Shark Bait Socials

19/09/2025

WE’RE HIRING!
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Up until now Shark Bait has been Barry Hayes telling the stories of the amazing people he meets along his merry way – mostly in the wild world of ocean rowing. 🌊🚣‍♂️
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Recently Barry has joined Atlantic Campaigns as a full-time Safety Officer for the World's Toughest Row - That means he gets to work with even more incredible rowers – but it also means less time to tell those stories. ☯️
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But the stories haven’t gone away. In fact, more people than ever are rowing oceans and taking on extreme adventures. And those stories must be told. 🗣️
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So for the first time since starting Shark Bait, we’re looking for people to join us on a contract basis to help bring these stories to life. 🤩
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What we’re looking for:
– A passion for adventure and storytelling
– Skills in social media management, copywriting, video editing, and design
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We’re not necessarily looking for Barry 2.0 – for instance, if you’ve got great social media skills but aren’t as confident about the ocean rowing specifics, we can teach you and support you with the rowing side. This would mean all the same nerdy knowledge, but with your elevated social media skills, making the whole service even better! 🙌
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We already have teams waiting for a campaign manager who are launching in December. If successful, you will be that manager: speaking directly to crews at sea, creating content based on what they send back, with Barry on hand for guidance, support, questions, and sense-checking. 💪
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Campaigns all kick off at the beginning of December this year – so if you’re interested and want to know more, get in touch straight away. We’d love to hear from you. 💖
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Drop us a private message here or email [email protected]

23/07/2025

A talk I did at TEDx Swansea called Chasing the Dragon.

A bit about splashing about in the sea, a bit about addiction and loss, and a lot about finding purpose.

You probably don't need to watch it now that you've had that incredible summary, but if you still fancy it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVtq_w8yXtA (link in bio)

Currently looking for speaking opportunities, particularly in the US and UK but also worldwide. I promise that not all my talks get as dark as this one!

💙

23/07/2025

A talk I did at TEDxSwansea called Chasing the Dragon.

A bit about splashing about in the sea, a bit about addiction and loss, and and lot about finding purpose.

You probably don't need to watch it now that you've had that incredible summary, but if you still fancy it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVtq_w8yXtA

Currently looking for speaking opportunities, particularly in the US and UK but also worldwide. I promise that not all my talks get as dark as this one!

💙 TEDx

British adventurer Barry Hayes shares his journey from the post room to rowing across oceans. The excitement, the danger, the pride — he’d achieved a dream. ...

16/06/2025

Standing on a stage in front of some people can be nerve wracking. But I've been privileged to do it many times, and to much larger audiences, so TEDx would be a doddle. Right? RIGHT?

Not so much! I felt so much FEAR before getting on stage for my TEDxSwansea talk...I'm honestly not sure I've ever felt it so bad. Genuinely rowing away from a continent with no intention of returning is less terrifying 😳

And I haven't really worked out why. Perhaps having no lectern to hide behind, limited slides you could distract the audience with. Perhaps it's the fact you know that if you mess it up it's going to be immortalised on YouTube and people will get to watch you fail on demand for eternity! Perhaps it's the concept of 100 people staring at you, judging you in a group that consists of 16 world class speakers, and me 😂

Maybe it's a combination of all of those.

All I know is that on paper it was simple, in reality it was scary.

But, I remembered most of my words, and told a very personal story, and people seemed to enjoy my tales of splashing about in the sea and the lessons learnt in the aftermath.

So, after the talk, the extraordinary levels of fear, drained from my body to be backfilled with equally high levels of pride. Which, I guess is the way that I tend to do stuff: Scare the s**t out of myself, in order to feel epic feelings.

Pretty bloody happy with myself for taking on this challenge.

Despite my own achievement, it was an absolute privilege just to be in the room with some of the major thinkers, achievers, and motivational gurus. I left feeling inspired, and have made some new cool friends.

When the video is released I'll share it, and there will be some fancy pics soon.

11/06/2025

Big news, I now have long hair.

Also, TEDx talk in Swansea this Saturday 🗣

06/05/2025

For several years, I delivered motivational talks for large corporates and major events — and the response was humbling. Powerful testimonials, emotional conversations, and incredible feedback followed each talk.

But truthfully, while I had the adventure stories, the footage, and the energy… I hadn’t fully absorbed the lessons that the oceans had taught me. They were still forming.

Since stepping away from the stage in 2019, life has been anything but quiet. I’ve faced things that have reshaped me completely — and in the process, the deeper insights finally came into focus.

Now, I’m ready. With hard-won wisdom, and new stories, I’m stepping back into the world of speaking.

I'm currently open to keynote and corporate speaking opportunities globally. I’m based in the UK but keen to travel — or present virtually.

Website incoming, talk footage incoming, but for now get in touch via social media, email at [email protected] or give me a call on +44 (0)7903 451 323

06/05/2025

The surf was very much up on that crossing!

23/01/2025

The time has come to hand back the social media reigns to the great men of TEAM V3NTURE! 🤝
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This campaign has been shared on social media by specialist expedition story tellers Shark Bait Socials - and it's been an absolute privilege to do so. 🥰
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Charlie and the Robs have inspired us every day with their indomitable spirit, and their ability to overcome the phenomenal challenges that they have faced. 💪
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So a huge thank you to the guys, but also a huge thank you to the followers for every comment, for every like, and particularly for every donation you have made to the amazing charity that is Macmillan Cancer Support 🎗️
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If we include gift aid, you have helped raise a STAGGERING £102,591.26 - so thank you for all that you have done. 🙏
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IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO SUPPORT THIS AMAZING TEAM! If you have enjoyed their amazing story, but haven't had a chance to donate yet - NOW IS THE TIME! Please show your support at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/macmillanv3
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And with that, we hand back to the team.
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✌️❤️
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A huge thank you to our partners who have made this expedition possible:

Ocean Bottle
Plastics Plus Ltd
hapcha.co
Palm Cay
KineonLabs
Law Rocks

Concrete Renovations Ltd
dryrobe
Mechanix Wear
Meonside Farm
Oundle School
Shrewsbury School
KBR
B***y Buckets
Oakley
Awfully Posh
ESolent
U-DEK UK
TidalWorx
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#🌊 #🌎

06/12/2024

It's all been going on in the boat park today! Lizzie enjoyed a great catch up with Nikki Holter of .toughest.row and Barry Hayes of

We love the family vibe of the ocean rowing world!

16/10/2024

By far the biggest question I am getting at the moment is about Starlink Mini - so, here is everything I know so far. It's my opinion, based on my testing, or the testing of people that I trust...this is not a recommendation, yet.
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The first three generations of Starlink used a comparatively large dish (called a Dishy) and generally weren't suitable for most ocean rowing boats as there was limited space on the roof, meaning smaller solar panels, or at least casting a shadow over a solar panel.
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On the larger Rossiter boats, Starlink worked quite well as there was more space. People that used it generally loved it. But there were some major drawbacks.
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Power - it draws a LOT when it's turned on, that does drop down significantly once it's settled, but it's still a lot more than a BGAN terminal.
Size - as mentioned above - it's not really suitable for most ocean rowing boats
Portability - starlink had to be plugged into the boat to operate. It doesn't have a battery built in (unlike a BGAN terminal) so if you use it at night, it's just drawing from the battery and the battery is not being replenished because there is no sun - with a BGAN you can charge it at midday when the sun is strong and use it whenever you like.
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The Starlink Mini however, comes pretty close to solving most of these issues.
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Firstly YOU MUST BE ON THE RIGHT CONTRACT - this is important - MOBILE PRIORITY - 50GB is the one you need (or MOBILE PRIORITY - 1TB if you think you will be a heavy user) - if you're not on that, it'll work perfectly in testing on land, and then you'll go away to sea and you'll find you're internetless.
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The unit is MUCH smaller (it's small laptop sized), and so it takes up much less space - however, you may not even need to put it on the roof. Inside a GRP/fibreglass ocean rowing boat, Starlink will work perfectly from INSIDE the cabin (tested in an R45 on land) - ideally mount it to the ceiling NOT directly behind the solar panel (e.g. right down the end of the bow cabin)
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Starlink have released a mini-USB-C cable for it - and this means it can also be run from a powerbank - this means you can charge the power bank at midday and use starlink at any time of the day. It seems like a 40,000 MaH powerbank should power the Starlink for about 3 hours.
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Whilst it does take up considerably more power than a BGAN terminal, it draws considerably less than it's predecessor, less than the watermaker during a recent test.
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So, why wouldn't you choose Starlink Mini?
- Whilst it uses less power, it still uses a lot more than a BGAN Terminal. If you're going to use one make sure your power managment is ABSOLUTELY NAILED ON.

05/09/2024

Unashamedly promoting this on my business channel!

We waved good bye to Jack at the airport 6 months ago, he was headed to the Philippines to take part in a conservation project and to learn to dive.

6 months on, with hundreds of dives under his belt he's a professional diver, and is heading off to do his instructor and Master Scuba Diver Trainer prep. Not bad for a 19 year old.

If you are thinking of doing some thing similar, or your kids are thinking of doing something similar, I cannot rate Marine Conservation Philippines highly enough. They've gone over and above in every scenario...both for Jack, and for his needy panicking parents. 🥰

The words they said about Jack in this post is so nice.

25/08/2024

Working from Silverstone over the last few days, and finding places to hide away and get some writing work done provided some interesting solutions.

Image 1: sexy perspex dome office 👍
Image 2: hiding in a rowing boat in the pouring rain 👎

A great weekend with good people, and some extraordinary cars!