Holly Learns to Paddle Board

Almost June and finally we get some lovely sunny weather for the a bank holiday and can get out paddle boarding for the first time in 2021. It's almost June and this was out first time as the weather has been so bad!!! Even worse is the fact that we bought a new bigger paddle board 3 or 4 weeks ago so that me and Holly could join the boys instead of taking the kayak.

We set up at our usual place in Boreham and then headed in Chelmsford direction down to the next lock. Despite having to setup 3 paddle boards, I got to use one of my Xmas presents which was an electric SUP pump which made the setup soooo easy and got us in the water in no time at all.

On the way up to the lock Holly sat on the paddle board whilst I oared. Once at the lock we had a nice picnic and just messed around in the water for a couple of hours enjoying the sunshine. Towards the end Holly said to me that she wanted to try paddle boarding on her own!!!!! WHAT? 

So I gently eased her on to a board and showed her how to stand and balance, then got her to just stand there holding the ore to get used to balancing with that. This all seemed to easy for H so I showed her the basic strokes, how to turn and how to stop and amazingly she was off. Only 7 years old and she managed stand up paddle boarding on her own with absolutely no problems.

All of us fell in at some point during the trip (even me) but that's part of the fun.

All geared up and ready for our first SUP of 2021.

Initially Holly sat on our new larger paddle board whilst I did the rowing.

The two boys were off, but Josh has outgrown his paddle board and struggles to stand up due to the stabilisty.

Nice to see this one away from the TV and having fun.

That's the smile that makes it all worthwhile.

Once at the lock it didn't take long before the kids were doing suicide jumps in the water.

She's fearless.

Nice picnic time at river side.

She's such a character.

Brandon playing around in some white water.

Then a bit of relaxing in the sun.

Joshua wanted to try my larger board and found it much more stable and could stand up fine, even with Holly on board.

Nice to see Joshua taking his little sister out on the water.

Then after a few lessons from me, Holly wanted to try SUP on her own.

Holly grasped the concept really quickly and was soon off up the river with Josh.

Amazing, only 7 years old and going solo at SUP.

So now Holly has taken Joshua's old red paddle board, Joshua has nicked my new adult one, so once again I am left without!

We always made sure someone was out on the water with Holly in case she got in trouble or needed help.

But she was find and disappeared off up the river.

She was so proud of herself afterwards and didn't stop talking about it on the way home.

Managing to turn and stop absolutely fine.

For the first time - all three of them paddle boarding on their own. In this picture you can see how much bigger the adult paddle board is. So much more stable. Really pleased with this buy out of LIDL.