Jon White

Jon White's Olympic Journey 

 With thanks to @alicebrayphotography

 

In 2012 Jon White completed the gruelling 125mile Devizes to Westminster race. A few years later he bought a racing K1. Each small milestone was celebrated, when he managed to paddle 50 metres before falling in.

He was out on the water training six days a week, and slowly, day by day, began to see improvement.

His improvement was exponential, and it wasn’t long before he signed up for a marathon kayak race, where he crossed paths with Jim Taylor-Ross – the UK’s Epic Dealer and Team Manager of the Great Britain national surfski team.

“He just grabbed me after a race and said, ‘the flatwater stuff is good, but you’ll get a real buzz out of doing surfski.’”

“We didn’t have a clue how any of it was going to work with prosthetics and leg-length and stuff.

“The test was really to see whether I could sit in the ocean, and if I fall out, can I get back in.” It’s a test he passed, setting off a whirlwind progression.

His next paddle in a surfski was the 2019 Epic Bay Ocean Race in Exmouth.

Jon has since competed in the Icon Classic, the ICF World Championship in Portugal in 2020, the European Championships in Quiberon, France, and in Lanzarote in the Atlantic Ocean Surfski Race (ICF world cup) race venue for ICF Ocean Racing Worlds in 2021. He now competes in Div 4, Marathon racing.

Jon most recently featured in Monty Hall's BBC series Commando and is an Ambassador for the Royal Marines Charity

For Jon, Paris 2024 is the natural next step. 

 

 

Photo credits :Andrea Parkin; Monty Halls; Jade Rogers

Read more 

Home - The White House Future