SUP Lead Update - January 2024

On Monday 15th January we had our Canoe Wales AGM, which was really well attended. I was able to share a lot of the work that had been done around our three target areas, governance, training and safety. We have already built good foundations in the last few months, and are starting to ramp up the work now as we look forward into 2024. 

Our new SUP Subcommittee met for the first time on 16th January. It was a delight to finally get everyone together. Ruth Hall Chair of our committee gave a warm welcome to everyone, and Alistair Dickson CEO, also welcomed everyone and thanked our members for giving their time to the committee. It is wonderful to have so many experienced and knowledgeable people as part of the committee, everyone is raring to get involved. We will meet again in early March.

There is a new addition to the Cardiff SUP landscape: I am also pleased to announce that we have a new AquaPaddle event starting in Cardiff. AquaPaddle is ParkRun for paddlers, in any watercraft, although it has been very popular with SUP paddlers. This event will be held at Llanishen reservoir on the outskirts of the city. It is a great location to paddle, it is a very historic location, and a site of scientific interest. The site has a great café, and is also reachable by public transport, so a top location to attend a FREE paddle session.

The first date will be announced very soon. We hope to start in mid to late February. 

You can find out more about AquaPaddle here: https://www.aquapaddle.org/

As we look ahead to the summer, we are focusing on safety projects with the RNLI, looking into working with water safety volunteers to deliver face to face safety messaging to beach goers. We have identified this as a keyway to target people with safety information who will not receive information through a paddling association or may not be aware of how to find information online. These are our key target group, new and casual paddlers. We hope that this will be deliverable over the main summer months.

Also, as we look toward the summer, we are looking forwards to race season. You might not be aware, but SUP is also a fierce and competitive sport! As the National Governing Body for SUP in Wales, we have a duty (and very much a passion in my case) to promote the development pathways within each discipline in SUP. Currently the only discipline where you can compete internationally is SUP racing. This covers, long distance, mid distance, sprint, technical racing and surfing. In most of these disciplines you have the opportunity to compete for your country (or home nation) depending on the event. This has been the case for many years, but it is not that widely known. Keep your ears out, because we are soon to make more noise about how you can get involved in getting involved in racing, and how you can be selected to represent your country at international level.

If this appeals to you, you might want to check out some of the races throughout the UK this year: SUP Junkie calendar

To see some of the action from last year’s world championships have a look here: 

ICF World SUP Championships 

ISA World SUP Championships

Things to look out for in the near future…

• We will be opening applications for the Welsh SUP Forum, and Welsh Safety Forum. These steering groups will be opened up to industry professionals outside of, as well as Canoe Wales members, so we can effectively represent the voice of the SUP community within our work. Look out for this in the spring.
• Over the next few of weeks, as a team, we are preparing for the British Canoeing Deliver Partner conference. I will be presenting on the benefits of SUP school and SUP hire centres joining the scheme. This year the conference will run a little differently from previous years and both live and recorded events will be available to ticket holders from 25th January to 4th June. The cost of the conference is £120 however, if you become a Bronze partner, this will cost you £100 and give you access to all the conference materials. There will be lots of valuable  videos and webinars to help your school thrive, including our very own Bonnie talking about how you can drive engagement through your social media. So why not sign up to be a Bronze Delivery Parter, have all the benefits and access to this years conference!

If you are a SUP School and wish to become a Delivery Partner or want to know more: https://gopaddling.info/british-canoeing-delivery-partner/