FULL RACE- Port Townsend to Ketchikan
Team name: Team Take Me To The Volcano
Web: https://www.facebook.com/TeamTakeMeToTheVolcano
Team captain: Matt Johnson
Total crew: 1
Hometown: Seattle
Race vessel: 20′ custom trimaran
Auxillary propulsion: pedal drive
R2AK cred: Stage 1 participant onboard Team Puffin (2015 bio here)
BIO: One of the surprises in the first R2AK was the development of really effective pedal drives for small boats. Some were off the shelf, some were built out of bike parts, some were designed and fabricated from scratch, but all of them surprised folks who watched these boats cruise along at 3-4 knots under pedal power alone. It led one to muse that in a flat calm year, a light boat with a pro-cyclist might surprise a few people. Apparently great minds think alike, which means the rest of them must think like we do.
Team Take Me to the Volcano (which is a quote from a movie but we think sounds best when you say it to the tune of “Take me out to the Ball Game”) plucked the pedal powered light boat idea out of the hive mind and set to work. It was an inevitable conclusion: in addition to a life of paddling outrigger canoes surf skis, sailing, rowing, and working on the waters between Seattle and Alaska, he’s already designed and built sailing and pedaled boats and was extra muscle for stage one of last year’s R2AK. As add on crew, we really only knew him from his T-shirt order (XL), but it turns out he was a ringer. The cherry on top of his mound of watery accomplishments is that he’s a professional cyclist. Like, a good one. A really good one. 11 national championships, two national records.
Matt is like a seafaring Lance Armstrong, but with more testicles and less blood doping.
In addition to getting paid to shave his legs and wear spandex, Matt also rode for “fun”, including an unsupported 1,900 mile off road bike trip from San Diego to Mexico City. Race to Alaska is basically the same thing, but in a boat, and to Alaska- how hard could it be? For the race he’s designing and building his own one man pedaled powered trimaran, as far as we know it will be the first of it’s kind- if you follow the logic of the first paragraph, this means it’s either an incredible or horrible idea.
Welcome to the race Team Take Me To The Volcano, live stronger.