Just for the avoidance of doubt, I’m not actually a kayaking instructor. I volunteer at our Girlguiding boathouse where we have one qualified leader and three assistants. I’m kind of hoping to be an actual qualified instructor by next year maybe but for now, I’m using “instructor” in the sense of… well, my job is to go out… More My second season as a kayaking instructor
Oh, I’ve been talking about this for so long! It’s been nearly two years since I decided to go down the kayaking leadership route and at long last, I’ve got my first actual qualification on that route! I finally did my Paddlesport Safety and Rescue course – in fact, it’s been so long that the… More I finally did my Paddlesport Safety & Rescue course!
If you’re a regular reader, you may know I’m on a slow meandering journey to becoming a kayak instructor. If you follow me on Instagram, you may know I’m already there, although you may not realise I’ve kind of skipped a couple of important steps. Last year, I went to a local Ranger unit to… More What is it like to be a kayaking leader?
This is so exciting that I’m writing the first paragraph half an hour after booking, more than two months before I actually did the thing I’m about to tell you about – by the time this is published, I will hold the British Canoeing Sea Kayak Award. (Well, that’s what I thought when I started… More I now hold the Sea Kayak Award! (Well, nearly…)
I did my Wild Swimmer badge! I did my Rebel Wild Swimmer badge! I went wild swimming, in the sea, lots of times! This is my fourteenth completed Rebel badge and it’s possibly the one I’m proudest of, which is mostly because this is one that I’d firmly put in the “Nope!” category when I… More I did my Rebel Wild Swimmer badge!
Today was another big step on my journey to kayaking instructor, a journey I never thought I’d even be on a year ago. I faced my biggest demon and somehow I don’t yet feel as proud of it as I should. Let’s run through the backstory. I took up kayaking semi-regularly back in 2018 or… More I faced my kayaking demons!
Last weekend, I had my first wild swim adventure and it was… well, mixed emotions. I’m opting for “wild swimming” rather than “open water swimming” or “cold water swimming”, by the way, mostly because the Rebel badge on the subject is called Wild Swimmer. It’s a badge I dithered over doing – it’s from the… More My first wild swim adventure!
I planned to write a post in July about how I’m a kayaking instructor, guys! and that post is still coming, I (more or less) promise – but it won’t be this summer. You might have heard my kayaking story a few times. I’ve done a few half-day sit-on-tops tours on the open sea, I graduated… More My 2022 kayaking and wild swimming plans
I’ve been kayaking before. I’ve been kayaking on the sea before – in fact, I’ve only ever been kayaking on the sea. But this post is about learning to kayak on a closed cockpit sea kayak with a spraydeck. The reason is there’s a thing I wanted to do but it’s only available to groups… More Learning to paddle a sea kayak
If you haven’t read Monday’s post on how I fared with my Discover Award, go and read that now. Then come back here and see how the Explore Award went. I said last time that Antz wanted me to do a bow rescue, to hang upside down under a closed cockpit kayak and that I… More … and then I got my Explore Award!