he didn't ask anyone to sponsor his ride for the wave project. he built a clothing brand on the bike instead

Jim Edmondson wanted to raise money for The Wave Project without a sponsorship page. On Thursday 15 October he set off from his family's farm near Sturminster Newton to build a clothing brand on the ride home to Cornwall instead. He called it KOSEL, the Cornish word for calm, said koz-el. At least £10 from every garment goes to The Wave Project, the surf therapy charity that began with 20 young people on the beach at Watergate Bay in September 2010. His rules: on the bike his only tool was Claude, an AI he talked to as he rode, with a stop every two hours for jobs a voice can't do. By the end of day one he had ridden 110 miles into the wind, and the shop at kosel.shop was taking orders. The target is £1,000 of sales, and only strangers count. Friends and family can buy a shirt and the charity still gets its share, but their money doesn't go towards the £1,000. Unlike a sponsored ride, the giving doesn't stop at the finish. The shop stays open after the ride for as long as people keep ordering, and every garment keeps paying the charity. The brand's About page explains the choice of charity: "what they do for kids is exactly what the sea has done for us." Jim is autistic and has ADHD, and in a signed note on the same page he writes that the only reliable way out of the noise "is to get outside and move." After day one Jim was needed at home, so the dare now runs to Monday 19 October. He rides the last leg that day and reads the total out on Mawgan Porth beach, just up the coast from Watergate Bay, win or lose. "I didn't want to pass round a sponsorship form. I wanted to make something strangers would buy, and send the money to the kids The Wave Project takes surfing," said Jim Edmondson, founder of KOSEL. "The ride ends on Monday. The shop doesn't." KOSEL tees start at £29.99 and hoodies at £59.99, printed to order at kosel.shop and shipped worldwide.