Lebanese Caroline Raphael is going after the Guinness World Record to travel the length of the Lebanon’s coast on a 4.2 meter stand-up paddleboard

On April 27, Caroline Raphael will try to cross 180 kilometers of open water in 24 hours, which translates to a 7.5-kilometer-per-hour average speed, without stops. The previous record distance on a stand up paddleboard was 177 km, set by American athlete Seychelle Hattingh, who is coaching Raphael via an online app, but that attempt was undertaken on flat water rather than the open Mediterranean.

Raphael has never before attempted such a feat of endurance: “I’m confident with my strength, but I’ve never done long distance,” she says.

But the challenges facing Raphael are not just in the water and along the coast: One of the biggest barriers she had to overcome was in the home. Her family, she says, has only just started to come round to her lifestyle as a full-time athlete. Traditional gender roles dictate that “the woman has to serve the man,” she says. “I used to fight with my family about that.”

Raphael is hoping her record attempt will help to challenge such ingrained ideas. “You can be all the woman you want to be but you don’t have to be in the kitchen.

Link to story: https://bikininewsdaily.com/bnd/LebaneseCarolineRaphaeli-223