Hundreds of thousands of migrants entered Germany after former Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the borders in 2015 to refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond.
I was in England ready to paddle the English channel to France. With lorry trucks, and vessels being stopped in all locations for security checks to see if refugees were hiding in their vehicles, I needed a new plan.
I spoke with my boat Captain Tom who was going to escort me across the channel, I called him two days before the planned crossing and he was blind drunk on the phone. I would later come to see that he is a full blown alcoholic.
"Tom - have you seen the news?" We cant paddle across from Dover, England to France as we will get pulled over and escorted back. Tom paused and in a slurry voice back, he said "I know a secret way, it wont be 33km like we planned, it will be 50km!"
A secret way across the English Channel! this guy was drunk. 2 days later I met Tom in the sleepy town of Hastings, UK. Tom looked very hungover, and we were off on a secret path to France, with the biggest refugee catastrophe's my generation has ever seen, but I had no other option, so I continued on.
I started paddling from Hastings, UK for the 50km journey to France, my planned day come in action as a beautiful tailwind kicked in with the tide running with me. I was surfing across the English Channel having the best time of my life and Captain Tom was drinking Scotch on the boat having his best time of his life.
We made it to France in 3 hours 40 mins!
I put the surf ski on Captain Tom's boat and was excited for the boat ride return to England. Tom, quickly replied alright son, we have to kill 4 hours for the tide, so let's hit the pub. 8 pints later, I was as drunk as Tom in France as everyone else was glued to the TV's watching the refugee drama.
Tom and I made the 3 hour bouncy boat ride back to Hastings, and when we arrived, Tom immediately invited me back to his local pub where we drunk another 8 pints and told stories of us out running the Coastal Guard, helicopters and planes chasing us, big sharks circling us and any other grand story we could invent to the locals in the pub.