more important. But delivery networks are already under
stress, and paddleboard gear clearly isn’t essential. It
drives me mad that the ‘stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap’
merchants are actually running a sale right now. That’s
totally irresponsible. But then, ethics has never been their
game anyway, so it’s only to be expected.
Some people are going to really struggle with this
lockdown thing. It’s alright for those of us with gardens
and houses. But what about people in basement flats?
Or with mental health issues? Is the cure going to be
worse than the disease over the long term? Container’s
delayed again. But hey, who’s going to be buying SUPs
anyway? If you can’t go on the water? Or can you? SUP
is exercise, so can you drive to the river to SUP? Seems
like you can?
Hello. Social media seems to have decided that you
CANNOT SUP. Who knew people would get so outraged?
What better way to social distance than paddling.
Social Media. That’s what it’s for. To share your
indignance. Best keep quiet for a bit!
April 2020
At least the weather is nice. Shame we can’t go on the
water though. Where’s our revenue going to come from?
We’ve got to pay for that container, and we need early
season revenue from the schools and clubs to pay for it.
Furlough? Oh, being paid not to work. Wow. National
Trust are furloughed. That’s one lot of boards not
needed for a while. Oh, and the guys at Canal and River
Trust/National Trust at the Roundhouse. Instructors
have been forced to down tools, so they’re not going to
be buying. Hope those guys are OK. If you spend your
life outdoors on the water, in the hills, in the woods, it
must be so hard to have to stay inside. We’re finding it
difficult, and we’re used to desk jobs! And they’ve lost
almost all their income. Tough times. What can we do to
help them? Let’s do a ‘recommended by McConks’ page
for the instructors we know. It might help get them back
up running again more quickly at the other end of this.
More calls from people not wanting their boards yet.
Great. That means more storage costs. At least the
container has been delayed again, which offsets some
of our costs.
McConks SUP comp winner
I’m over the moon to have won this McConks 12’8
go explore SUP. For me, SUP has always meant
time out on the water with my fiancé as he’s a
super keen SUPer, however without my own board
it meant taking turns on his board or
borrowing/renting whenever we could. Failing that,
I’d cycle along the tow path! After taking the
McConks board out for its maiden voyage I’ve
instantly fallen in love with it. It’s definitely the
most stable board I’ve ever ridden and the carbon
paddle is awesome. Thanks so much SUP Mag UK
and Andy at McConks SUP for this amazing prize.
Here’s to the adventures to come!
Abigail Tallack-Cain
What can we do to help raise money? We’ve got a bit of
time to finally get the GoInspire Foundation up and
running. We can do a quiz for charity. Awesome. Loads
of people would do it for a quid surely? Oh. That was a
waste of rather a lot of time. They didn’t. 10 entries.
Maybe it was too hard. Let’s do something else. Let’s
raffle a board.
They’re going mad for the raffle. If you want to raise
money, you just need to give stuff away!
When is this going to end? Who knows? At least we
might be past the peak now…
May 2020
The world’s gone mad for SUP. That’s our busiest
week ever. After months of zero revenue, a slight
reduction in lockdown has got the entire world, well
England at least, back on the water. And we’ve never
had so many enquiries.
Yosemite! We’ve got boards going to a
school/instructor in Yosemite. Already on the way
there on the slow boat from China. We so need a
marketing trip! Next year maybe. Not while Trump is
doing his best to kill the country.
Hawaii! The spiritual home of paddle boarding.
Someone has asked whether we ship paddles there.
With so many shapers on the islands, you might have
thought they can find someone local.
This is getting ridiculous now. Puerto Rico. Can we send
a board to Puerto Rico? Need to think about how to do
this. Flying inflatable paddle boards around the world
isn’t the right thing to do.
That’s just six one-piece paddles I need to cut and stick
today. Three to send to the Netherlands. And a board to
the Netherlands as well.
Ah. Finally. Time to paddle. And to think, we only set up
this company to get ourselves some inflatable
paddleboards from China. From that little seed who
knew it would have grown to this?
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