The weekend was organised by Dave Cornthwaite, the “yes man” who I met at a conference in Berlin a few weeks ago, as part of his #summerseries of little adventures in the UK. He is a bit of a stand-up paddle boarding (SUP) aficionado, having already paddled the length of the Mississippi as well as round the Caribbean island of Martinique. (Me, I was a bit more wobbly! But you do learn quickly…) The sport is an offshoot of surfing originating in Hawaii, Hoe he’e nalu. This weekend Dave was joined by Annie Ross and a gang of her “Exerk” followers, as part of her quest this year to do 52 sporting challenges in 52 weeks. We all met up on Friday night at a campsite just outside Oxford where we would spend the night before heading down the river to eventually end up at Goring, 24 miles downstream, on Sunday afternoon.
My arms were sore as we started to paddle; soon, though, I was back into the rhythm again and I felt like I could have gone on forever. When we suddenly arrived at Goring where we were ending our journey I felt sad that it was all over, my mood deflating along with the paddle boards; and when I woke up on Monday morning I was disappointed not to be getting back on that board. The spirit of the adventure lives on, though, in all the friend requests on Facebook, the photos that are being shared and, of course, the memories. And there’ll be a new adventure soon, that’s for sure!
Dave is continuing his #summerseries over the coming weeks. Find out about the upcoming activities and join him on one of them here.
You can also join Annie on one of her weekly sporting challenges here.