With a love of SUP racing, windsurfing, cycling and pole
dancing (!!) Fran Blake is the ever popular right arm of
Nik Baker and his K66/Fanatic UK distribution
company. With injury marring event attendance
in recent months – and indeed the opportunity
to paddle full stop – Fran recently underwent
a second bout of surgery to right the
wrongs. With her imminent return to SUP
on the cards Fran tells us her story..
Words: Fran Blake
I first saw iSUP around 2010/11. To be honest I
thought to myself: ‘Why would you ever want to
do that?!’ My first ever paddle on a SUP was in
July 2012 at Beachlands, Hayling Island, with my
Osteopath friend Nick Cowx who'd been treating
me for years for sporting injuries. He kept nagging
at me to try SUP, so I did.
I was hooked well and truly from the beginning. I
guess I'm a bit of a water baby. I started
windsurfing when I was 16. Back in my twenties
I'd paddled Dragon Boats pretty seriously,
travelling to Asia to compete for the UK team at
the Worlds in Hong Kong. After that I moved to
Australia and lived in Sydney for six years where I
got into outrigger paddling. Getting on a SUP was
an eye opener.
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