Do you remember when you were first bitten by the paddlesports bug?
I get asked the question a lot – when did you first start paddleboarding? And I always give the same answer – 2014, South coast UK, sunny Devon, there was no surf and it was so hot I needed to be by the water, so finally agreed to go paddleboarding with my housemates who’d been badgering me to give it a go for a while. Got a bit cocky, fell off whilst waving at a yacht.
But I suppose I’ve never really paid much attention to how pivotal that one experience was – never really appreciated how much those people who lent me a board and took me out paddling with them unknowingly changed my life.
And I suppose I’ve always been so comfortable with the water, so privileged to have had the free time and means and people around me to nurture a joyful relationship with the ocean, that giving SUP a go that day was an extension of my time spent in the sea that already formed a big part of my life. And I happened to love it, it opened up a whole new way of exploring the coast to me, and became my vehicle for communicating some of the ocean’s most pressing and beautiful stories.
After paddleboarding from Land’s End to John o’ Groats in 2018, which was in equal parts a vehicle for talking about plastic pollution and a huge personal journey of grief and sadness, I was moved with gratitude for the connection I had to the ocean, a sudden realisation of how incredibly lucky I was to have had the opportunities for spending time with the ocean that I had had, and the ability this gave me to heal and explore and find freedom amongst sadness. I was really touched by how deeply important a personal connection to the ocean is for inspiring stewardship of blue spaces, and indeed many of the people I met along those 1,000 miles from the bottom to the top of the UK who were looking after their patch of ocean spoke eloquently of the incomparable role the water played in their personal lives too.
Shortly after finishing that expedition, with those realisations close to hand, Seaful was born – a charity dedicated to connecting more people to the ocean. Our Vitamin Sea Project specifically facilitates in-person water experiences for those who might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience the water by, for example, snorkel, or paddleboard.
Palm have been with us on this journey from the word go, donating buoyancy aids for adults and kids for our SUP offerings with refugees, Young Carers and inner city children who we’ve taken paddleboarding for the first time. And this year, I was given the opportunity to introduce this amazing sport to women in my own community in the Scottish Highlands, thanks to generous funding from Palm through the sales of their Tika women’s-specific PFDs.
The idea was to get more women into paddlesports. And all of you reading this will no doubt have already been bitten by the bug, so you’ll understand exactly why we wanted to help more people experience it! But I specifically also wanted to play a small part in tackling social isolation in the Highlands where I live, which has been identified to be particularly problematic for young women living here.
So I reached out to the community’s Early Years Practitioner, and set up a three part SUP session with young mothers in the community.
I was really, really nervous before the start of the first session. I was so eager for them to enjoy the sessions, for them to feel comfortable, to stay warm, and to want to come back the following week! I overthought everything, from what snacks to take with me to which parts of our Ocean Literacy course to try and shoehorn into the session. In the end, I decided that the first week only needed to be about safely getting out onto the water. And amazingly, but perhaps it shouldn’t be such a surprise, everything fell beautifully into place once we were on the sea.
The women I had with me were nervous, and new to paddlesports. They spoke of having lost their confidence and their adventurous spirits after the birth of their children, and of wanting to jump in the sea with their kids but not feeling able to.
For them, this was about so much more than just having fun on the water.
After just the first session, we were all buzzing. Everyone had stood up, and we’d even managed a journey along the coast to a secret cove where wild garlic was growing and birds sang overhead. I had planned for that to be the journey we built up to over the three weeks, and there we were on day one! Everyone felt more confident already, surprised and delighted with their abilities. And when they came back for week two, grins on faces, they spoke of how the session had lifted their moods and confidence for the whole week in between, and how excited they’d been to come back for more! It was a horrible spring day in the Highlands – grey skies, rain and cold wind, but they embraced it with gusto as I kitted them up and we took to the water. To see the paddlesports bug working its magic in these women was a total joy and privilege to witness.
Our last session was even more adventurous, as we paddled along a gentle river to a loch surrounded by some of Assynt’s most iconic mountains. We found a spot by a waterfall for a picnic and naturally the conversation flowed to protecting our playgrounds – from the lochs to the sea – invasive species to overfishing.
I did my best to give these wonderful women all the skills, confidence and knowledge they’d need to get back on the water in their own time too, so was absolutely delighted when they told me they’d found some paddleboards of their own, and were taking them out with their families after our sessions finished! The change it had made to their own adventurous spirits was remarkable, and I feel grateful to know that there are more women out there with their families nurturing the ocean and paddlesports love in others too.
My dream is to reach more women in my community and create a SUP community which helps to tackle social isolation. There’s a great group of teenage girls here too who I’m hoping to get on boards!
This experience was powerful for me too – a moment to reflect on that first experience I had paddleboarding, and to be grateful for all that it brought me from that moment forward. I hope that offering more women the chance to give this amazing sport a go, in a safe and nurturing environment, (with all the right snacks!), might just lead to something beautiful for them too. Not everyone’s going to love paddleboarding, but I’d like them to have the chance to make that decision for themselves.
Huge thanks to Palm Equipment for making this possible, and for all the support they give to Seaful and our Vitamin Sea Project.
If you’re a paddlesports instructor and would like to volunteer with Seaful and share your love for paddlesports, please get in touch – hello@seaful.org.uk
