Our Personal Backgrounds Chris Bray I grew up sailing around the world with my family on a homemade yacht for 5 years, visiting 32 different countries. Since then I have enjoyed an active lifestyle, achieved well academically, and developed a passion for undertaking unique and challenging expeditions – culminating in being awarded the Australian Geographic Society’s ‘Young Adventure of the Year’ award for 2004, and having a number of high-profile organisations sponsoring my endeavours. My webpage is at www.ChrisBray.net. I am currently 21yrs old, and 4 years into an Electrical Engineering degree at university. After graduating Dux of Barrenjoey High school with a UAI (NSW standardised school leaving mark) of 99.2%, I was offered – and have kept each year – a ‘Co-op Scholarship’, one of the best engineering scholarships available in the state. At university I’ve maintained a High-Distinction subject average, and have twice been presented with the ‘Deans Award’ placing me in the top 3 engineering students of my year. I am lucky enough to live on the coast in northern Sydney, and have a wide range of interests including filming and photography, freediving, spear fishing, hiking, bike riding, jogging, rock climbing, designing & building things such as an underwater housing for my video camera, a kayak, a sled to haul hiking gear on snow expeditions etc. I am also proficient with computers – video editing, webpages, CAD tools for design etc. Since mid-way though high school, I have owned and managed a small online electronics business, retailing electronics similar to Dick Smiths or Jaycar. This has given me an insight into marketing, customer relations, which I think has helped me understand the business side of sponsorship proposals. I understand what it is that I can offer companies in return that is of value to them. I am proud to have Ocean Frontiers, Australian Geographic, GORE-TEX(R), Icebreaker, Dick Smith Foods, Leatherman, Exped, Ortlieb, Kathmandu, Karrimor, Yowie Snowshoes, EPIRBHire.com.au, Outermark, Active Planet, Landwide Satellite Solutions and others supporting me on my adventures. My past expeditions include a weeks wading through waist-deep snow in Tasmania’s highlands in the depths of their worst winter in 30yrs, building and over-nighting in an igloo on the Australian alps, and most notably, with hiking partner and good friend Jasper Timm, hiking for 30 days along the untracked world-heritage wilderness coastline from Port Davey to Strahan in Tasmania. With 2 pre-planned air-drops of food, bitterly cold river crossings, sometimes progressing less than 1.5km after 11 hrs of exhausting fighting through 5m high scrub with a machete, stumbling across over 100 stranded whales, and discovering a previously unknown breeding colony of Australian Fur seals – this expedition was an unforgettable adventure, and with our Australian Geographic award, received a lot of media attention. I have been elected as a member of the Australian branch of the prestigious international ‘Explorers Club’, the youngest member in Australia and only the 2nd youngest internationally - I am also on the steering committee for Australia. I've interviewed on TV and radio, even via phone to radio stations up in the arctic! Other media exposure includes being on the cover of a magazine, and in a dozen newspapers and magazines - a 7 page article of mine has even been translated for expedition magazine in France, Carnets d’Expe. Jasper Timm and I gave a 1 ½ hr lecture / slideshow to the paying public at the Australian Geographic Theatre on our expedition, and I have given two speeches for High Schools, presenting the ‘Valedictory Speech’ for a yr12 farewell, and just recently I gave a motivational speech to yrs 11 & 12 & their respective parents on an HSC information/motivation evening. All my speeches have been well received, and I enjoy them immensely – entertaining others while teaching them about the remarkable places around us, new discoveries, and instilling the belief that with a little energy and enthusiasm, anything is possible. My expeditions are not brazen challenges where I attempt to cheat death, or take pointless risks in the hope that we should live to boast about the tale. I now have a solid background of leading safe, well planned expeditions. Quoting Rory Scott – Australian Geographic Society trustee and general manager - in a media release about my Tasmanian Wilderness Expedition, I “plan everything to the nth degree” and he labels my expeditions as “the sort of responsible adventuring that should be encouraged by the adventure naysayers out there.” To me, expeditions such as this are about living life to the full, challenging myself to see what I’m capable of, and experiencing the utter freedom and thrill of venturing into the unknown - escaping all the clutter, chaos and stifling comforts that seems to creep into, and overwhelm much of modern civilised life. When on an expedition I feel so much more live – at the end of the day, although I am aching and exhausted, I’m content, I have a purpose. Clark Carter I spent the first half of my childhood running around the Great Sandy Desert in Central Western Australia and the second half swimming in the beautiful coastal beaches of the Central Coast an hour north of Sydney. Now 20yrs old, I have inevitably developed a unique relationship with the outdoors that has carried on through to my adulthood. I am currently undergoing my first year of University, studying a Bachelor of Arts (Media and Communications) at the University of New South Wales. Upon my completion of the Higher School Certificate at Gosford Selective High School - in which I received a UAI mark of 85.95 - I decided to travel around the world for a year. In my year of travels I visited many unique and isolated parts of the globe including Europe, Canada, USA, Mexico and Papua New Guinea. During this time, I developed an appreciation and interest in the unique cultures and diverse wilderness that inhabit our planet. I enjoy many outdoor activities including outdoor rock climbing, abseiling, spear fishing, swimming, running, squash and am always keen and enthusiastic to try new things. In Dec 2004 my rock climbing partner and I went on a 3-week mountaineering, rock climbing, ice climbing and hiking trip. We climbed extensively throughout the Mt Cook and Mt Aspiring National Parks, in which we learnt many new skills in mountain and ice climbing, snow survival skills and navigation. Aside from my outdoor hobbies, I also enjoy working with multimedia projects, particularly with sound and music. Since I was 10 - when I started learning the drums - I have had a love for music. I currently have my own home studio in which I write, record and produce songs for myself and for short films. I am a recognized DJ among several clubs and bars around the central coast and enjoy playing at house parties. In 2004 I was offered a job on a major motion picture called “Manthing” by Marvel Comics as Post-Production Assistant Sound Editor. After commencing the movie, I was offered a similar job on a second motion picture called “Hating Alison Ashley” in which I took the role of Sound Editing Assistant. During this period I gained priceless industry knowledge and also made valuable contacts (and friends) within the Australian Film Industry. Back to Info Topics