
She had originally planned a trip across the English Channel for the charity “Black Dog Outdoors”, before the pandemic ruined her plans. Mrs Rutt instead planned to cross the Northern Channel in a bid to not disappoint her sponsors.
She enlisted the help of one Larry Cain, a Gold Medalist in canoeing to help her train for the feat; training several miles a day waking at 5am; a rough regimen for most.
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