Sebastian CopelandExplorer

Sebastian Copeland is a modern-day Renaissance man. With a background spanning Britain, France, and the US, and now calling Munich home.

Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Britain and France, and then the US from age 16.

Activity
There are three pillars to my work. I am a polar explorer, climate analyst, and photographer

What items on norrona.com are some of your go-to favorites?
I love the trollveggen Gore-tex Pro Jacket! It is full of great details. The double front zip is awesome to adjust to the degree of cold, and the type of layers underneath. Also, I love the cut. A lot of outdoor brands expect you to be built like a linebacker. At 192cm and 93kg, I float in a lot of outer layer gear. The cut on this jacket, and Norrøna in general, is perfect for me.

Otherwise, I am big fan of layers, and for a certain type of trips I can have as many as eight! For clear reasons, I prefer thinner layers that trap warm air without the bulk. Then I can vent, open and close.

What do you actively do to cut back on your carbon footprint?
In my family, we drive electric and spend a lot of time on bikes, including a front basket electric bike for my two little girls. More specifically, I work with ClimeWorks whose model is carbon removal. We calculate my monthly footprint and remove the equivalence from the atmosphere.

Career highlights/accomplishments
In 2018, I made Fatherly’s list of the 100 Coolest dads in America (#36), along with Kelly Slater and Barack Obama. I mean, c’mon! I need to frame that, so my girls believe me when they grow up! Less noteworthy, I hold the record for the longest distance non-motorized surface travel over 24 hours (595km kite skiing on Greenland), a Guinness Record. In 2017, I made Men’s Journal’s list of the 25 most adventurous men of the last 25 years, which is remarkably subjective but still a standout. Two of my toughest trips were crossing 4100km of Antarctica on skis and kites; and crossing the Simpson Desert latitudinally, 636 km over 1100 dunes. On a more serious note, I was knighted in the French National Order of Merit in 2019, and in the order of Arts and Letters in 2022.

I had a couple of milestones through the years:

In 2007 I was named photographer of the year by the International Photography Awards. In 2021, I received that award again from the IPA. The same happened with the TIFA awards, both in 2015 and 2020

Where is your favorite place in the world?
I would have to say Greenland, even though this is obviously a tough question. There are multitudes of extraordinary places on this blue marble of ours. But I would also love to give the moon a shot.

What advice would you give your 10-year-old self?
Don’t worry, it will work out. So long as you 1) stay curious, 2) train, 3) go after what you love, 4) never take anything for granted, and 5) work harder than others think is reasonable. Oh yeah, and make friends with yourself. You’ll be with you until the end so it’s a good idea to be on good terms.

What hobbies do you enjoy participating in?
Anything on the ocean: surfing, windsurfing, kiting, sailing, diving, and plain old swimming.

What is/are your hidden talent(s)?
Telling stories to my girls. They seem to like it, and I love doing it. It keeps the monsters at bay.

If you could choose a superpower, what would it be and why?
I would turn every single individual on the planet into a serial tree-hugger! Empathy is their special sauce that will save us, and the world’s ecosystems along with it. And a good place to start is to re-align our mutual philosophies, and to give Nature a voice. I’m working on it.