Fiann Paul

Fiann Paul (born Paweł Pietrzak; 15 August 1980) is a Polish-Icelandic explorer known for his exploits in ocean rowing.

Fiann Paul was born Paweł Pietrzak on 15 August, 1980 in Warsaw, Poland.

In the mid-2000s, he moved from his native Poland to Iceland and became an Icelandic citizen, changing his name to Fiann Paul.

He currently lives in Reykjavík.

In 2021, Paul completed training to become a Jungian Analyst at the C.G. Jung institute in Zürich.

His main focus is the psychology of ultra endurance performance and the psychological dynamics within the psyche of explorers and endurance athletes.

Fiann Paul has crossed all five oceans in an unsupported human-powered row boat with world-record-breaking speed, setting the overall speed records for the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Arctic Oceans.

He achieved the only human-powered crossing of the Southern Ocean and, as a result, no speed record was adjudicated due to lack of competition.

Paul achieved the highest success rate in the history of ocean rowing, measuring the number of attempted-speed-records to successful expeditions.

He was on stroke position for each row, the role that sets the boat's pace.

His total effort performed in ocean rowing was compared to consecutively running approximately 300 marathons.

In an interview with The Washington Times, he mentioned that his resting heart rate during off-shift times throughout the record-breaking crossings was 95 BPM, almost twice the normal resting heart rate.

His record-breaking performance was listed by The Reykjavík Grapevine as one of the 7 most notable "smitings" delivered in the history of Icelandic sports.

Because of this he was suspected of comradery with Ægir, the Norse personification of the sea.

Presently, he is one of the world's most accomplished rowers.

In 2011, Paul acted as a stroke of Sara G which earned the title of "the Fastest Boat in ocean rowing history", established an overall speed record for the Atlantic Ocean and won the Blue Riband Trophy of Ocean Rowing.

Their course, The Atlantic Trade Winds I is the most competitive ocean rowing route, sought by rowing legends such as James Cracknell OBE, and endurance athletes such as Mark Beaumont BEM.

In 2014, Paul became the first person to simultaneously hold overall speed records for the fastest rowing across 2 oceans (Atlantic and Indian).

Throughout his career, Paul broke four oars.

Three were destroyed in maritime storms and the fourth was shattered during an evacuation mission on the Indian Ocean aboard Avalon, when a tanker, Nordic River arrived to save an injured crew member, yet began to pull the small craft disastrously into its propeller, five times the height of the boat itself.

The oar broke in Paul's hands while pushing the rowers’ boat away from the tanker, saving the crew from collision, as the crew radioed the tanker to cut its engines just in time.

In addition to another collision, this time with a blue whale, the critical steering cable broke, which forced the crew to manually steer the boat, thereby reducing the rowing deck to two rowers per shift; half of what it is designed for.

Finally, after sustaining injuries passing through a hurricane, the crew narrowed down to only 3 rowers in total (1.5 per shift), who had to power a 2-ton heavy boat designed to be rowed by 8.

The incomplete crew had to row 2:40hr on, 1:20hr off shifts instead of the standard 2h:2h pattern in order to maintain their course.

This extreme challenge put crew members into a lengthy delirium, lasting many days due to severe exhaustion and sleep deprivation.

Paul is the fastest ocean rower (2016) and the most record-breaking ocean rower (2017).

In 2016, Paul became the only rower ever to achieve all three overall speed records (Atlantic, Indian, Mid-Pacific) and the only rower to hold all three records simultaneously.

Upon this achievement, he was awarded by Guinness World Records the title of "The first person to hold simultaneous overall speed records for ocean rowing all three oceans", one of the highest honors in the history of ocean rowing.

In 2017, Paul expanded his title by rowing the Arctic Ocean, becoming the first person to row 4 oceans and earning the Arctic Ocean overall speed record.

In order to receive a permit to row to Svalbard, Paul needed to apply to the Governor of Svalbard, to introduce an evaluation of the chances and the team's ability to accomplish the expedition.

Paul estimated an average speed for the expedition of 2.7 knots (kn).

The Governor's representative declared the claim a bluff, due to the present Arctic Ocean rowing overall speed record being 0.7 kn and that small sail boats average 4 kn.

Thus, they pressed the highest possible insurance bond, which became the biggest element of the expedition budget.

The accuracy of the ETA declared by Paul deviated by 4h.

As per plan, the rowers flawlessly caught the rising tide of the 108 km long Isfjorden off of Longyearbyen.

Polar Row I was the biggest record demolition in the history of ocean rowing: the existing Arctic Ocean record was broken by 3.5 times, despite the Polar Row I team being buffeted by headwinds 60% of the time.

Paul stated that the headwinds they faced were "a validation of our manpower performance".

Upon this achievement, he received the Guinness titles of "First to row 4 Oceans" and "First to hold current speed records on all 4 oceans".

In 2019, he led the first human-powered transit (by rowing) across the Drake Passage, and the first human-powered expedition on the Southern Ocean.

As of 2020, he is the first and only person to achieve the Ocean Explorers Grand Slam, performing open-water crossings on each of the five oceans using human-powered vessels.