Record breakers want to bestow the mantle to whoever is interested.

It’s been one long, crazy trip for the crew of OAR Northwest.

Greg Spooner, a Bainbridge native, and Jordan Hanssen were at Woodward Middle School Jan. 27 to make a presentation about their journey as part of the second annual Healthy Living Expo.

The crew had been on a whirlwind tour, appearing on Good Morning America and CNN, were feted with days dedicated to them by Seattle and Pierce County and were even honored at a Seahawks’ game.

And even after 18 months of living, eating, sleeping and breathing their dream of rowing across the Atlantic Ocean, the OAR Northwest co-founders sometimes think they’re still dreaming when they see the footage of their transatlantic voyage.

“It is a trip,” Hanssen said. “You can’t help but get emotional.”

They also had to deal with the emotional letdown after completing their goal.

“There is that void that you nurse yourself on for so long, and when it’s gone, it’s depressing,” Hanssen said. “We were on this post-trip high for about two weeks. Rolling into (Falmouth) and becoming instant celebrities (is great.) But when that’s gone, you don’t want to just go back to being normal. You want to do something just as fun.”

Spooner and Hanssen, along with co-founders Dylan LeValley and Brian Vickers, became the first Americans in history to row across the ocean when they did it in 68 days as part of the Shepherds Ocean’s Four Rowing Race last summer.

They completed the journey from Liberty Bay in New York City to Falmouth Harbor in England over three months while battling bad weather (they ran into Tropical Storm Alberto which waylayed them for a few days), exhaustion (they rowed for two hours, then took a two hour break), currents that switched without warning and big waves that knocked them down time and time again that left them in a “constant state of damp,” according to Spooner.

They also had an unexpected problem – around day 17, they realized they didn’t have enough food to sustain them for the rest of the trip.

“We had to ration pretty hard,” Spooner said. “But it was at the point when all you wanted to do was go to sleep. So you just forget about how hungry you were and as long as it was nighttime, you can get through the night and get your portion and keep on rowing.

“It was a miscalculation,” Spooner continued, saying they based their quantity on their test run out in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. “Talk about dealing with adversity – not having enough food was (a big problem.)”

The key food supplies that were missing were spices and most importantly, candy. Spooner said as they grabbed their daily portion of polenta or oatmeal, all they could do was stare at the four vacuum-sealed bags of Twix King-Sized candy bars for a month and a half.

But they held off until they got to the finish line, which led to some sweet joy when they finally broke them open.

“They were fantastic,” Hanssen said. “I’ve never cried over a candy bar before.”

They also dealt with numerous commercial shipping tankers (even avoiding one by mere feet) and the loss of their satellite phone around day 67, which meant they had to let the racing organization know they lost their means of communication.

But they accidentally hit the distress signal, which meant they got a visit from a rescue crew thinking they had capsized.

Despite the problems they faced on the ocean, there were even more problems they dealt with just to get to New York itself.

“We started out with t-shirts and some crazy idea,” Spooner said. “We had to learn where to go and learn how to raise money, to garner media attention (and) to gain sponsorship just to make this happen.”

They got it done, but they went into massive debt to pay for the boat, their supplies and most of their equipment despite their establishment of OAR Northwest as a non-profit organizations, donations from people and the sponsorships they pulled.

The crew also raised money for the American Lung Association and named the boat the Jordan Robert Hanssen after Jordan’s father who died of an asthma attack when he was just three years old.

They made the trip to Knockarea in Sligo, Ireland where they burned four shavings off their oar to pay tribute to Jordan’s dad, who had his ashes scattered on the hillside when he passed 20 years earlier.

But even with all the trials and tribulations they dealt with, competing in an adventure of a lifetime, winning a major race and seeing the sights and numerous animal life they saw made it all worthwhile.

“I think a real testament to our team was our ability to stay together and stick together and believed in each other,” Spooner said. “From the time that we realized what the problem was until we got to England it was our ability to work together.”

They’re working on a documentary to be completed in a year to a year and a half of their journey.

As for what’s next, Hanssen wants to train to compete in the 2012 Olympics in rowing.

The two also hope that someone will take over their organization and become the next foursome to compete in the race and even break their record.

They even said they may want to do it again.

“If Greg and I found a mutual investor, we could do it again in 2008,” Hanssen said. “But that’s pretty unlikely. We’d like to wrap this up in a way that it pays for our debts.

“Ideally, we’d pass OAR Northwest on to someone else in the Northwest. There’s no reason why it couldn’t continue afterwards.”