John Jacoby

John has been involved with paddling for many years with multiple and varied accomplishments domestically and internationally. Amongst other honours, John was a finalist for Australian of the Year 1988.

John is a four-time World Canoe Marathon Kayaking Champion, a six-time Australian Champion over the distances of 10km to 42km and a three-time World Multi-Sport Champion.

Apart from his competition achievements, John joined a group of paddlers, including Chris Porter, Andrew Maffett and Jim Bucirde, all experienced sea kayakers, to circumnavigate the subantarctic island of South Georgia in January 2015. Their 500km paddle around this wilderness oasis, 1500km north-east of the Antarctic peninsula, saw them encounter massive icebergs, powerful ocean swells and ferocious storms. Despite the challenges, they managed to complete their journey faster than the three teams who had circled South Georgia previously and having made such good time, they then traversed the island. They followed in the footsteps of Sir Ernest Shackleton, who landed there in 1916, and were the first team to have completed both a crossing and circumnavigation of the island. The group was named Australian Geographic Adventurers of the Year 2015 and received the 2015 Australian Canoeing Olegas Truchanas Canoeing Award. John continued to amaze us with his passion for paddling when he ventured across the Bass Strait with army veteran Brian Freeman in 2015. The pair completed the journey to raise awareness and fundraise for wounded soldiers and families of the Fallen.