Free Range Designs is a collective of woodworkers and craftspeople spearheaded by myself, Paul Bullen, a South African born artist who found my way to furniture making by accident. With a background in graphic design, I have never had any formal woodworking training; I first started making rustic furniture with my older brother Nick, when we were living together in Wilderness, South Africa and continued working with him, and my younger brother Tim, when we came over to the UK in 2002. I think my lack of formal training has helped me to view furniture making as an art form, and not as a learned craft only open to the professionally-trained, and has encouraged me to experiment and take a novel approach to designing and making.
The Great Pacific Race is the biggest, baddest human endurance challenge on the planet. Teams of two and four compete against each other in the world's only human powered race across the Pacific. The first Great Pacific Race was in the summer of 2014 and now it's your chance for adventure. The Great Pacific Race 2016 will start in early June and will see crews from around the world battle it out on a grueling 2,400 mile stretch of the world's largest ocean from Monterey, California to Honolulu, Hawaii which is expected to take between one and three months to complete. All participating boats are purpose built and governed by a set of event rules, they must also carry certain items of mandatory equipment to ensure safety. Of course for some just completing the race is an incredible challenge and we are committed to helping every crew equally to achieve a safe and successful ocean passage. Success in the Great Pacific Race requires a combination of skills, physical ability and mental toughness combined with willpower and determination.