Paddling duo take on 1,000-mile wilderness kayak race

A pair of 20-year-olds are set to become the youngest ever duo to take part in the world's longest kayak race.

Oliver Smee, from Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, and Ben Watkins, from Marlow in Buckinghamshire, will paddle 1,000 miles (1,600km) through the Canadian and Alaskan wilderness next month.

The Yukon 1000 will see Smee and Watkins kayak for 18 hours a day for up to 10 days, all whilst having to plot their own route and be completely self-sufficient.

The best friends are both taking on the challenge to raise money for charities that have supported their grandparents in recent years, including Race Against Dementia.

"Our why is the most important part of what we're doing," Watkins said.

"To be honest, if we're going to finish this thing, that will be the reason why we finish."

The pair are hoping to raise £10,000 for various charities, including Sue Ryder - which supported two of Smee's grandparents before their deaths last year.

"Both of them [were] incredibly influential people to my life," he said of his grandma and step-grandfather, who died in September and December 2025.

"Sue Ryder were the people that were helping them out the entire time - the fact that they were willing to put in so much and not really ask for anything in return is incredible."

"It's just nice now to be able to raise money for something that I'm so appreciative of."

Similarly, Watkins is racing in memory of his deceased grandfather and for his Grandma Evie - who currently has dementia.

"She's still with us in the capacity that dementia provides - it's the most horrific illness ever," he said.

"I always refer to our boat as a hard place to sit because it's agony, but the two hardest places I've ever sat are next to my grandfather when he was passing, and next to my grandmother when she's going through her fight against dementia."

"In that process, when you're sat next to someone who you share so much in common with and you're watching them slip away, you learn a lot about yourself."

"So much of what I am is what they've given me."

They are now gearing up to put that motivation into practice, as they get ready to take on the expedition.

Smee said the idea to apply for the race came whilst preparing for a smaller challenge, a 125-mile overnight race from Devizes, in Wiltshire, to Westminster.

Initially, they signed up for the shorter version of the Yukon, which is only 400 miles, before Smee's family gave the pair an idea.

"I brought Ben over to my dad's house, and he [Watkin's dad] said: 'Oh why would you do the 400 - you should go for it and do the 1000'.

"So Ben goes off and puts in an application, then we get an interview somehow, then we get accepted somehow, so now we're here."

They beat more than 6,000 applicants to be selected for the race with only 30 teams taking part in the challenge.

Smee said the pair had been kayaking "on and off" for the past two or three years before "really starting to take it seriously" last September.

"Taking it seriously to us is really an all-or-nothing situation - so I think we've been doing up to 150km (93 miles) a week since then."

During the race they are set to encounter sleep deprivation the threat of bears and adverse weather conditions.

But the biggest concern raised by Smee was that he would have to share a boat for 10 days with his best friend: "I don't know how I feel about that."

On the other hand, he said he was looking forward to seeing the "really unique" landscape through which they will traverse: "At stages of the race it will look like the moon.

"The river will be a mile-wide at places, maybe even larger, which to a European and English person on the River Thames that just doesn't make any sense."

The pair will be the youngest to ever take on the challenge, which Watkins said was "an honour".

"The Yukon is a special race for us because it's a race of generations - it's an old timers race," he said.

"The younger you are, usually the better the stronger the faster you are - but this race turns that on its head.

"We're less experienced and we've got more gumption in that boat than any other team there but we're fighting against an uphill battle, because we've really got to just hone our minds."

He added that the pair were "quite literally" the race's underdogs.

Smee and Watkin's attempt at the Yukon 1000 race begins on 10 July in Whitehorse, Canada, and the pair hope it will conclude at the Dalton Highway Bridge in Alaska 10 days later.