Six months ago, Jason Lupatkin and Oivind Lorentzen were trading commodities in San Francisco and New York, respectively, when they received an interesting invitation: Would they like to team up for a 200-mile row on open water in the Mediterranean from Barcelona to Ibiza in a friendly race for the NOMAN Campaign (www.nomancampaign.org) to bring awareness and raise money for the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and Anal Cancer Foundation?
Naturally, they jumped at the opportunity.
The 24-year-old Stanford graduates (’13) are former walk-ons with the men’s rowing team who eventually became team captains. Head coach Craig Amerkhanian has always encouraged his rowers to visualize the big picture and row for a greater cause. Lupatkin and Lorentzen knew this was a challenge they had to embrace.
“It’s like his idea that fitness never stops,” Lupatkin said of Amerkhanian. “We were looking for something crazy to do this year.
“On our team, it was always about the sum of the parts, because that’s what rowing is. It was always about giving back. On the one hand, it was always just about beating Cal and it was cool to do that senior year. But on the other hand, every morning it was some kind of message about making ourselves better. You can’t really enjoy rowing for the sake of rowing. There has to be a reason you’re doing it. With that in mind, you can be a bigger contributor to society.”
Lorentzen agreed.
“I think it was really cool to do it for a cause because if you don’t have that constant motivation and support from your friends and colleagues, it’s easy to skip some training days and back out at the last minute,” he said. “But having that constant pressure and doing it for something greater than just me wanting to do it was very helpful.”
Lupatkin and Lorentzen started training last February.
“We basically shared workouts online,” said Lupatkin, a history major who attended Cambridge University after Stanford. “When we graduated, Craig gave us these heart-rate monitors – it was like a senior gift – and we both started using them to track each other’s runs and fitness. Every few weeks when Oivind was traveling in San Francisco, we would go down to the Stanford Boat House and take out a boat and train.”
Each of the two boats for the NOMAN Campaign were 24-feet long and had small cabins in front and back for cooking, sleeping and using a radio and GPS. Lupatkin and Lorentzen were joined on Team Danielle by David Hemming, 34 of Maryland, and Stephen Burton, 51 of London. They had never met before the race and rowed in one-hour on, one-hour off shifts for 70 1/2-consecutive hours until they reached the finish line in Ibiza.
The other boat, Team Isabel, consisted of five rowers who played rugby or Gaelic football. A support yacht kept track of both boats.
A similar competition was attempted last year but was aborted due to weather and strong currents.
“As I learned more about it, trained and learned the safety navigation, it became more real and you get scared about it,” said Lorentzen. “I’ve done a bunch of sailing with my father and spent a few nights at sea and know how scary, amazing and fun it can be.”
Having rowed together since their freshmen year at Stanford, it didn’t take long for Lupatkin and Lorentzen to find their rhythm.
“We knew we could get through the first 24 hours,” Lorentzen said. “It was like a long row and we’ve done lots of those. Then you hit the first night and it all becomes reality. Like, ‘Okay, we’re going to be doing this for the next three days.’ I think the biggest thing we learned is how important it is to have a routine. That kind of allowed us to go really fast during that hour. After an hour, you get really tired and it puts a lot of strain on your body.”
Especially when you’re mostly eating dry food and sleeping in spurts.
“We basically lived on Cliff Bars,” said Lupatkin, who estimated they burned about 600 calories per hour. “Even now, I’m still kind of feeling the effects of wanting to have sugar every hour. Between the two of us, we ate about 70 Cliff Bars in 70 hours.”
Also exhilarating. While the boat had running lights, it was difficult to see and there was no land in sight about 12 miles into the race. They stayed on course by checking their coordinates on their GPS every 30 minutes.
“We hit pretty bad weather on the second night,” said Lupatkin. “It got to the point where we weren’t moving because of the wind and water. The focus was just keep the boat straight.”
That, too, proved challenging. Along with the searing sun, blisters, saddle sores and seasickness.
“It was really cool at night because you could enjoy the stars,” said Lorentzen. “But it’s also freaky because you can’t see anything. You see these ships on the horizon very close to you. The biggest danger is hitting the ship’s wake the wrong way because it can just flip you over.”
That nearly occurred more than once.
“There were a couple times when crude oil cargo ships didn’t see us and we were lucky we didn’t hit,” Lupatkin said. “And then you have to deal with the wakes and the wakes can be up to a nautical mile wide and 15 feet high. For every time we saw dolphins, there were probably three times when we thought there was an equally horrifying moment where a ship was bearing down on us.”
Once the race started, Lupatkin and Lorentzen never saw Team Isabel … except on their GPS.
“We knew we had a good lead, but it was pretty surreal being in a boat that long,” said Lupatkin. “We definitely drew on a lot of stuff we did in college. There would be moments when Oivind and I would sprint a little bit. We would just keep saying, ‘Can’t stop, won’t stop,’ which is something Craig used to say to us.”
Officially, Team Danielle won by four hours.
“The last four hours were mentally the easiest, but physically very difficult because we sprinted the whole night,” Lorentzen said. “Your body kind of crashes and you can barely move your muscles.”
The boat was met in the Ibiza Harbor by dozens of spectators, friends and foundation members, and all celebrated with champagne on the dock. Thanks to pledges, the boats raised about $180,000 for HPV.
Lupatkin readily admitted it was a total team effort.
“At the end of the day, we were only rowing for half of it,” he said. “This isn’t something where you give the ball to LeBron (James). Not that either of us are on par with LeBron in rowing talent. But it’s not like one person can carry the team.”
Lupatkin and Lorentzen credited Stanford for helping them accomplish such a lofty goal and unforgettable experience.
“Rowing at Stanford made me want to do things at the highest level that I could do things,” Lorentzen said. “We could have lazied it out the last day, but there’s not much satisfaction unless you put all your effort and heart into it. That’s something that was ingrained in us through Craig and the program.”
Added Luptakin, “When I was at Stanford, you were always taught to be a contributing part of the big picture. There’s an interesting humility. I would be on campus and Andrew Luck would walk by and nobody would turn their heads because it was like, ‘Okay, Andrew does his football part, I’ve got to work on my material science project.’
“Part of the humility that comes with being a Stanford student-athlete is it’s not about you. At the end of the day, your sport has to be a means to an end. There has to be something more that benefits other people. I think that’s the real value. You’re here to improve yourself to help society.”
