World’s Toughest Row inaugural race kicks off in California and ends in Kaua‘i

Fourteen rowing teams from around the world departed from the shores of central California on Monday to compete in the inaugural Pacific Challenge of the World’s Toughest Row, which ends in Hanalei Bay on Kaua‘i.

The race will connect two national marine sanctuaries across the Pacific Ocean.

Teams of two, three, four and five people left Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and will attempt to cross 2,800 miles making their way toward Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.

Rowers are expected to to be at sea during National Ocean Month, spending the next 30 to 45 days battling open ocean.

As rowing teams departed the Monterey Bay sanctuary — the “Serengeti of the Sea” — they were accompanied by several humpback whales, huge pods of northern right whale dolphins, Pacific white-sided dolphins and flocks of shearwaters from New Zealand and Argentina.

The World’s Toughest Row is an extreme series of endurance races, which started in the Atlantic Ocean in 1997, where individuals from across the globe gather annually to compete. The Atlantic race happens annually. Rowers start in the Canary Islands and row more than 3,000 miles to Nelson’s Dockyard, English Harbour, in Antigua and Barbuda in the West Indies.

For more information on the World’s Toughest Row Pacific and to track competitors, click here.