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CAKE WITH WOTBIKINI depth with the support of Paddle UK National Trainer Jenna Sanders. As part of this pathway, I am looking forward to attending Paddle Scotland’ s Performance Coach Community of Learning event( Grandtully) this November. I am hoping to come back even more inspired!
You do plenty of teaching to paddlers – how do you prepare, and do you ever get nervous? Interesting question, do I get nervous? As my coaching practice develops, I’ d say less so, mainly because I no longer believe I must have all the answers.
Looking back, I realise I spent a lot of time trying to control and correct what students did on the water. With hindsight, I was simply replicating my own educational‘ top down’ experiences and( unintentionally) holding people back by creating barriers to their progression. I suspect this may have undermined some of their confidence to learn from the incredibly dynamic environments we paddle in.
This will sound very clumsy, but it’ s still a work in progress. Here’ s where I’ m currently at. How can I, with the paddler I am supporting, jointly seek out opportunities for action? Finding those‘ invitations’ within exploratory and creative spaces and selecting with intention. Marianne Davies captures it far better than I can with her phrase,“ Handrails, not handcuffs.”
Come back to me in a few years and, hopefully, I will sound much more succinct about my coaching practice.
How is WotBikini going, and how did that name come about? Anthony Ing’ s wife, Lianne, took a photo of me getting on my board at the start of a river run in north Wales. It was winter, and I was kitted out in knee / shin pads, elbow / arm pads, a dry suit, and a full-face helmet.
No surprise that kayakers often nicknamed us, Robocops! I posted the photo on Instagram as a response to the endless adverts featuring women on SUPs in bikinis. And created # Wotbikini. It still amazes( and frankly appals) me that women are so often dressed and photographed for the male gaze when it comes to selling SUPs.
When it came to naming my business, which at that time specialised purely on supporting women on the water, the name Wotbikini Stand Up Paddleboarding was the obvious choice and still makes me smile.
My coaching business is going well. I have delivered over 300 Paddle UK personal performance award courses and have been shortlisted for two consecutive years for two of the Paddle UK Delivery Partner Awards( Quality and Engagement). Really exciting and amazing to have their recognition. More recently, I have enjoyed working with Paddle UK on some of their safety films, as well as promoting their courses.
In addition to my own business, I have spent the last few years working for the Canal and River Trust on their Waterways Wellbeing program( South Leicestershire), which is hugely enjoyable and great to support so many inspiring individuals and volunteers. It
is a brilliant project and a terrific opportunity to bring my skills as a Youth and Community Worker and a SUP Coach together.
Currently, I am working towards gaining various Paddle UK Provider and Tutor qualifications; a challenging and very lengthy process, but equally one I enjoy. I am especially proud to have delivered my first SW SUP Coach Training this year and have dates in the diary for 2026!
There is tremendous enthusiasm amongst women for SUP – why do you think that is? I think Jess Phillip summed it up beautifully in her interview for SUPMag UK in 2021, where we discussed why so many women were qualifying or about to qualify as WW SUP Coaches. Her take on it was,“ Because our sport is completely new, we don’ t have a stereotype … as of yet. For example, with white water kayaking, the image that comes to mind is typically a guy dropping big whitewater falls; canoeing is maybe a big guy with a beard.”
Four years later, and I think we can apply this across the SUP scene because it continues to be accessible. Many women positively disrupt clichés, including what we wear, our body shape, our motivations, what our bodies can or cannot do, age, etc.
Which brands do you work with, and how do they specifically help you? I am very aware of what you need to do to get brands to notice and support you, but this is a game that I feel little motivation to play.