Ocean rower Duncan Roy sets sights on Pacific record, finding a sense of identity and purpose in the challenge
- Duncan Roy is a member of team Latitude 35, four men who all hold ocean rowing world records and intent on picking up one more
When Duncan Roy rows across an ocean, it is about more than the physical challenge. Since he first rowed the Atlantic from Spain to South America, from December 2017 to February 2018, he has found a community that he lacked since being medically discharged from the military.
“It’s the sense of purpose more than anything,” Roy, 30, said. “In the military you have this huge sense of identity and purpose. But when I left everything I worked so hard towards in a team to achieve a task that is far greater than you, I lost.”
“The ocean rowing community gives me this sense of belonging. That’s what keeps me coming back,” Roy, British, said.
He rowed the Atlantic again in December 2018 to January 2019, from the Canary Islands to Antigua as part of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Now he has his eyes set on a different ocean.
Roy is part of a four-man team, Latitude 35 – along with American Jason Caldwell, Angus Collins and Angus Barton, both Britons – entered in the Great Pacific Race (GPR), from San Francisco to Hawaii, beginning in the first week of June. But this time, the star-studded team has grand ambitions. Each member already holds a world record and is intent on claiming another.
