David Jensen is a 40-something paddleboarder who is driven to clean up marine debris. He has lived his entire life on Vancouver Island including 15 years on the west coast in Ucluelet and Tofino. He has been an active surfer for 35 years and intimately understands the ocean and travelling on it. He works seasonally for 8 months in the winter and lives where he has access to surf. He spends the other 4 months paddleboarding on the north coast of Vancouver Island. His website www.lonepaddle.org promotes his Lone Paddle Consersationists Society – Cleaning Up British Columbia’s Remote Coastline One Paddleboard Expedition at a Time. Lone Paddle infers one motivation for spending so much time in a remote area is to be alone.
David paddle-boarded for the first time in 2017 on a lake. In 2020, he paddleboarded for 79 days and 500 km from Port Hardy to Tofino. During the trip, he cleaned shorelines as he went.
During this adventure, he was shocked at the amount of marine debris destroying our beautiful remote shorelines. In the tiny cabin on Lowrie Bay, he read the note “Living Oceans was here” This was the first association he made with marine debris cleanups and contacted Karen Wirsten and Living Oceans. This started the close association between the two.
In 2021, he paddled from San Josef Bay to Lowrie Bay and cleaned the entire beach over 16 days. The debris was removed by helicopter (Living Oceans).
In 2022, David paddled about 100 km and cleaned 15 km of coastline between San Josef Bay and Cape Russel. He made 13 caches including a large tire, 100 feet of PVC tubing and a weather buoy. Six to seven tonnes of garbage were removed with 70 percent recycled and the remainder landfilled. Making all these caches requires paddling with up to 10 super sacs on his deck. The debris was removed by helicopter by Living Oceans.
2023 – Living Oceans June: Cape Scott area. Ocean Legacy Aug: Grant Bay. July solo Cape Russell area. August solo Hansens Bay. Totals = paddled 44 days for more than 100 kilometres and collected 14 caches of shoreline debris weighing over 10.5 tons on 25 kilometres of remote shoreline.
When his gear was being helicoptered, it fell and most was lost including his paddleboard. Only his paddle survived – this was the source of his website name “Lone Paddle”. After a GoFundMe campaign organized by Living Oceans and a supportive article in the Times Colonist, $7,100 was raised to replace his gear.
He purchased a new Starboard Sprint paddleboard. It is a hybrid board with a sharp kayak-like prow, 14′ long and 31″ wide, and has small side walls, gutters for draining water, and tie-downs for his gear. It has a flexible rubber rudder, a key to landing a paddle board in surf. The board has won 5 world championships. He thinks he can handle 35-knot winds in it!!
2024 – over 30 days, David collected 36 super sacs between Lowrie Bay and Cape Russel. He joined the Living Oceans crew on Cox Island Aug 4-8, returned to Cape Russel and then again joined Living Oceans on Cox Island August 14-21.
He is a slight guy 5’9″ and 135 pounds with a ton of energy. Normally he wears cotton shorts and a cotton t-shirt but has a full wet suit if the weather indicates, a vest for his Garmen Insight and a small inflatable PFD. He travels with two large waterproof gear bags and a moderate-sized backpack.
Sleeping is in a Hennessey hammock – the 4-season Expedition. The fly is large. Cooking is usually over a fire but he has a small MSR stove.
He spends 60-70 days at a time in the wilderness. This is only possible because he forages for 75% of his food, spending about 5 hours a day foraging.
His last big challenge is to paddle in the winter. Collecting marine debris has become his major draw but even if there were no debris to collect, he would still be paddle boarding alone on this remote coast.
Paddle boards have the advantage of being able to reach small pocket beaches. The most difficult can only be reached in calm seas, during small tidal windows on the highest tides. Helicopters are also useful to access these beaches.
If you would like to support future Lonepaddle expeditions, you can donate by e-transfer to: donate@lonepaddle.org.
