About Howard Fairbank and his Casio:
In 2004, after leaving a very successful and diversely adventurous business life as corporate executive and entrepreneur, Howard made a radical move to pursue his dream of ‘Simply Adventure’, a simple wandering way of life, centred around sailing, cycling, and sea kayaking adventures, and one far removed from the capitalist and material world. In 2009, after years of solo sailing across the oceans of the world (Two solo transatlantic crossings), and cycling the continents of the world, including the 12 000 km from Cairo to Cape Town, he moved his focus to Polar adventure. In 2010, together with three others, he completed an unassisted 750 km trek from Canada to the Geographic North Pole, joining an elite group of fewer than 60 people who have done this. This being considered by one of the most difficult challenges on the planet, today, rated by those few who have done all three, significantly more difficult than Everest or the South Pole. In doing so he became the first South African and at the time the oldest person ever to do it. Last year, his love for the purity of the solo adventure challenge, took him to Antarctica and the South Pole, where he became the first South African, and 13th and person, to complete a solo, unassisted and unsupported 900 km expedition from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole. But Howard’s life has not been about conquests....
His ‘Simply Adventure’ way of life, was free of sponsors, or the need to compete, or conquests, the above, globally significant adventures, were merely the ‘work’ part of a unique way of life where embracing the holistic adventure journey was primary goal, the adventure endpoint goals merely being set to define the journey. Up to 2011, he hadn’t owned a house since 1997, a car since 2004, and had not lived in one place for more than three months at a time, making thousands of different places is home, most merely days, as his wandering life took him around the globe.
For all this he clearly needed a special watch, and more than just a time piece! His Casio Protrek has been his faithful companion on every piece of this amazing journey, playing vital role of keeping him ‘on local time’, to waking him up every 20 minutes in the rigors of solo sailing, daily waking the North Pole team up in temperatures as low as -55 C, and finally getting up in the mornings on time each day of his solo South Pole expedition. It’s not just been about time keeping, his watch has provided him with vital elevation and ambient temperature information, whether that be the Poles, crossing the equator, cycling the roof of Africa, or canoeing the Yukon river. His Casio has truly been and indispensible, part of his adventure life and its successes. He has never found a better watch for the job.... Opeartes in the most extreme conditions, and also vitally underwater, and the light feature was critical in the darkness of a stormy black ocean night, or the darkness of the arctic in February.
For more info on Howard, checkout online the stories from some of his adventures:
2007: Cairo to Cape Town Bicycle Adventure: http://blog.mailasail.com/howfair
2007: Sailing Solo across the North Atlantic: http://blog.mailasail.com/howardsolone
2010: Canada to the North Pole: http://canadatothenorthpole.blogspot.com/
2011: Canoeing the Yukon with a Blind Partner: http://theyukonblind.blogspot.com/
2011: South Pole Solo Expedition: http://southpolesolohowardfairbank.blogspot.com/
I have attached some personal profile and action shots to complete the picture!
