Cas and Jonesy

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Cas and Jonesy
Cas (James Castrission) and Jonesy (Justin Jones) antarctic attempt; Sydney International Airport (6205504782).jpg
BornJames John Castrission
(1982-03-14) 14 March 1982 (age 42)
Sydney
Justin Roderick Jones
(1983-06-20) 20 June 1983 (age 40)
Sydney
Occupation(s)Adventurers, endurance athletes, motivational speakers, writer and film producer
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Cas and Jonesy are an Australian duo known for being explorers, endurance athletes, motivational speakers, as well as a writer and documentary producer respectively. Their given names are James John Castrission (born 14 March 1982) and Justin Roderick Jones (born 20 June 1983).

Contents

In 2008 they kayaked 3318 km across the Tasman Sea from Australia to New Zealand, becoming the first to do so. [1] [2]

On 26 January 2012, Castrission and Jones completed the first unsupported polar expedition from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back without mechanical assistance. After 89 days they made it back to the coast, having skied 2275 km while towing sleds full of supplies. [3] [4] They arrived alongside Aleksander Gamme who had waited for them so they could all finish together.

Early life

Castrission was born in Sydney, the eldest of three children to parents John and Vivienne. Both sets of grandparents migrated to Australia from Greece after WWII.[ citation needed ] He was educated at Knox Grammar School and then attended The University of Sydney where he undertook a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance & Accounting). He is married to his wife Mia and has a son. They reside in Blackheath, Blue Mountains.[ citation needed ]

Jones was born 20 June 1983 the youngest of three children to parents Rod and Chintra Jones. He lived in Indonesia until he was 11, before attending boarding school at The Kings School Sydney. He later moved to Knox Grammar School. Jones completed his tertiary education at The University of New South Wales where he studied a Bachelor of Science (Honors Physiology). He currently resides in Tasmania with his wife Lauren and two daughters, Morgan and Dylan. [5]

Castrission and Jones met when they were 15 and 16 respectively. Castrission 's family was Jones's home family in Sydney, assigned to him while he attended boarding school.[ citation needed ] They became friends, sharing a common love of the outdoors. They participated in cadets together and upon leaving school, they began attempting a number of bushwalks and kayak expeditions together, while working separately in various roles. Castrission worked at Deloitte as an accountant, then management Consultant (2003–2007). Jones worked as a research assistance in a science laboratory (2004– 2007) and various pubs in Sydney.[ citation needed ]

In 2007, Castrission and Jones decided to work full-time on their plans to kayak across the Tasman Sea. Since then, they have published books, filmed documentaries and given public speaking seminars based on their frequent expeditions. [6]

Endurance events

Crossing the Ditch

As Cas & Jonesy they became the first people to cross the Tasman Sea from Australia to New Zealand in a kayak. [7] They set off from Forster, New South Wales on 13 November 2007 and arrived at Ngamotu Beach in New Plymouth, New Zealand on 13 January 2008, taking a total of 60 days, 20 hours and 50 minutes for crossing. [8]

Cas and Jonesy travelled in a double kayak named Lot 41, custom designed by Rob Feloy. [9] They transmitted podcasts and photographs during the trip. [10] [11]

Crossing the Ice

On 26 January 2012, Cas & Jonesy succeeded in skiing from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back without assistance. [12] [13] It took 89 days and 2275 km of skiing, in what was the longest unsupported polar expedition of all time (the pair also finished along with Norwegian adventurer Aleksander Gamme, who had waited for them). [14] Pulling everything they needed on a sled behind them and facing temperatures as low as – 40 C, they endured frostbite, crevasses, equipment failure and food deprivation. [15]

The pair had almost no skiing experience before their expedition and spent months researching and consulting with experts from all over the world. They trained in the Arctic and in New Zealand, acclimatizing themselves to the extreme cold they would experience during the adventure. The Australian adventurers are the youngest team to ever reach the South Pole. [16]

Okefenokee Swamp

In 2013, Cas and Jonesy completed the world's first on-foot segment crossing of the Okefenokee swamp, the largest blackwater swamp in North America. [17] The pair were filming a pilot for National Geographic titled "Surviving Wild America", in which they retraced a 9-mile trail that had not been used in 40 years. They slept in hammocks above the swamp, travelled in blow up rafts and experienced numerous encounters with alligators, cotton mouth snakes and black bears

Bass Strait

The pair completed an unsupported Eastern route crossing in 9 days, travelling 340 km by kayak in 2006. The Bass Strait is the sea strait which separates Tasmania from the Australian mainland. [18]

Murray River

Cas & Jonesy completed the world's first traverse of the Murray River, Australia's longest river, by kayak. They spent 49 days in 2001 and 2002 travelling a total of 2,560 km, raising $9,500 for the annual fundraiser Kayak for Kids. [19]

Media

Published in January 2010, the book Crossing the Ditch tells the story of Cas and Jonesy's adventure across the Tasman, paddling more than 2000 km kayak from Australia to New Zealand.

Extreme South was written by Castrission following the couple's South Pole excursion and was published in July 2012. [20]

In the documentary Crossing The Ditch (aka 62 Days at Sea), Jones uses footage recorded during Cas and Jonesy's crossing of the Tasman Sea to tell the story of their kayak journey from Australia to New Zealand. The documentary features interviews from both adventurers. [21]

In his second documentary, Crossing the Ice, Jones uses recorded footage and interviews to tell the story of the pair's journey over 1,140 km to the South Pole and back again, and the quest to become the first humans to achieve the feat unassisted. [22]

Charities

Cas and Jonesy, under the Cultural Gifts Act, donated all the expedition equipment from their two major expeditions to museums in Sydney. In 2010, the Australian National Maritime Museum acquired and showcased equipment from their 'Crossing the Ditch' expedition, and as of 2018 it remains part of the collection. [23] [24]

The Powerhouse Museum accepted the equipment from their 'Crossing the Ice' expedition, and as of 2018 items are on display in the Expeditions section. [25] [26] [27]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bass Strait</span> Sea strait between the Australian mainland and Tasmania

Bass Strait is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland. The strait provides the most direct waterway between the Great Australian Bight and the Tasman Sea, and is also the only maritime route into the economically prominent Port Phillip Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tasman Sea</span> Marginal sea of the South Pacific between Australia and New Zealand

The Tasman Sea is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about 2,000 km (1,200 mi) across and about 2,800 km (1,700 mi) from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, who in 1642 was the first known person to cross it. British explorer Lieutenant James Cook later extensively navigated the Tasman Sea in the 1770s during his three voyages of exploration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sea kayak</span> Light boat that is paddled

A sea kayak or touring kayak is a kayak used for the sport of paddling on open waters of lakes, bays, and oceans. Sea kayaks are seaworthy small boats with a covered deck and the ability to incorporate a spray deck. They trade off the manoeuvrability of whitewater kayaks for higher cruising speed, cargo capacity, ease of straight-line paddling (tracking), and comfort for long journeys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trans-Tasman</span> Adjective used to signify the relationship between Australia and New Zealand

Trans-Tasman is an adjective used primarily to signify the relationship between Australia and New Zealand. The term refers to the Tasman Sea, which lies between the two countries. For example, trans-Tasman commerce refers to commerce between these two countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australia–New Zealand relations</span> Bilateral relations

Foreign relations between neighbouring countries Australia and New Zealand, also referred to as Trans-Tasman relations, are extremely close. Both countries share a British colonial heritage as antipodean Dominions and settler colonies, and both are part of the core Anglosphere. New Zealand sent representatives to the constitutional conventions which led to the uniting of the six Australian colonies but opted not to join. In the Boer War and in both world wars, New Zealand soldiers fought alongside Australian soldiers. In recent years the Closer Economic Relations free trade agreement and its predecessors have inspired ever-converging economic integration. Despite some shared similarities, the cultures of Australia and New Zealand also have their own sets of differences and there are sometimes differences of opinion which some have declared as symptomatic of sibling rivalry. This often centres upon sports and in commercio-economic tensions, such as those arising from the failure of Ansett Australia and those engendered by the formerly long-standing Australian ban on New Zealand apple imports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Jarvis</span> Environmental scientist, explorer, film-maker and author

Timothy John Jarvis is an Australian explorer, climber, author, environmental activist, and documentary filmmaker. He is best known for his numerous Antarctic expeditions, particularly his attempted Antarctic crossing in 1999 and the period recreations of historical treks by Sir Douglas Mawson and Sir Ernest Shackleton.

<i>Alone Across Australia</i> 2004 Australian film

Alone Across Australia is a fifty-two-minute documentary released in 2003, which is based on adventurer Jon Muir's solo and unsupported journey across Australia in 2001. The motion picture introduces Muir and his exploits all over the world, mainly focusing on his journey throughout the Australian continent, from Porte Augusta in South Australia to Burketown in Queensland.

Andrew McAuley was an Australian mountaineer and sea kayaker. He is presumed to have died following his disappearance at sea while attempting to kayak 1600 km (994 mi) across the Tasman Sea from Australia to New Zealand in February 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Caffyn</span>

Paul Caffyn is a sea kayaker based in Runanga on the West Coast of New Zealand. He has completed a number of supported, unsupported, solo and group expeditions by sea kayak in various locations around the world. He has been described as follows by John Dowd:

Amongst sea kayakers Paul Caffyn is almost in a class of his own. For the longest time after he finished his awesome solo circumnavigation of Australia the silence was deafening: few of his peers knew the significance of what he had done, and perhaps those who understood felt lost in his shadows. Not only is Paul's Australian adventure a pinnacle for sea kayaking, it should eventually be recognized as one of the great small voyages of recent history along with those of Slocum, Shackleton and Franz Romer."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crossing the Ditch</span> 2007-8 kayaking expedition

Thirty years after the first person rowed solo across the Tasman Sea in 1977, Crossing the Ditch was the effort of Justin Jones and James Castrission, known as Cas and Jonesy, to become the first to cross the sea and travel from Australia to New Zealand by sea kayak. Setting off from Forster, New South Wales on 13 November 2007 in their custom-designed kayak Lot 41, the two-man expedition succeeded after previous attempts, including the fatal journey of Andrew McAuley, had been unsuccessful. They arrived at Ngamotu Beach, in New Plymouth, New Zealand on 13 January 2008.

A ditch is a small depression created to channel water.

Robert James "Bob" McKerrow, a native of New Zealand, is a humanitarian, mountaineer, polar traveller, writer and poet. He currently works as Country Coordinator for the Swiss Red Cross in the Philippines working on the Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) operation. When the Indian Ocean tsunami struck on 26 December 2004, McKerrow worked in India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia, coordinating Red Cross programmes for people affected by the tsunami for an eight-year period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Pole</span> Southernmost point on Earth

The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipodally on the opposite side of Earth from the North Pole, at a distance of 20,004 km in all directions. It is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freya Hoffmeister</span> German business owner and athlete (born 1964)

Freya Hoffmeister is a German business owner and athlete who holds several sea kayaking endurance records. In 2009 she completed a circumnavigation of Australia solo and unassisted, becoming the first woman and only the second person to do so. Freya holds the fastest record for completing this trip On 3 May 2015, she became the first person to solo circumnavigate the continent of South America.

Adrian Hayes is a British record-breaking polar explorer and adventurer, best known for reaching the three extreme points of the Earth—the Three Poles Challenge—which involved walking all the way to the North Pole, South Pole and summiting Mount Everest, all in the shortest period of time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis-Philippe Loncke</span> Belgian explorer, adventurer and motivational speaker

Louis-Philippe Loncke is a Belgian explorer, adventurer and motivational speaker. In 2008, he achieved the world first crossing on foot of the length of the Simpson desert, which was a North to South traverse passing through its geographical center. In 2018, he traversed Tasmania during the austral winter without resupplies and was nicknamed the Mad Belgian by some Australians.

<i>Solo</i> (2008 film) 2008 Australian film

Solo is a 2008 documentary film directed by David Michod and Jennifer Peedom. It narrates the story of Australian adventurer Andrew McAuley who attempted a solo kayak crossing from Tasmania to New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olly Hicks</span> British adventurer

Oliver "Olly" Hicks is a British ocean rower, kayaker, explorer and inspirational speaker. He holds three world records for adventure. He is best known for his solo ocean rows and extreme kayak voyages. He first made the headlines after his solo trans-Atlantic voyage in 2005 when he became the first and currently only person to row from America to England solo and the youngest person to row any ocean solo. Hicks has rowed and paddled over 7,000 miles on ocean expeditions since 2005. Over 6,000 miles and 220 days alone at sea.

Aleksander Gamme is a Norwegian adventurer, polar explorer, researcher, author and public speaker.

References

  1. ↑ "Sea To Summit – Cas and Jonesy". Archived from the original on 27 July 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  2. ↑ "Sail World – Crossing the Ditch team irons out problems- Cas and Jonesy, conquerors of the Murray, Tasman and South Pole".
  3. ↑ "Australian Geographic to the South Pole and Back". Archived from the original on 26 July 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  4. ↑ "Australian Climbing Festival Crossing the Ice". Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  5. ↑ "Australian Traveller – Cas and Jonesy, conquerors of the Murray, the Tasman and the South Pole".
  6. ↑ "ICMI – Cas and Jonesy".
  7. ↑ "Sixty Minutes MSN". Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  8. ↑ "Sony Press Release".
  9. ↑ "Paddle NSW". Archived from the original on 4 May 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  10. ↑ "World Expeditions". Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  11. ↑ "Rush Labs". Archived from the original on 25 February 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  12. ↑ "Men's Fitness Magazine". Archived from the original on 25 July 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  13. ↑ "Kythera Family".
  14. ↑ "Nat Geo TV". Archived from the original on 8 August 2014.
  15. ↑ "ABC.net".
  16. ↑ "News.com.au".
  17. ↑ "National Geographic". Archived from the original on 25 July 2014.
  18. ↑ "RCSA".
  19. ↑ "The Age".
  20. ↑ James Castrission (31 July 2012). Extreme South. Hachette Australia. ISBN   9780733627989.
  21. ↑ "Crossing the Ditch". Archived from the original on 8 July 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  22. ↑ "Crossing the Ice". Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  23. ↑ "New Acquisitions – trans-Tasman kayak, Lot 41". Australian National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  24. ↑ "Lot 41" . Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  25. ↑ "Powerhouse Museum". Archived from the original on 27 July 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  26. ↑ "Tent Pegs - Powerhouse Museum". MAAS.
  27. ↑ Margaret Simpson (4 March 2015). "Surviving in Antarctica – Cas and Jonesy' contemporary equipment". MAAS. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
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