Chris Bertish

In 2018, South African artist, Michael Lee, painted three large oil paintings to commemorate the transatlantic crossing, Atlantic Solo, featuring Bertish battling a storm at night, with a reference to Hokusai's Great Wave image, Atlantic Soul showing the SUP champion in equilibrium with a calm ocean and various aquatic creatures, and Atlantic Epic, illustrating Bertish's arrival at the Pillars of Hercules in Antigua to complete the epic journey.

In 2016, a failed attempt at crossing the Atlantic on a stand-up paddleboard occurred. The boat was piloted by Nicholas Jarossay, a French citizen who was rescued a week into his trip.

On 6 December 2016, Bertish set out from a marina in Agadir, Morocco, in a custom-built 20 ft (6 m) stand-up paddle craft on a journey of 7,400 kilometres (4,600 mi) and 120 days across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean island of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands. His $120,000 craft was designed by Phil Morrison, a naval architect, and resembles a connected row-boat and a stand-up paddle board, called ImpiFish. It weighed 1,350 pounds (610 kg), which Bertish now considers to have been "too light." It had a "number of technological amenities such as a satellite phone, a radar device, a MacBook, a water maker" – carrying the amount of fresh water he needed was impractical. On 9 March 2017, he arrived in Antigua at English Harbour becoming the first person to cross the Atlantic on a stand-up paddle board. He made the journey unsupported and unassisted in 93 days. Initially he wanted to continue to Florida, but due to forecasted poor weather made his landfall in Antigua.

In February 2010, Bertish competed at the 2009/10 Mavericks Surf Contest near Half Moon Bay, Northern California, winning the $50,000 big-wave surf competition. Watched by 50,000 spectators, the contestants experienced waves in excess of 40 ft (12 m). Bertish arrived at the competition without his equipment and had to borrow a board to compete.

Chris Bertish is a South-African-born surfer, stand-up paddleboarder, adventurer, and motivational speaker. He won the Mavericks Big Wave Surf contest in 2009. In March 2017 he completed the first solo, unsupported stand-up paddle board (SUP) crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. He did it while supporting charitable organizations. He has also set other SUP world records. His efforts moved an obscure sport onto the forefront of many important media outlets.