About Pete

Peter van Kets, 43, confirmed hero of his wife and daughter and adrenaline-seeking adventurer par excellence, has spent the last four decades either in or on the ocean in his capacity as fisherman, diver, body boarder (South African champion), surfer, yachtsman, paddler and now ocean rower. He is a certified yachtmaster and highly competent navigator, has completed many ocean crossings as skipper and has competed in most major SA yachting events winning South African titles and offshore series. His favourite sports are kayaking and surf ski racing and he has participated in countless races winning a silver medal at the SA Marathon Champs and enduring the grueling 255 km Port Elizabeth to East London Surf Ski Challenge.

Pete is also a qualified adventure instructor and is certified to instruct in rock climbing, abseiling, adventure racing, white water kayaking, etc. He has organized a number of major sporting events in the Eastern Cape including five South African inter-schools and corporate adventure races. He was voted the Daily Dispatch’s Newsmaker of the Year 2009, was awarded the Premier’s Award as Eastern Cape Sports Star of the Year 2007 and was runner-up, with Bill Godfrey for the Salomon/Out There/Adventure Zone Sportsman of the Year award 2008.

Pete grew up in Windhoek, completed his high school at Camps Bay High and then set out to travel the world. He obtained a teaching diploma in Cape Town and began his career in education at South African College Schools (SACS) where he started the SACS Outdoor Adventure Leadership Club. He left teaching for a while to try his hand at human resources and corporate training before relocating to the Eastern Cape where he founded Inyathi African Safaris, and owned and operated a paddling school (33’ South). Thereafter he returned to education for a five-year stint at Lilyfontein School. These days, when he is not rowing, Pete is a motivational speaker who is in demand as much for his impressive bio and his self-deprecating humour as his inspiring and entertaining presentations.

Why ocean rowing? Well, when his 218th freefall parachute jump failed to produce more than a mild buzz of excitement and having overcome his prejudice against rowers (why don’t they look where they are going?) he set off from La Gomera with Bill Godfrey in December 2007. The pair won that race, after rowing Gquma Challenger 5,350 km across the Atlantic Ocean in 50 days. After vowing never to do it again, Pete found himself preparing for the next race as a solo rower, on Liberty Nyamezela. And he still thinks he’s ‘not a rower’.

Factoid: Pete speaks fluent German, some good quality Hebrew, a little Xhosa, lots of English (especially when he meets others after being starved of people-company on the ocean) and Afrikaans and some extremely suspect French.