THE CROSSINGS

WHEN I LEARNED THAT MY CLOSE
FRIEND’S SON HAD AUTISM,
I WANTED TO DO SOMETHING TO HELP.

A PATH OF PURPOSE I’ve been working with photographer Don King since the earliest days of my career. Over the years, we’ve made several films together and shared more adventures than I can count, ranging from laid-back fun to off-the-charts intense. His talent is astonishing. You can put Don into the craziest situation on the biggest, most furious day, with 70-foot waves breaking everywhere, and he’s like an oasis of calm. He takes beautiful pictures in even the most treacherous conditions. As a former champion swimmer, he understands water. When he’s in the ocean he’s at home, and he captures that deeper understanding in his images. The only thing better than working with Don has been getting to know him and his family personally.

Don and his wife, Julianne, have three boys: Aikau, Dane, and their youngest son, Beau. As an infant and then a toddler, Beau was a happy, sociable kid. But suddenly, sometime between Beau’s second and third birthday, he changed. It was as though, as Don describes it, the lights went out. Beau became silent and withdrawn, wouldn’t make eye contact. The Kings took him to the doctor, but the tests came back normal. Meanwhile, Beau kept getting worse. It was only after they’d seen several more doctors that Don and Julianne were given a diagnosis: Beau was autistic.

They launched themselves into learning everything they possibly could about the disease, determined to find the right course of action and, ultimately, a solution. But nothing about autism is that cut-and-dried. Even its definition is a generalization: a complex developmental disorder that causes problems with social interaction and communication. What that means is as varied as the number of kids afflicted with it. The world Don and Julianne encountered—doctors, other parents, autistic kids—was a maze of contradictions and unsolved mysteries.

No one, it seemed, knew much for sure about autism except for two things: First, the number of autistic children in the United States is skyrocketing; today, in 2008, one in every 150 children has the disease, with boys four times more susceptible than girls. A new case of autism is diagnosed every 20 minutes. The other accepted fact is that many autistic kids have high levels of heavy metals in their bodies, especially mercury.

They also found a reason for hope: Some children recover. As the Kings dedicated their lives to helping their son, they decided to chronicle the journey. When I heard they’d begun to make a film, Beautiful Son, I wanted to help them raise the money to complete it. I’d been thinking about doing a series of manual-powered channel crossings, cycling and standup paddling from point A to point B in various parts of the world, and I realized that tackling these challenges with a purpose would make them even better. And so we set out to make that happen.

The first crossing I did was in June 2006, from London to Paris, riding from London to Dover, paddling across the English Channel, and then picking up my bike again on the French shore to end at the Arc de Triomphe. The 265-mile journey took 2 days—2 long days. The weather was stormy and rainy, and the English Channel, a body of water that’s rough on the calmest days, was at its nastiest. Conditions were tough, even for the crew. But we raised more than $100,000, and, equally as important, we raised awareness.

The following summer, Dave Kalama and I tackled the second stage of our crossing fund-raisers, traversing 500 miles through the Hawaiian Island chain from the Big Island all the way to Kauai. You’ve heard of the TV show Hawaii Five-O? Well, I like to call this crossing “Hawaii Five-Uh-Oh.” In a word, it was hard. We pedaled our bikes across the islands and standup paddled across the channels between them. It took us 5 days. I don’t think either of us will ever forget it—especially the 79-mile paddle across the Kaieiewaho Channel between Oahu and Kauai.

It was the last leg of the whole journey, and it would’ve been the hardest even under the best conditions. With Kona winds blowing hard in our faces and thunderstorms flashing along the way, we certainly didn’t have them. At times Dave and I felt as though we were trying to climb Everest on a day when we should’ve stayed in our tents. That crossing alone took us 20 hours. Strangely, though it was the most difficult thing that either of us had ever done, we never seriously entertained the notion of quitting. There’s power in thinking about those who are struggling with something far more significant, such as autism.

In October 2007, Don and Julianne’s film, Beautiful Son, debuted at the Hawaii International Film Festival, where it won the prize for Best Documentary. They continue to do everything possible to help Beau. He has good days and not-so-good days. For my part, I hope to see the day when no family has to endure this pain. Until then, Dave and I will continue to make these crossings. I remember the dawn on that last day, after grinding all night toward Kauai, when I first spotted land. My immediate thought was: It’s still so far away. But once I saw it, I knew we would get there. Until there’s an end in sight to this particular journey—the quest to cure this disease—we’ll be paddling as hard as we can.