Customer Reviews

Pedaling to Hawaii: A Human-Powered Odyssey

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Well, at the printing of this the journey which started in England, biked to Spain, and sailed to Miami, was still alive, about 3/4 of the way around the world.

The author writes an entertaining tale of two college friends who decide to set their sights on doing an adventure that had not yet been accomplished: Pedal around the world. For two years the all consuming thought of both of them is to first get the money to build the boat and second, get the boat built. They go into debt but scrape up the funds and eventually, find enough committed builders to see the boat through to completion. On setting off they pedal round the clock, either two or four hour shifts, and have not only endure the strain of such a close quarter environment but also the frequent breakdowns of various gear they need for their journey.

The boat is intended to be self righting and water tight in the event it is capsized at sea, however, that is only true if all the hatches are shut tight. Shutting the hatches in the bright sun is like closing the door on an oven and so this peace of mind is one of the first casualties of a well planned voyage. Others follow.

Getting across the Atlantic, and the buildup that preceded it, were what I found most interesting about the book. There are memorable moments of the trip across the United States that are as enjoyable as the trip across the Atlantic but towards the end of the book it does tend to lose a little steam and lags along like their boat did when facing a headwind that would stall their progress.

Recommended for those who like adventure stories, and the journey itself has a website where you can see some of the many photos that were taken during its course. By far the best adventure story I have read about two intrepid friends out to do something totally outside the realm of routine is by Bill Bryson titled "A Walk In The Woods". This one is on land, and one that not only teaches you a great deal about the history of the East Coast and the people who live there but also will have you laughing out loud throughout.

Well Stevie Smith did, and his book describes the true story of how he and a friend set out on a seemingly impossible adventure to avoid the tedium of office life and do something truly unique. The book is a fantastic read, written from the heart and describing an adventure that no sane person would even dream about. A must read.

Looking for high adventure? Read Pedaling To Hawaii: A Human-powered Odyssey. A Parisian bureaucrat decides to change his life and with no special skills and no money, he and his friend ride through Europe and pedal-boat across the Atlantic in 111 days. Using skates, bikes and boats and the two cross the US and then go to Hawaii their high adventures combine with life-changing insights in a story of change and motivation.

Awesome, awesome book. This treasure joins about three dozen other adventure books in my library and is one of only a few that I have read twice. It's honest, funny, intense and thouroughly entertaining. Thank you for sharing your story Stevie!!

Greg K

[...]

This book details the first part of a human-powered expedition around the world. The first section details the initial motivations of the two primary participants, the design and early funding of the pedal boat that would handle the oceanic portions of the journey. This is followed by the journey itself, which can be divided roughly between England->Portugal, Portugal->Miami, Miami->San Francisco, SF->Hilo. (The expedition is apparently continuing, but the book stops here where the author is drastically scaling back his role)

That they made it at all is impressive. Certainly the oceanic parts were dangerous. They were underfunded almost throughout, and conducted little or no planning and assesment. But that the journey was perhaps foolhardy does not decrease the accomplishment of the participants.

However, this is not like Bryson's _A Walk in the Woods_. The participants are not innocent, and Mr. Smith has attitudes which can be jarring. The two primary problems I had with the book while reading it were:

-Politics and philosophy that are slightly off: Mr Smith observes "fishing vessels" between Cuba and the US which are moving but don't have nets set. Without any commercial fishing expertise he immediately asserts that the US is paying Cuba to intercept refugees before they reach US shores (p118). The author unapologetically overstays his tourist visa in the US out of convienince. The author is near condscending towards people who cycle with support teams (specifically p156-158), without acknowledging differing motivations.

-Dwells on bad incidents: The journey is underfunded from the start, and obviously some discussion of the fundraising process is needed. It's cynical at points however, considering the degree of support that was rendered (at one point in the pacific crossing, the US Navy is prepared to divert a destroyer to deliver a water purifier, a passing trawler gives the relief crew a tow saving the boat off Monteray, etc, etc). The journey accross the continental US is a row of bad experiences-- surely something good happened, or he ran into someone that was nice to him, rather than lecherous truckers and pot-bellied sherrifs the entire way.

During the voyage, the author grows a bit and the philosophical points are thankfully understated.

So, all told if you have an interest in the voyage the book is worth reading. If your looking for how not to plan a significant undertaking, this book is for you. But beyond that, there is little to hold the reader's interest.

I was expecting more from this book.

Not that it's poorly written or anything, It's just that I was expecting it to take me on an exciting adventure. The book does that sometimes, but too often relates the problems these two guys had in finding sponsors, the many things they do while they stop between parts of the course (which aren't always that interesting), how pedalling for months in the ocean is boring and you heve nothing to do, the things you start thinking while crossing the seas, and the pace is often interrupted

I usually read a book in about 1-2 weeks. This one is took me more than a month. It's not a bad title by any means, it's interesting and altough it incites you to go on your own adventure of self discovery it also clashes the naked truth in your face: it's not an easy task, it's often hard and even boring.

I do not regret my purchase. This is a good title, weighed by the boredness of real life in opposition to the ever thrilling action fiction delivers. The good thing about it is that it really answers your question: "how would it be if I chose to leave everything behind and go travelling the world moved by my human power alone?"

Self initiated adventures today are seldom this ambitious. Two young men with few resources other than ingenuity and enthusiasm plan, finance, and eventually build a human powered vehicle. They navigate and pedal a boat named Moksha, which in Sanskirt means liberation, from Europe to the United States. For good measure one rides a bike from Florida to California while the other traveler roller blades across the country.

Stevie is the author so we become familiar with his issues and achievements on the trip as he learns a great deal about his thinking processes. This leads him towards an interest in Zen and enlightenment. Few are cut out for the 24/7 months on end partnership that Jason and Stevie lived during the journey. There are rare occasions where the author becomes philosophical and a bit heady about his emotional responses.

In the foxhole of life I would want these guys on my team and watching my back.

The Dalai Lama writes a positive preface which could be because he recognizes the participant's progress on the path towards complete transcendence.

I tore through this adventure yarn in a weekend, reading parts out loud, and laughing a lot. The chutzpah! For all the environmental credentials, it's really a colonial attitude: let me inflict my ill-conceived folly on you and you pay for it! I also found the several glaring spelling mistakes of geographic places irritating. They weren't even consistent, misspelling them differently in different places. For the record, it's Extremadura! Honokohau! Leleiwi!

Fun read, though.

Stevie Smith who wrote this book is not the same Stevie Smith who wrote the poem about "not waving but drowning," but that would tie in too.

As a devoted follower of the Dalai Lama, I'm a little mystified about why he should choose to write such an enthusiastic foreword to this book. I don't often think of the Dalai Lama as a chap who sits around complaining of a "terribly sore arse," nor have I ever read about him spilling a sachet of boiling water into his naked lap and burning his balls so badly he has to spend the night suspended upside down from a mast so that a cooling wind will relieve his inflamed genitals. All these adventures happen to Stevie Smith as he and a pal, Jason, try to make it around the world in a pedal boat, the Mokshu (Sanskrit for "liberation") in stages that take them all the way from England to Hawaii.

They skate and cycle right across the continental USA, always using their own power. I love adventure books but this one put me off, mostly because Stevie and Jason take a dislike to each other that five months in a pedal boat in close quarters just exacerbates, so by the time they hit Florida Jason decides they must endure a period of many months before he can stand being with Stevie again. For his part, Stevie got tired of seeing Jason's hairy nude body all the time, and his foul smelling feet made the entire Atlantic voyage miserable.

A sad thing happens when, in Colorado, a hit and run driver mows down Jason and leaves him for dead. Stevie and an Irish colleen go to visit him, make sure he's okay. This delays their trip some more. Eventually Jason tells Stevie that--oh well, I don't want to reveal many spoilers, but the whole story is up on their web site. The voyage was underthought out and tragically under-sponsored. The crass US owner of Arby's paid them some piddling sum at one point, and here in San Francisco, where Stevie lived for a year or so, the owner of the North Face thought about sponsoring him for a bit. Eventually Stevie got busted for overstaying his tourist visa, and his best mate in the Mission became a heroin addict and died, half naked, on a bench on 16th Street, a needle in his arm.

This concatenation of unpleasant events made Stevie turn to Buddhism, and his current outlook is much more mellow. He was a young good looking guy, but once your face, ass and legs are all covered with salt sores, and you've gone without a shower for five months, you wind up with that deranged Nick Nolte look and it puts you off your feed. For myself, I doubt that the Dalai Lama ever actually read this manuscript. Certainly Amazon has it wrong when it indicates that he wrote it.