Alex de Sain – Amsterdam, The Netherlands -All round extreme sportsman.

I have been into extreme sports since childhood. Skateboarding, wind surfing and body boarding, I have loved it all since I was 8 years old.

After my mandatory service with the Dutch Army Special Forces for two years, which trained me to be a survivor in many aspects of my life, upon leaving the army this training was a great benefit when I travelled the world as a professional IT specialist whilst in the meantime being a surf team rider for several big brands. In my younger years this was the excitement that I needed but now that I have gotten older I found the excitement in another direction pushing myself to new endurance levels. Whilst in South Africa I was introduced to the sport of stand up paddle boarding and fell instantly in love. I have taken a new approach to the way I approach sports but my sport wanderlust is still burning strong

In 2016 I did my first long distance Stand Up paddling in the SUP 11 city tour. This was a 220 km race over 5 days. I felt I was capable of so much more so in 2017 I did the SUP 11 city tour twice, the nonstop and the 5-days, with extreme Dutch weather and this meant I was only the second person to achieve this but also planted a seed for more. Being a Naish team rider made this an approachable goal because of the support and equipment that comes with it. The 220km non-stop and the 5-days tour became a 440KM race in total.

I love every minute of my sports and taking it to the next level and passing on my knowledge and experiences to others, which lead me into a new adventure of starting a business ‘Extremely Insain ‘ was born. At Extremely Insain, based at Vinkeveen ,Netherlands, we train people of all ages in the techniques of SUP while having fun and increasing their fitness level. We train them to the next level with Race training, HIIT training

After the 2017 Sup 11 city tour I was approached by Joanne Hamilton-Vale to join her team to participate in the Yukon 1000. At the bottom of the article was written ‘No one yet has paddled the Yukon River Quest, Yukon 1000 and Yukon 360 all in one year’ immediately my new goal was set.