CORONADO, Calif. (KGTV) — The inaugural Around the World Paddle Classic took place in Coronado Saturday, offering participants the chance to train like Navy SEALs on a 13-mile race using boats similar to those used during SEAL training.
A shorter 3-mile course was also available for kayakers and paddle boarders.
The event honored two fallen Navy SEALs, Chris Chambers and Nathan Gage Ingram, who died in the Arabian Sea during a mission to locate illegal Iranian-made weapons. The race was started by Ingram’s wife.
“In basic underwater demolition seal training, at about the two-month mark, there is an event called hell week where all the trainees are awake - literally for a week - on the fourth night that they’re awake, they paddle literally around all of Coronado Island,” said Duncan Smith, the executive director of SEAL family foundation.
The SEAL Family Foundation, run by retired Navy SEAL Duncan Smith, is dedicated to caring for gold star families.
Smith's dad was on a boat alongside his brothers on SEAL Team Three.
“I think he is very pleased right now looking down and seeing everyone remembering him and working hard in the water - the water that was such a part of what he served in and on as a Navy SEAL," he said.
TheSeal Family Foundation works to bridge the gap between what the government can provide and what families need to be successful.
“I think one of the things that’s most important when you consider any warrior from any branch, and for us, the seal teams are very important in that way, is never allowing the fallen to be forgotten," said Smith.
