Well, it’s actually been nearly 11 years since my first trip out in a double sit-on-top where I capsized six times in ten minutes and not quite 8 years since the second attempt and well under 6 since I started paddling semi-irregularly but I’m going to average all that out and call it ten years.
1) Taking some lessons is a really good thing
I’m the kind of person who does go to a lot of workshops (looks around at the stained glass panel in my window, the oversized wooden spoon on the shelf, the steel fire poker, all the things I’ve learned to make) but I’m also the kind of person who assumes I can either teach myself things or figure them out from experience. I think when it comes to the water, you’re probably best having at least one lesson with someone who knows what they’re doing, rather than just buying a SUP and taking it straight to the beach still in its box, or hiring a kayak on your holiday and going out on the water with no real idea even which side is supposed to go up. I see so many people out on the water who clearly have no idea, and especially… *leads on to point 2*
2) You need to wear a buoyancy aid
Once you start paddling, this feels like something too obvious to need to say but I’ve seen so many people who don’t bother – from the tourists hiring a paddleboard on the river on a hot Sunday morning to one of the professionals leading the Great Paddle Parade at Torquay who had his tucked under his decklines. But when you start, it doesn’t feel obvious. I can swim, I’ve been able to swim since I was a toddler, why do I need a buoyancy aid? Because you’ll end up in water that’s far rougher and colder than a swimming pool exactly when you’re not expecting to end up in the water!
3) Kayaking is far easier than sailing
I had a friend a school who sailed and occasionally we’d go out in his (grandma’s) boat, where we mostly lounged on the deck and pulled ropes when we were instructed to do so. When I got to university and realised I hadn’t made the most of the natural waterpark on my doorstep, I naturally imagined that sailing would be how I’d start to make use of it. But sailing really isn’t for me. I hate the way the boat leans, making me feel like I’m going to be thrown into the water at any moment, there’s nothing intuitive about the art of ropes and sails and wind and for a while, I thought that meant “on the water” wasn’t a thing for me. Then I discovered kayaking. It’s incredibly beginner-friendly, almost entirely intuitive and although the water is right there, it’s a lot less intimidating, which is why I’ve managed to go beyond that first taster in kayaking and not in sailing.
4) Capsizing never gets better
Ok, you do probably actually end up in the water more often in kayaking than in sailing but it doesn’t tease you about it – it doesn’t hang you over the water for hours on end. It’s not an ongoing threat, it’s sudden. It’s still not fun. I keep believing I’ll get used to it, that being dumped upside down into the sea will be something I’ll shrug off but it’s not. It’s always hideous.
5) It doesn’t take as much to become confident enough to have your own adventures as you think
Back when I was fondly imagining myself sailing, I imagined myself hiring a dinghy for the day in the summer and sailing around like I’m Jack Sparrow. Transfer that to kayaking: one day, can I hire a kayak and go off by myself without an instructor? Yes, I can! It came after I did my Discover and Explore Awards because there were other people in the group whose aim was to take their own boats out by themselves. I don’t think I’d ever really considered that at that point but I hired a kayak the next weekend and went off to try out all the things I’d learned and it probably wasn’t long after that when I did my first solo trip out to Old Harry.
6) SUPS are popular because they’re really accessible
First and foremost, I’m a kayaker. But I’ll never own a kayak – I have nowhere to store it, no way of transporting it and I wouldn’t be able to lift it onto my car if I did. I use other people’s kayaks. I occasionally wonder why so many people SUP and I think the answer is that inflatable SUPs are the most affordable of all the paddlecraft by a long way, they’re easy to store, easy to transport, easy to carry. They’re also very easy to mess up with – people buy them and then take to the water with no training, no safety equipment and no idea but for those with enough sense or luck to gain experience, they’re a really good way of getting into paddling and getting out on the water.
7) I love being able to do a thing other people can’t do
(Is my nemesis hovering across my mind? She who got turned down by a hire company before she’d even looked at the water? Absolutely not.) One thing I quite enjoy is just quietly knowing that I can go off on a kayaking adventure and you can’t. I don’t say it and I’m well aware that should many people decide to give kayaking a go, they’d be better than me and probably quite quickly. I’m not doing something other people can’t do, I’m just doing something other people don’t do – because it’s never occurred to them, because they’re not interested, because they don’t have the time, because other things take priority. But this is my thing – I kayak. I paddle.
I also quite enjoy going to county training days and getting pointed out as one of the boathouse people. We’re a very exclusive little lot and I quite enjoy being the adventure representative in the room. Why, yes, I can tell you about the boathouse!
8) You don’t have to push yourself
This is pretty much last week’s “you don’t have to be competitive” condensed down to one bullet point but you don’t have to go out on the water intending to be the best paddler ever, to beat your personal best, to beat some personal demon or anything else. Just like you can sit on the sofa and watch TV because you like it, you can just paddle within your comfort zone because you like it. If you want to enlarge your comfort zone, that’s great too but this is your hobby, you absolutely don’t have to.
9) The route to qualification is really difficult
It’s difficult in two ways: the first is that just figuring out what you need to do is bewildering. I’m still not sure what qualifications I should be aiming for, even now, and I certainly don’t really know what I need to do along the way to get to them. PSR training, then… Instructor? Paddlesport Leader? Am I aiming, ultimately, for Coach? Or have I got that completely confused?
The second is that if you’re not part of a club, getting the practice you need is really hard. I can’t do a two-day training course and then expect to be good enough to pass the assessment but how do I train and practice for it? I guess the answer is to join my local club but I don’t have time in my life for that – I’ve already got Rangers, Brownies and the boathouse taking up a considerable chunk of my life, plus I try to exist outside Girlguiding. My local club meets at 9am on Saturdays, which is something else I don’t love and it seems to specialise in rivers and sheltered water, whereas I want to be on the sea. Membership runs from May 1st, so maybe I’ll get in touch in April and see whether there’s any point in joining.
10) Kayaking is really good fun!
I did not think that the first time I tried it, when we capsized so many times, when I was cold and wet and tired and just couldn’t do it. See me, nearly eleven years later, introducing ten-year-olds to kayaking from our own boathouse, where I’m one of the grown-ups and not one of the learners! I’m still not entirely sure why I do it – there’s an element of spite to it, buried so deep down that I forgot for many years that it was even there – but I enjoy it! Otherwise, why would I take my SUP out on nice summer evenings? Why would I spent Saturday mornings down at the sea battling my way across the waves to land on an island? Why would I go off on little camping holidays where I spend my days floating around reservoirs? It’s fun in its own right but it’s also fun to take on that kind of challenge, to pit myself against the water and the wind and to triumph over it, to do something that’s difficult but not so difficult that it’s offputting.
Bumblebee Paddles 