The skies are closing in; the Tasman sea swell is angry; this is a confrontation between two exhausted young men and nature's wildest elements where it's plainly obvious who are the outsiders in this battle for survival.

They have been going around in circles, literally, for a week, buffeted off course by the tides, giant swells and winds that caused them to paddle an extra 800kms on top of the 3000km they had prepared for. Their leg muscles were wasting, their body fat reserves depleted, their minds playing tricks. Yet their constitution refused to wander.

No one had successfully navigated, by kayak, the Tasman from Australia to New Zealand. One, Andrew McAuley, had come perilously close just months earlier … but not near enough to save his life.

His watery grave sat on the ocean bed somewhere between where these two adventurers would achieve historic immortality or their own perilous end. It was in their minds every minute.

James Castrission and Justin Jones indeed reached the sand at New Plymouth on NZ's North Island, and a place in history, on January 13, 2008 - 62 days after they set off from Forster on the mid-New South Wales coast. They were sun-burnt, bearded, underweight, physically and mentally wasted … and most of all happy to be alive.

What sort of crazy men attempt such frightful feats?

They had kayaked the length of the Murray River, all 2560kms, and the treacherous Bass Strait as virtual training runs. They had run the sydney marathon; they had achieved their yachting crew qualifications and dueled with the open waters under sail, they had led climbing expeditions around the world challenging some of the worlds most imposing peaks.

They are now willing to share their secrets of survival in a documentary about their journey and privately to the many corporations throughout the world who have created a demand for their insights into the subjects of leadership, taking control of your life, challenging yourself mentally and physically, facing adversity and the strategic planning and contingency of such a mammoth task.

It is human nature to, at times, think of what we could have done with our lives, to what boundaries we could have pushed ourselves, what achievements we may have dared to have believed in and what mental and physical capacity was within us. To go beyond such thoughts, however, rarely happens.

James Castrission and Justin Jones are among the few who have searched for, and found, those personal parameters … and they intend to burst the boundaries a little more.

No they are not crazy, they are inspirational, successful and great motivating figures for us all.