Est 1998

Challenges

A TAWR challenge is a stretch of water, a way of crossing it, and a reason. The reason is always the same: every challenge raises money for Ocean Therapy.

TAWR98

In 1998 a crew of windsurfers crossed the Atlantic from St John's, Newfoundland to Weymouth. Louie Hubbard was one of them.

The recorded route, the boats and the crew are being written up properly. The line shown on the map is the great circle between the two harbours until that is confirmed.

Why it is being run again

To raise money for Ocean Therapy, which takes young people dealing with anxiety, trauma or poor mental health out on the water.

The challenges are the fundraising. The therapy is the point.

The challenges

  • 1998

    TAWR98

    A crew of windsurfers crossed the Atlantic, St John's to Weymouth.

  • September 2026

    TAWR26

    A downwind crossing on the Sussex coast, Bracklesham Bay to Littlehampton. Invite only.

  • September 2027

    TAWR27

    The same crossing, opened up: a series of challenges on one weekend in Littlehampton.

  • 23–24 September 2028

    The global weekend

    Thirty years after TAWR98 finished, on the water everywhere at once.

2028 — a global weekend

The headline weekend is 23–24 September 2028, thirty years since TAWR98 finished. The plan is for people across the world's oceans and blue spaces to take to the water on the same weekend — by kite, wing or sail; paddled, pumped, surfed, rowed or swum — with every tracked journey counting towards one shared distance.

Littlehampton is the UK flagship venue and the place the tracked data streams to. The rest is a network rather than a franchise: other venues, national associations, watersports centres and brands run their own weekend under the same banner, and the challenges you see on the map now are the first sections of that route.

This is Littlehampton, 2026. If you run events somewhere else on the water and want to be part of 2028, get in touch.

Run your own challenge

A challenge does not have to be a crossing, or big. A stretch of coast on a paddleboard, a loop of a lake on a wing, a swim you have been meaning to do — any distance, any discipline, anywhere, under the TAWR name and in aid of Ocean Therapy.

Tell us where, when and how, and it goes on the map beside the others. When it is done, send us the track from your watch or phone and the line draws itself.

Register a challenge