Geelong local spearheads jet ski challenge across Bass Strait

GEELONG local Brendan Whitty and two of his mates decided to bypass the Spirit of Tasmania and instead made the trip home from Hobart to Port Phillip Bay on jet skis.

At the end of last month, Mr Whitty and fellow watermen Andrew Thompson from Canberra and Aaron Tarbitt from Griffith headed over to Tasmania via the Spirit of Tasmania and decided to ride the 1,100 kilometres back to Geelong on their jet skis as a personal challenge.

Carrying a215L of fuel on specially modified skis, the team rode for a total of a week, including a three-day stop at Flinders Island due to adverse weather.

The journey across Bass Strait marked the second time Whitty had done the crossing via ski, however the first time he and anyone had done the crossing back to Geelong.

“It was the second time we’d endeavored to do the crossing and we wanted to up the ante this time round by going back to Geelong.

“We’d done Apollo Bay to Hobart and back before, but noone has ever done it from Hobart to Geelong or Port Phillip Bay before, so it was a privilege to be able to do that and make it back in one piece.

“There aren’t many people that do the long-distance riding like we are doing and we have specially made ski’s to do so.”

Mr Whitty said the team on most days of the adventure were doing around eight-hour shifts on the skis, resulting in some pretty sore bodies when they’d pull into get fuel and food in different townships each night.

“We’d mostly do the eight hours on the skis, however the last day we went all the way from Flinders Island to Geelong and that was 470km, resulting in 11 and a half hours in the saddle!

“It took me days to come good… I had to hold up the yellow card at one point to tell the team to slow it down.”

Mr Whitty said it was a fantastic sense of achievement when the team arrived back into Geelong to the cheers of their families and friends.

“It was a huge achievement, and something we were very proud of and enjoyed thoroughly.

“We were glad to have the right conditions for the journey… Bass Strait can sometimes serve up some severe and difficult conditions.”

Mr Whitty laughed and said it would most likely be the last time he would do the long journey across Bass Strait.