HE’S the Scots sniper turned adventurer who has just entered the record books by rowing across the Atlantic and whose day job sees him working alongside Superman and Batman villains – but just who is Aldo Kane?

After leaving school in Ayrshire at 16, Kane served as a sniper in the Royal Marines for more than a decade, before starting a company which supports television and film crews in extreme, remote and hostile environments.

In the last five years the 38-year-old has worked with Superman Henry Cavill and Batman villain Tom Hardy and has travelled to far-flung places such as Siberia, Madagascar, Venezuela and The Congo.

He spoke to the Sunday Herald from Trinidad after 50 days on a small boat which set off from Portugal on February 7. “I’m knackered, to be honest,” he said as he recovers from his record-breaking feat. Kane was part of a crew that rowed the longest route across the Atlantic Ocean in the fastest time – despite capsizing three times.

“You don’t sleep for any longer than about an hour and thirty minutes at most. So your body is never recovering, you just stay broken. When you’re out there doing it you don’t feel all the aches and pains but everything is painful now. I’ve got a kind of claw hand and all the cuts and bruises are infected.

“I’m actually going to hospital after speaking to you because they think I might have a blood clot in my leg. It has definitely taken its toll on me.”

Fortunately, Kane didn’t have a blood clot in his leg and he’s on the road to recovery.

It’s unsurprising that his body can endure such punishment, given his background in the military.

Kane said: “I’ve done a lot of heavy duty stuff over the years, fighting wars, being in observation posts as a sniper. I’ve been in horrible places before, doing horrible things. But I think the row was the longest sustained endurance exercise that I’ve done. Even out in Afghanistan and Iraq you’re not put through the wringer every single day. You’re out there for six months and you might have a couple of down days every so often.”

Kane is from Kilwinning and his mother and father, who are paramedics, still live and work in Ayrshire.

He and his twin brother went to Kilwinning Academy and were involved in the Scout movement from a young age, which gave Kane a love of the outdoors.

He said: “We were able to go on adventures when we were kids. Our stomping ground was Arran, Ardrossan, Loch Lomond and Glencoe. We spent the majority of our time abseiling and camping and things like that.”

He left school at 16 to join the Royal Marines and passed out as a Commando before reaching his 17th birthday.

“It’s quite a young age to go through that training,” he said. “Even now it’s still pretty unheard of. If you’d have asked me if I wanted to do that at school, I don’t know if I would have known. But subconsciously I must have and that has shaped my reality.

“Before I signed up I did know I wanted to be an elite soldier and the pinnacle of that is being a sniper. And the most difficult sniper course in the world is the Royal Marines.”

Kane went on to serve in Northern Ireland before the Good Friday Agreement, Hong Kong at the time of the handover, Iraq during the 2003 invasion and in Afghanistan in the early years of the conflict.

“At the time it was exciting,” he said. “It’s what we were training for. In hindsight I probably had a bit of bravado, being a young guy. There was probably about five times when I thought: ‘Shit, this could be it for me.’

“It’s probably why I liked it and it’s probably why I do what I do now. I find it quite difficult to do a normal job. I need adventure to survive.”

During his military career Kane also became a medic, mountain leader, climbing instructor, diver and skydiver. He used that training as a grounding to found his company Vertical Planet, one of the world’s leading providers of safety, security, medical and risk management services to the TV and film industry.

Kane has provided climbing support at El Capitan in the US and the Nyiragongo Volcano in the Congo, diving supervision in Madagascar, safety advice in Siberia and caving support in Slovakia. He has worked on the set of Holywood blockbuster The Avengers and advised actors Henry Cavill, Tom Hardy and Adrien Brody.

He has just appeared on BBC show Steve Backshall Extreme Mountain Challenge providing support as the naturalist climbed Venezuela’s ancient, sheer-sided tepui mountains.

Kane said: “It’s a varied line of work and an interesting job. The reason I got into this is because, as one of the most elite trained killers in the world, there are very little transferable skills. I’ve discovered it’s actually the best job for me. If I won the lottery I’d be doing exactly what I’m doing now.”

However, he admits that one downside to his lifestyle is it’s difficult to maintain a relationship. Kane said: “It’s the cost of adventure. But it’s my passion. It would be very difficult for a woman to get in front of that. It doesn’t mean you love someone any less but that passion for adventure comes before everything. I’m 38 and I think 40 is the new 30 anyway, isn’t it?”

Although he travels the world, Kane still makes a point of coming back to Scotland and visiting the places that he enjoyed as a youngster.

He said: “Without doubt, Scotland is my favourite place in the world. Even though I’m talking to you from a balcony overlooking a beautiful marina in Trinidad I would pick Glencoe or the west coast of Scotland over anywhere else, any day, in any weather.

“Scotland is one of the most amazing and spectacular places to explore. You also don’t need much money. When I was a kid I’d get on a bus and a couple of hours later I’d be in Glencoe where I would camp for free. You can go up there and spend a night under a boulder or on a ridge in good weather.

“There is so much adventure to be had and Scotland is without doubt the best place to do it. Wherever I go in the world I let people know where I’m from and encourage to go there and see for themselves.”