“Why is it that scuba divers and surfers are some of the strongest advocates of ocean conservation? Because they’ve spent time in and around the ocean, and they’ve personally seen the beauty, the fragility, and even the degradation of our planet’s blue heart.” Sylvia Earle
The face of the woman who is paddle boarding in the sea for the first time!
If you are up to date with my blog posts than you will know I have just come back from a paddle boarding holiday in Devon (although the rubbish weather now makes it feel like it was a lifetime ago!). Honestly it felt like my first real adventure of 2020, thank you Covid-19! I only started paddle boarding 3-4 months ago thanks to some friends letting me use their board and now I am obsessed, it was an activity I had been dying to try but my lack of waterway knowledge massively put me off. “You should have asked Google” I hear you say, I did but there is a lot of conflicting information online which made me even more confused! But all my confusion was cleared up when the British Canoeing Association got in touch to let me know about the work they do and now I am 100% confident in what I am doing.
The face of a man who mastered standing up on his second attempt!
We used the Go Paddling website to find the perfect location. In between Paignton and Brixham you will find Broadsands beach, with its long sandy beach it seemed the perfect place to try out our sea legs! I am not sure why but for some reason I imagined paddle boarding in the sea to be something only athletes and super experienced paddle boarders could do and believe me I am neither of those things!
Despite being a little nervous about paddling in the sea we pumped up our boards and gave it ago. I can safely say it was a lot easier than I thought it would be and after about 20 minutes just bobbing around in the water I was ready to go on a sea adventure! We paddled along the shore and around the coast to a little hidden cove which was completely inaccessible expect for by sea! Nothing makes you feel more like an experienced paddle boarder then paddling off to your own private beach!
He sat, I lay in the afternoon sunshine before looking for unusual shells and crab shells (its the little things in life). After a couple of lazy hours on our own little private beach we noticed the wind starting to pick up so decided to head back because I didn’t want day one of our paddle boarding adventure to end with being rescued by the coast guard, being eaten by a shark or floating over to France! Can safely say its a little harder paddling into the wind.
You might notice that all the pictures in this post of me are selfies this is partly because Alex didn’t like holding my camera in the water and secondly every picture he took of me in this swimsuit was taken at the fat angle (I had a little cry when I saw the pictures) clearly he has a lot more to learn about Insta life! By the end of this year I will make him my Insta hubby! (the meltdown I had about being fat later on that day certainly helped in regards to the amount of effort he was putting in). On a side note this swim suit will never be seeing the light of day again!
The southwest of England in September really is a pleasure, I have been the last few years and honestly if you don’t have kids I would highly recommend going once the schools reopen. The weather is still beautiful but the crowds have pretty much gone.
To celebrate not dying at sea we headed to Torquay for a few drinks and by a coincidence one of Alex’s friends and partner were staying in Torquay. I can safely say us women were both very suspicious of this! Never the less we had an amazing time and it was lovely to see them although I felt very differently the next morning with a hangover.
A lot of cocktails and shots (for some reason I thought I was 16 again) later these signs made me laugh until the cocktails were coming back up through my nose! At this point it was 2.30am (its been a very long time since I stayed out past 9pm we decided to head back! I am far too old for this!
I have popped some links below to paddle boards I have used and loved, these are affiliate links just so you know!
