Over 30 days at sea, more than 1 million strokes with the oars and a relentless battle against the elements: Swiss Mocean is the first Swiss team to row across the Atlantic Ocean. The challenges Laurenz, Luca, Yves and Marlin face on their way from La Gomera to Antigua include nine meter tall waves, sleep deprivation, salt rashes, and a broken rudder. There is a reason people call this the toughest rowing race on the planet.
In April 2014 the four young men decide that they are going to seriously pursue the idea of rowing across the Atlantic. At this stage, they have neither a boat nor any money and their collective experience with the ocean amounts to a couple of casual days at the beach. Against all expectations they achieve third place in the 2017/2018 edition of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, beating the previous world record by over five days. Their project gets attention from the media and results in a documentary produced by the Swiss national television (SRF) — allowing them to give 30’000 CHF to a Swiss charity in Romania in May 2018.
This challenge is the focus of their presentations. The audience can vividly imagine and understand the hardships they endured thanks to the presented footage from the middle of the Atlantic. The Team’s humorous relationship to pain loosens the mood around the presentation and inspires courage in the audience. After all, even a physical challenge like this is conquered in the right state of mind. Their story is about unconditional unity as a group, overcoming of personal limits and an unconventional division of responsibilities amongst them.