Paddle HQ is born
I’ve spent the week a few metres higher than I’m used to. Paddle HQ now has a brand new home, a mezzanine floor overlooking a sea of kayaks and canoes courtesy of The Family Adventure Store in Trowbridge.
The Family Adventure Store in Wiltshire, The Great Big Paddle’s new home
The effect of having a permanent office has been instantaneous. The local press have started to bite and the project has featured in both the Bath Chronicle and the Wiltshire Times this last fortnight. A potential spot on a BBC3 programme is also likely to be filmed in the near future.
Of course, the end game of the Great Big Paddle is the Amazon journey, but the bones of this project are to be strengthened by other paddle challenges throughout 2009 and 2010. For these to add sufficient worth to our overall aims it’s imperative that The Great Big Paddle can attract partners and sponsors, and with a settled base this becomes far easier. I’ve recently chatted to a group of surfers from Sennen Cove near Lands End in Cornwall, about a midsummers paddle to and from Lands End to the Scilly Isles, a distance near 60 miles. More pressing, though, is a potential introduction to Stand Up Paddle Boarding (SUP). It’s exactly what it says on the tin, with the rider standing upon a very large and bouyant surfboard, using a canoe-like paddle to propel along. In early July what is arguably Europe’s largest SUP race takes place off the South Coast as part of Brighton’s annual Paddle Round the Pier. Hopefully this week I’ll be able to be more concrete about an SUP addition to the project.
For now, though, it’s back to the office…
The view from the new office, could this be more perfect?