A steady rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Low 58F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

A steady rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Low 58F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible.

Josh Flath from the nonprofit organization 4THE22 stands on a stand-up paddleboard.

Josh Flath from the nonprofit organization 4THE22 stands on a stand-up paddleboard.

Ludington is set to be the staging area for a world record attempt in the coming days.

Josh Flath of Kalamazoo will attempt to paddle the farthest distance ever traveled on a stand-up paddleboard in the span of 12 hours.

The record is held by Chris Bertish, who paddled 80.84 miles in 12 hours along the South African coast in 2013, according to Guinness.

Flath hopes to embark as soon as Friday, with windows of favorable weather from Sept. 2 to 4 and 9 to 11.

He expects his journey to take him from Ludington to around Sutton’s Bay, covering somewhere from 80 to 100 miles.

He’ll be allowed to sit for five minutes every hour, per Guinness World Records rules, he said.

The whole trip will be recorded using a GoPro HERO camera.

One observer is still needed to trail Flath on a boat, logging his miles and rest periods. To volunteer, visit the Facebook page for his nonprofit organization, 4THE22.

It’s the mission of that nonprofit that Flath hopes to draw attention to with his stunt.

Flath, who served four years in the U.S. Navy, founded the organization with his wife in 2019 to get veterans into watersports and bring attention to mental health following military service.

In a press release, Flath said he lost six friends to suicide while serving and coped with “his grief and loss” through paddleboarding.

Now, he aims to show others “the serenity and healing that he discovered out on the open water,” the release stated.

“A lot of the people that I served with, they didn’t have hobbies. They didn’t have passions,” he said, adding, “Paddling made a huge impact on my life, and … it’s like, how can we share that with other people?”

He’s been training for about two years, especially in the last three months, when he’s done 40 to 60 hours of cardio exercises per week.

Flath is aiming to ride about 2 miles out from the shore. The ideal conditions would be 6-foot waves, he said, but he’d “be comfortable in 10- to 12-foot waves.”

He expects the biggest challenge to be weather conditions.

“Lake Michigan can be very hard to predict, and it can change just instantly,” he said. “Potential storms or anything rolling in would be my biggest fear.”

Another fear is “going hypoxic,” when oxygen levels are too low to support bodily functions.

“I’m looking at probably 12 hours where my heart rate’s probably going to be close to 140,” he said. “That’s why I’ve been doing so much cardio, and I’ve been working my legs a lot, because standing for that long … takes a toll.”

Flath said 4THE22 carries out its mission through group paddles (which he said about 300 veterans did last year) and giving veterans paddling equipment.

To donate to 4THE22, visit www.4the22.life/product/donation. Contributions can also be sent through Venmo to @Pay4THE22 or PayPal @4the22.

Justin Cooper can be reached at justin@ludingtondailynews.com.

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