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TCP Presenter Roz Savage Becomes First Female to Complete Solo Pacific Row

06/03/10

Roz Savage, TCP Presenter, environmental campaigner and solo ocean rower, today became the first woman to row solo across the Pacific when she arrived in Madang, Papua New Guinea. Her 7,000-mile journey started from under San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and continued on for 245 days, three million oar strokes, and three squid on deck. Her voyage began in 2008 and she completed the feat in three stages, stopping at Hawaii and Kiribati. Sir Richard Branson hailed her journey as “Heroic, epic, inspiring, historic.” 
 
Roz’s commitment to the environment led her to become a presenter for The Climate Project, which she trained for at the North American Summit in May 2009. Never one to take a break, in the Fall of 2009 Roz set out with fellow TCP Presenter Alison Gannett and four others to walk 200 miles across Europe, carrying the (inflatable) world on their shoulders. Their mission was to deliver a message urging action on climate change to the UNFCCC Copenhagen conference.

A latecomer to the life of adventure, Roz worked at an investment bank for 11 years, before realizing in her mid-thirties that there might be more to life than a steady income and a house in the suburbs. She gave up her highflying management consultancy job in 2004 and resolved to set out in a new life direction - in a rowboat. She made the decision after writing two versions of her own obituary – one based on her former life, and the second based on a dream. Roz has been living for that dream ever since. In 2005, she competed in the 3,000-mile Atlantic Rowing Race. She was the first solo woman ever to compete in the race and the sixth woman to row solo across any ocean. She has now crossed both the Pacific and Atlantic - the world’s two largest oceans.

Roz has asked people to take action on the top environmental issues facing the world. She has urged her followers to reduce their use of plastic simply by switching to reusable grocery bags, coffee mugs and water bottles. Leading by example, she said: "My Pacific row shows how everyone can make a difference. Each of the three legs of my journey has taken a million oar strokes, adding up to something truly significant.” 

Roz saw for herself the damage to the environment when she rowed through the North Pacific Garbage Patch – plastic pollution covering an area of ocean roughly twice the size of Texas. In the third and final stage across the Pacific, Savage has rallied her followers to become Eco Heroes themselves, by launching EcoHeroes - a social game and an environmental challenge to do at least one “Green Deed” each day.

Along with being a TCP Presenter, Roz Savage is a United Nations Climate Hero, a BLUE Ambassador for the BLUE Project, and an Athlete Ambassador for 350.org. She has been listed amongst the Top 20 Great British Adventurers by the Daily Telegraph, and the Top 10 Adventure Twitters by Outside Magazine. Her book, Rowing The Atlantic: Lessons Learned on the Open Ocean, is published by Simon & Schuster.


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