The Great Paddle Board Challenge

Over the last few years since my father Pat suffered his second stroke which unfortunately resulted in loss of movement down his right side and loss of speech, which was devastating for Pat and the whole family. After years of hard work physiotherapy and speech therapy there has been some improvement, Pat is able to walk short distances sit in a restaurant chair and with difficulty hold a conversation.

Pat his wife Rosemary, my mother, has received much needed help from family friends and various organisations over the years, but none more than from the Petersfield Stroke Group and in particular their communications support coordinator Mandy Souter.

One of my fathers great loves has always been sailing, which started when he served in the Merchant Navy as part of National Service, this continued with the building of a Mirror dingy kit in the living room and then several sailing boats, family sailing holidays crossing the English Channel and his love of the pastime has never stopped even after suffering his last stroke while sailing solo a small dingy in Bembridge harbour on the Isle of White. He is still able to continue with this passion with the help of Sail ability at Langstone Harbour Sailing Club.

This is the reason I have inherited a love of all things water sports related, from sailing with my father as a youngster I have windsurfed, kitesurfed sailed dinghy's to large yachts and now run my own business teaching others to stand up paddle board.

I wanted to do something to say thank you to Mandy and the Stroke Association, having run lessons paddle boarding on various sections of the Basingstoke Canal and the River Wey the idea of paddling the entire stretch came to mind.

After mentioning this to Mandy on meeting her out in Petersfield one night I knew we were committed and we had to make it happen.

So dry suits for Lis my partner and I were bought and winter training commenced. Sarah the chocolate Labrador would be coming along to but she already had a warm coat.

The Just giving website was set up and the route and stops were planned, it would take a week to complete starting on Sunday in Odiham finishing in Godalming on the following Saturday.

The date was set for Sunday 24^th May and it soon came around, we arrived at Odiham at 12:00 expecting a send off from a Mum, Dad and few others only to find that there was a celebration that day of Odiham's involvement in the Magna Carta. There were stalls kayak demonstrations on the canal, boat trips to the castle and many canal boats had travelled up to join the fun.

So instead of the rather small lonely send off we were expecting a truly great one with PA announcements and a large crowd lined the tow path to wave us off.

2:00pm we were off on the first leg which would take us to Fleet. My brother Nick and his children Maddy and Bella joined us.

We arrived in Fleet after a six mile paddle around 6:00pm feeling pretty good an easy start in lovely sunshine, we would be sleeping each night in our camper van which we would need to move on to the next stop each morning, after a long day we settled in, cooked some food and went to bed feeling pretty tired. For this first stage my brother Nick had moved the van on and cycled back to Odiham to join us on the paddle, we are very grateful for this as we are for all the people who helped move the van on throughout the week, he had parked the van on a slope which meant through the night a very tired dog Sarah kept falling off her bed moaning, groaning and waking us up. 5:00am came along and we gave up putting the kettle on for coffee.

Monday 25^th May Fleet to Mytchett

After coffee with Darren from The Snowboard Shop and pumping up the boards moving the van on we set off around 12:30pm, another lovely sunny day It wasn't long until we came across two kayakers with a tale of a killer male swan who had been attacking kayaks, boats and surely paddle boarders, they advised us to exit the water and carry our boards up the tow path until we reached the next bridge, so we worked out a way to carry the two boards together and set off a quarter of a mile. Later exhausted we reached the bridge having passed the swan who was very aggressive but he was protecting his new family.

We paddled on having forgot to pack any lunch until we reached The Swan about half a mile from Mytchett, starving we dived in for a pint and some food and a surprise visit from friends Kevin and Linda.

Tuesday 26^th May Mytchett fund raising day

After two days paddling to ease us in we spent the day on the camp site at the Basingstoke Canal Centre Mytchett, however not all rest for us as the Petersfield Stroke Group were arriving a 11:00am for a fund raising day and we would be running paddle board taster sessions for donations,

so boards to pump up gazebo to erect and bunting to hang.

The day was a great success with several groups coming out on the canal with us lots of kids who has a wonderful time and notably our most senior paddle boarder to day 70 year old Geoff who we had met the day before when he was riding his bike along the tow path.

Wednesday 27^th May Mytchett to Woking

Our friends Kevin and Linda had offered to help move the van on to Woking in the morning, I received a text from Linda asking to meet at 9:00am which meant an early start pumping boards up and getting the van ready. It turned out the early start was just as well for this would prove to be the toughest day of the trip. About a mile down the canal we came across our first lock, which doesn't seem such a big obstacle as you just pull your board out of the water, walk around and then relaunch the other side. The problem comes when seven and a half hours later you finally reach lock twenty two that day.

We arrived in Woking around 6:00pm ready to collapse only to be met by two friends Matt and Hazel. Not wishing to disappoint our public we had. a drink and a meal with them but only lasted until about 9:00pm. Big thanks to them as they helped us move the van on to the next stop

Thursday 28^th May Woking to Wisley

At 9:00am we had a photo shoot with Graeme from the Woking Advertiser not sure if we made it into the paper. After that little bit of glamour we were off again on a competitively easy day with only six locks and about five miles to paddle.

The sun was out again and this was the day we would finish the Basingstoke Canal and join the River Wey then turn right and start the paddle against the flow towards Godalming.

We turned the corner right underneath the M25, headed up towards Wisley where we would stop at the Anchor Pub, we passed many beautiful waterfront houses many worthy of Grand Designs, you get a very good view from a stand up paddle board.

We reached the Anchor at about 4:00pm had a nice chill in the van before Mum Dad Kevin and Linda came up to join us for a very nice meal in the pub.

A word about the Anchor Wisley, a wonderful pub in a beautiful location with extremely helpful and friendly staff a big thank you to them for their help.

Friday 29^th May Wisley to Guildford

Today was a day we had been dreading having keenly watched Carroll's weather forecast each morning on the BBC Breakfast, for today was to be the first wet and windy day.

We set off to some spots of rain but donned all our warmest wet gear, an hour in the heavens opened we were hit by heavy rain, hail, thunder and worst of all a 25mph headwind which your only defence against is to kneel down keep your head down and paddle like crazy.

Still smiling and looking like drowned rats we reached Send and took shelter in the New Inn until it finally started to clear up.

That afternoon steadily got better and better until eventually we felt the welcome return of the warm rays of the sun on our backs.

We reached our stop point the Rowbarge Guildford early evening another very friendly welcoming pub along the way. This was a stones throw away from our friends house Kevin and Linda who invited us back for home made lasagne with crumble and custard to follow, Lis had a welcome and well deserved bath. We then returned to the pub to listen to the music they had put on and then bed.

Saturday 30 May the final day Guildford to Godalming

Double hooray the last leg plus the welcome return of the sunshine, today we were joined by my elder brother Nick and his daughter Bella.

We hit the centre of Guildford at lunchtime with a killer fundraising combo,Sarah the dog riding on my board, Bella walking the tow path with the donation bucket and Nick 'The Mouth'!

A big thank you to the people of Guildford as in that small stretch of water we raised a further £100.

leaving Guildford we paddled our way to Shalford where we stopped at the Parrot for a spot of lunch before the final push to Godalming.

We arrived in Godalming after six days and 22'500 paddles,having seen many beautiful sights met some wonderful people and raised over £1000 for the Stroke Association feeling very tired but very happy to have achieved an amazing challenge.

Big thanks must go out to Mandy Souter, Mum and Dad, Nick, Katherine, Maddy, Bella, Kevin and Linda, Matt and Hazel my partner Lis very proud of you, the Anchor Wisley, The Rowbarge Guildford and the Three Lions Farncombe who looked after us on the last night.

https://www.justgiving.com/paddletrek/

https://www.stroke.org.uk/finding-support/petersfield-stroke-support-club