Joe Oakes, adventurer, has been enjoying adventures all over the world over the last 30 years. He has been around the world several times, climbing frigid mountains, running across deserts, and experiencing the geographic and human diversity of our planet. Recounting these adventures has made him a popular speaker for groups and on cruise ships.
As a child in the Bronx, New York, Joe developed an appetite for travel that has stayed with him throughout his life. Experiencing life fully is in his nature: as an athlete, as a soldier and as a businessman. Multilingual, he loves meeting and talking with the denizens of Earth, learning and sharing knowledge and humor everywhere he goes. Joe’s global journeys have recently earned him the title of Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, an honor bestowed on the likes of Charles Darwin and Ernest Shackleton.
His first book, The Alcatraz Swimmer’s Manual, has helped thousands prepare for the rigors of navigating the chilly, shark infested waters of the San Francisco Bay in an animated and interesting way.
Profits from the sale of his new book, With a Single Step, will be donated to the Bernard Nordkamp Center, an afterschool program for AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in Katatura, Namibia. Joe has come across a number of people and places whose needs have spoken to his heart over the years, but none so much as that of the Bernard Nordkamp Center.