Most visitors to Block Island arrive by plane or ferry, but on Saturday, July 23, approximately 85 people will arrive by paddle-board, kayak, or canoe. They will have spent about six to seven hours completingtheir journeys, while the ocean’s waves roll beneath them, many standing up. It’s all for a good cause.The occasion is the Paddlers for Humanity 2022 Montauk to Block Island Challenge, an 18-mile open ocean paddle, with an additional mile added on so paddlers may land at Champlin’s Marina. Theevent will start at 6 a.m. and end sometime between noon and one with a post-event celebration. That is, if the weather permits.According to its website, p4h.org: “The Block Challenge brings together a community of women, men, and students to achieve a goal beyond themselves – undertaking the physical and mental challengeof an open ocean paddle from Montauk to Block Island, with the purpose of bettering the lives of children.”Block Island resident Jeffrey Smith thinks the event is in its fourteenth year, and this will be the local surfer’s ninth time participating. As in the past, he will be joined by his son Jayden, also an experiencedsurfer, and perhaps others from the island.Smith told The Block
