I’ve neglected Bumblebee Paddles terribly! I’ve missed nine blog posts in a row and I haven’t touched Instagram since early December! It’s because I’m a fair weather paddler and I have absolutely nothing to say in the winter. But let’s say it anyway. Let’s start nice and easy with some reflections on paddling in 2024. … More Back on the blog! Highs & lows of 2024
Paddling can, potentially, be a very expensive hobby. Look at the people who take it semi-seriously who own (multiple) boats that cost almost as much as my car, the price of good drysuits, the carbon fibre paddles and the list goes on. But the cost of entry doesn’t need to be prohibitive – you do … More What kit you need as a beginner paddler
Since it’s Halloween today, I wish I had something spooooky for this blog but I don’t. I’ve hung up my wetsuit by October and I can’t even think of anything relevant from Guiding, other than that we did apple bobbing and cooking smores over candles at Rangers last week – not exactly spooky but reasonably … More How to get kids into kayaking
One thing that we – and by “we”, I mean, the instructor, three assistants, manager & treasurer of our boathouse – have noticed over the last few years is a lack of resilence in the girls we take out to sea. It’s very easy to talk about “kids these days!” but a lot of the … More Kayaking, Guides and resilience
I started this blog to chronicle my paddling adventures, leading up to becoming an instructor at our Girlguiding boathouse and so I want to veer slightly off the subject of paddling and onto adventures and Girlguiding. The Scouts were founded 116 years ago and on the surface, little has changed in that time. They still … More Girlguiding vs adventure
This is something I’ve been thinking about writing for a while – a take on the 2014-ish YouTube “what’s in my bag?” trend. Let’s take a look in my buoyancy aid and see what I take out paddling! I’m a big fan of the buoyancy aid, mostly because it’s the single most important bit of … More What’s in my buoyancy aid?
From now on, live-ish blogs from the 2024 season of boat club will come alongside recounting my paddle history. Next week we’ve got our start-of-season pool session, so I’ll do a blog about that, and then it’ll depend how often there’s something blog-worthy. So, for the sake of being topical rather than mining my last … More What I wear kayaking
Bumblebee Paddles 