Cayle Royce and his Icarus Trophy

Childhood memories of sweet South African winds to 48 bitter days in a coma to Rum Punch on a finish line in Antigua to an MBE from the Queen.

Cayle grew up on farms in the wilds of Southern Africa with minimal supervision and access to vast expanses of the great outdoors. He blames this for becoming totally obsessed with adventure and travel and all of the highs and catastrophic lows that it could offer.

Whilst on deployment in Afghanistan in 2012 he stepped on what he describes as “an oversized party popper.”  He spent 48 days in a coma whilst the doctors worked to patch him up. Within 18 months, he was rowing across the Atlantic Ocean as a part of the Row2Recovery  crew; two able bodied and two wounded crew members rowing from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua. A 3000 mile unsupported row broken up into 2 hour-on and 2 hour-off shifts, pelted by horrendous weather and gargantuan waves, salt sores and a diet of dehydrated goo bags for 48 days.

Due, he says, to the fabulous memories of Rum Punch at the finish line he has now entered into another Atlantic row in December 2015. Row2Recovery will be the first all amputee crew to ever attempt an ocean row; “We are four men in a boat and have three legs between us. What could go wrong?”

Last year, he went with SkySchool’s Alex Ledger to Kenya with eight wounded servicemen to fly from Kilimanjaro up the Rift Valley to Mount Kenya in three weeks; “I have spent a lot of time in Kenya, but to see it from the air was absolutely incredible. A truly amazing trip with some incredible people.”

He has been training for the Icarus Trophy with SkySchool and will be competing using a Parajet prototype solo trike that he’s been practising with in Spain. Cayle and Seth have received significant support from military charity Help for Heroes to undertake the Icarus Trophy.

He was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list in 2015.

“I am participating in the Icarus Trophy for the adventure and to meet the kind of people that this sort of event seems to attract. My brother Seth and I will be working together to hopefully complete the race in good time and enjoy what should be an unforgettable adventure.”

“We are hoping to raise awareness for Help for Heroes who are supporting us and hopefully encourage others who are having a bit of a hard time to not quit just yet. If a scruffy legless African like I can give it a go, then who couldn’t?”

— Cayle

Fancy entering the Icarus Trophy? Learn more about the challenge from the amazing Adventurists.