Gwilym's Adventure Blog

Out with good friend and general boaty play mate Olly on SUPs on The Lower Dart. A really nice day on the river trying to stay upright on SUPs (I still find eddy lines tricky).  After getting out we even had time for a high speed run down The Loop in kayaks before coffee, pasty and brownies.

 I managed to to get out of the office for a few hours today with Jamie on The Parrett and The Yeo up in Langport.  A slightly cloudy start turned into a very sunny afternoon and when we got out of the wind it felt almost warm.

The next few weeks will be me preparing to return to the life of an Outdoor Instructor. Today was all about getting out on the water locally with Hannah on the new Wet and High Adventures SUPs from Freshwater Bay Paddle Co and trying to remember how to paddle

After a few weeks of mountains, I arrived on The Isle of Wight today for something different. This afternoon I was out conducting some risk assessments at the two beaches I will be using during the week to run a National Vocational Beach Lifeguard Course . I also got to take my SUP back to where it was born (metaphorically as I am sure it was made overseas). You can see in picture 2 the logo and the headland that it was drawn from at Freshwater Bay.

What a way to start 2019. I was running a joint staff training session for me for Wet and High Adventures with Robin and Ben from Somerset Adventures as we intend to do some combined SUP and Coasteering days later this year. Also great to have Hannah along as chief photographer and SUP "lookerafterer" - is that a word? Anyway, the sun shone, the water was warm, there was little swell and low wind. We SUPped out along the coast from Meadfoot to Torquay before Coasteering our way back (with Hannah towing the boards) exploring caves and jumps. Ultimately we ended up behaving like kids messing about doing headstands and jumping off the paddleboards before going for lunch and coffee at the marina. Lets hope the rest of 2019 goes this well

This afternoon I met with my sister in Torbay to add to her SUP experience. Having been on a canal and lake already, she wanted to try the sea. Being the sensible person I am, I calculated a tide and wind assisted paddle from Meadfoot to Ansteys Cove for coffee and cake. It was a little bumpy at first so a bit of kneeling required across the bigger waves but then it was wind and waves behind and stood up flying along. Once in Anstey's Cove however, all the sensible went out the window and it was silly SUP time try some yoga moves and head stands. Only one of us fell inbut I will let you guess who.

A bit of play time on Canoe and SUP's for my First Year L3 Outdoor Education students from Bridgwater and Taunton College down on the Bridgwater Canal. They have now experienced a whole range of craft. After Half Term we will start on stroke development.

After a day out assessing climbing instructors, I stopped in Tiverton on the way home to introduce my sister to SUPping. A zero wind, warm evening on the Tiverton Canal was a perfect introduction and the Freshwater Bay Paddle Boards  that I borrowed from the Wet and High Adventures kit store performed extremely well being both stable and responsive.

Today I met with Charlie from Freshwater Bay Paddleboard Co to demo some of their inflatable Stand Up Paddle Boards (SUP's) which I was impressed with so I will be adding some to the Wet and High Adventures equipment store from April. There were three different boards and although all were very good, I went for the 10'6" which is an excellent all rounder, very stable but easy to manoeuvre.