Olly Hicks grew up on the coast messing about in boats as a small boy. No one could have guessed that youthful hobby would lead him to become one of Britain’s foremost young adventurers.
Olly is the only person to have rowed alone from America to England and from Tasmania to New Zealand earning several unique world records along the way. He has developed innovative techniques to make long ocean passages in a sea kayak and then lead 2 world first voyages.
To date, his expeditions total over 24,000 miles across land and sea. At the age of 23, he completed his first record-breaking adventure with a 4,000-mile solo row across the Atlantic, which is yet still to be matched. Four years later he completed the first ever row from Tasmania to New Zealand, another 2,000 miles alone in the middle of the deep blue. This was part of a so-called failed attempt to circumnavigate the globe, again on his own on a rowing boat, only succumbing to technical difficulties with steering. Not to be beaten, he is currently planning his next attempt, which he will begin in 2018, spend the whole of 2019 at sea, and return in 2020.
Since his last attempt, he has completed the Fastnet Yacht race, kayaked the North Sea, passed a gruelling selection process into the army airborne reserve and led a 66 day, 1,500 miles voyage from Greenland to Scotland by sea kayak to prove that the same journey may have been made by Inuits in the 17th Century.
With his next great adventure in his sights, Olly already has future expeditions pencilled in, including conquering the 7 summits, solo polar expeditions and a unique circumnavigation.
Olly utilises what he has learnt on the oceans, in the deserts and polar ice caps and on his sponsorship raising rounds to deliver original and gripping presentations always leaving the audience with a useful ‘take-away’ message and skills transferable to the business environment.
Olly is down to earth, engaging and will make his talks relate to his audience. He tailors his talk for your particular requirements and desired outcomes with a valuable and actionable message to take away. His message is one of individual empowerment; we are all ordinary until we do something extraordinary. The delivery style will be thought-provoking and humorous and pitched at just the right mix for your event. In a business context, they serve well to empower sales and marketing departments, build team cohesion, develop cultures of resilience, or recover from setbacks or failure.
