About Dave

Dave Cornthwaite is a British adventurer, author and motivational speaker.

Dave's adventures are largely shaped by a passion for combining sport and travel to encourage people to look after their own little corner of the planet by thinking big, staying healthy and smiling as much as possible.

Dave is probably best known for his Expedition1000 project, an ambitious series of twenty five journeys of at least 1000 miles in length, each one using a different method of non-motorised transport. Dave hopes to raise £1,000,000 for his selected charities by the end of the project, which will take him across three oceans, to both poles, and to every continent on Earth.

Dave's first taste of adventure came in 1999, when a gap year teaching scheme organised by Africa & Asia Venture took him to Uganda in East Africa and encouraged a passion for pastures new, and writing about them. At University Dave spent more time travelling than studying, and managed an annual charity hitchhike to Morocco as well as returning to Africa and spending several months in South America.

Somehow, he held down a full-time position as Editor of the Swansea University newspaper during the final two years of his BscEcon in International Development, before following graduation by founding his own newspaper and becoming a graphic designer.

In 2005, what he hopes will become a quarter life crisis encouraged Dave to take up skateboarding for the first time, a hobby that was about to change his life. Not long afterwards Dave left his job and founded BoardFree, a charitable initiative designed to raise funds and awareness for three handpicked charities. He then started to plan two World Record-breaking skating journeys.

In late Spring 2006 Dave pushed his longboard from John O'Groats to Lands End, becoming the first person to skate the length of Britain. On January 22nd 2007 Dave completed his second journey, a five-month world-record 5823km skate between Perth, in Western Australia, and Brisbane on Australia's east coast. Soon after that, his first book, BoardFree, was published.

In 2007 Dave formed BounceFree, which revolved around a human powered hydrofoil called an Aquaskipper. In September '07 he broke the British 100m record, although he may have been the first person to attempt it!

In December 2009, after living on a canal boat and learning how to paddle, Dave completed a two and a half month, 2476km expedition along Australia's largest river, the Murray. It was this journey that convinced Dave he should continue trying to make a living from adventure and trying new things.

In Spring/ Summer 2010 Dave began training for a world record breaking Stand Up Paddle journey by paddling 85km across Lake Geneva with his friend Seb Terry, and then 150 miles across the UK from Bath to London, with fellow Adventurer Sarah Outen.

In February 2011 Dave spent three weeks in Nepal getting over vertigo by learning how to paraglide, in preparation for a 1000-mile flight over Nepal. One month later, he completed the 3rd journey of Expedition1000 by pedalling a tandem bicycle 1400 miles in 14 days from Vancouver, BC to Las Vegas.

In addition to his first book, BoardFree, Dave writes a regular blog and has three more books on the way; Up The Creek, about his Murray River expedition, Date, the hilarious story of Dave's attempt to find a girlfriend by trying to date 100 girls in 100 days, and Stand Up Huck, about Dave's record-breaking Mississippi journey in 2011.

Dave is an established motivational speaker who has addressed audiences on five continents. He also has a joint show with Seb Terry, and between them they have toured Australia twice since November 2010. Seb's 100Things bucket list also gives Dave a chance to hone his filmmaking skills, and he has produced short documentaries about Staying Awake For 72 Hours and the pair's Lake Geneva Crossing. He also produced Sarah Outen's documentary, A Dip In the Ocean.

In the Summer of 2011 Dave became the first person to Stand Up Paddleboard the length of the Mississippi without motorised assistance, along the way breaking two world records, the longest distance paddled by SUP in one day, and the longest distance paddled by SUP in one journey, 2404 miles.

If you still have one remaining question, Why? Then read Dave's Philosophy of Adventure.