By Richard Harpham
Bio
Richard Harpham, FRGS, is a human powered adventurer, coach and inspirational speaker who has completed over 11,000 miles of expeditions by kayak, canoe, SUP and bike www.richadventure.com
Richard runs the award winning Canoe Trail watersports and adventure business with his wife Ashley. Thanks to BAM Clothing, Paramo, Valley Sea Kayaks and SilverBirch Canoes for sharing the dream. www.canoetrail.co.uk
Foreword: Rich Adventure
Musings from my world of adventure and paddling
Summer revealed itself briefly a few weeks ago with a blast of warm glowing rays resulting in the pleasant river and sea temperatures and an influx of visitors to our watery world. Equally, we have experienced some torrential downpours resulting in fast-flowing waters, which made for interesting courses we were running. A huge congratulations to Sal Montgomery and the Pedal for Parks team, who completed a first of cycling from the Orkney Isles to the Isles of Scilly, including the two significant sea crossings, the Pentland Firth and Lands End to the Isles of Scilly. Check out www.pedal4parks.co.uk and find out more about their charity causes.
I have sea kayaked both of these crossings and can definitely confirm they are no small undertaking! Our trip from Lands End in 2010 to these stunning islands had to be changed as a huge Atlantic storm battered Penzance and the North Cornwall Coast. The fact they moved the lifeboat from Sennen Cove didn’t exactly fill us with confidence. We decided to use La Morna on the South Coast increasing our voyage to 35 miles with swell of 4-5 metres. Leaving behind the comfort of Lands End and paddling into the horizon was a strange feeling knowing we would be 8-9 hours en route.
The highlight was a Royal Navy Sea King flyby and ovation which boosted morale (except Bamboo Dave who was suffering his 5th or 6th bought of ‘green gills’). We arrived in the Isles of Scilly after 9½ hours of sea kayaking to the World Gig racing championships to discover the food orders had closed. Our protests were met with “You should have got here earlier!” We were trying!!
By the time this edition of paddler arrives on your doorstep it will be the Tokyo Olympics and a feast of non stop sporting action. Britain has a proud tradition of punching above our weight and paddling is no exception with Tim Brabants, Ed Mckeever, Etienne Stott, Tim Baillie, Dave Florence and Richard Hounslow to name but a few. Our good friend Helen Reeves (now Darby Dowman) is commentating for the BBC again so be sure to listen out to her expert knowledge and good banter! Check out her Athens 2004 medal winning run for all the drama. You can tune in to her recent talk on the Canoe Trail You Tube Channel for a personal account of her Olympic Journey.
For me personally as the current (and only) manager of the Ghana Ski Team to the Winter Olympics 2010 (like a Cool Runnings 2) I have experienced the inspiration, camaraderie and brilliance of the Olympics first hand and can only say make time to immerse yourself in Team GB’s performances.
Yesterday, as I write, we had former World Champion in squirt boating and GB Freestyle team member for many years, James Reeves, take to a SUP for the first time with his young son Will. It was fantastic to watch father and son on the water messing about. James was of course into technical self analysis trying to nail a tail spin and moves whilst Will was loving jumping in. We welcome over 1000 young people a year with schools, scouts and youth charities on our Adventure School Programme introducing young people to the great outdoors. Full circle then to see the next generation of future Olympians, adventurers and wild campers trying our sport.
Dream big guys and girls and see the possibility for you.
Happy trails and stay safe.
Rich
