The thought of spending 60 or more consecutive days in a two-person vessel on the Pacific Ocean doesn’t seem to faze Megan Biging much.
Which is probably a good thing, because that’s exactly what she’s planning to do.
Biging, a Santa Monica native and current resident, will row from California to Hawaii on what she figures will be a life-changing journey.
On May 15, she and rowing partner Vicki Otmani will head up to Monterey to test their specialized boat, pack supplies and prepare for their trip. On June 4, they’ll set out for Honolulu. They hope to arrive by August.
“There are days where I think about the gravity of two months at sea, and it’s a little intimidating,” said Biging, an experienced rower. “But I’m excited about it. I have no problem with it. At this point, I’ve committed to do it, so there’s no backing out.”
As Biging and Otmani attempt to become the first North American female duo to complete the roughly 2,400-mile rowing journey unassisted, they also have an awareness mission in mind. The two are encouraging citizens to consider the impact of manmade products on the planet while raising money for Ocean Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.
“The main basis for this was to raise awareness about plastic garbage in the ocean,” Biging said. “I grew up in Santa Monica, and the ocean was a huge part of my life. Just watching the documentaries and hearing about the horrible things we’re doing to our oceans ... part of the mission is to get the word out there about single-use plastics.”
Biging wasn’t planning on joining Otmani, who has been preparing for the trip for about three years. But within the last year Otmani’s original partner backed out, leading Otmani to ask one Biging if she would fill in.
“It was an opportunity I couldn’t find a reason to say no to,” she said.
Surviving such a long and arduous journey has required meticulous planning. For daily nutrition, they’ll have dehydrated food, fruit and nuts as well as vitamins. A desalinator will allow them to process ocean water for consumption. And their vessel features a small cabin, where they’ll sleep on thin mattress pads. A GPS device will help them navigate their way across the ocean.
Biging and Otmani will likely row together as they push away from the California coast. Then, once the waters are less resistant, they’ll take turns plowing across the Pacific in two-hour increments.
Although she has never taken on this kind of challenge, Biging has rowing experience in spades. A student at St. Paul the Apostle School before attending Notre Dame Academy for high school, Biging played volleyball growing up but took up rowing in Marina Del Rey with encouragement from her father.
She was recruited to row at USC, where she became a captain of the team and helped the Trojans to sixth place at the NCAA championships in 2003 and third place at the Pac-10 championships in 2006.
Biging then continued her athletic career with the Vesper Boat Club in Philadelphia, where she met Otmani. She took up coaching crew in Pennsylvania before returning to her alma mater as an assistant in 2011. She’s leaving her job at USC for her upcoming trip.
Biging’s high school graduation present was supposed to be a family trip to Hawaii. But she qualified for a conflicting rowing event in Ohio, so her family visited the Aloha State without her.
“Now I have to row my way to Hawaii,” she said.
