24Hour paddle challenge for charity
JAMES
I have a plan and I need people to do it . I think you could be one of those people .
Last month four intrepid paddlers took up the challenge of paddling for 24-hours straight in aid of mental health charity , Mind . Sam Valman , Matt Stephenson , James Ibbotson and Adele Read came together to complete a 15km loop along the River Trent in Nottingham .
Here Adele tells us about the training , the tough stretches and the reason behind their challenge .
Back in December I received a text message from my friend James Ibbotson which read ; “ I have a plan and I need people to do it . I think you could be one of those people .” The plan ? Paddling for 24 hours on the Nottingham loop totalling 15km all together . Our paddle would take us down the river Trent and back up the canal , all in aid of raising money for the mental health charity Mind .
Of course I said yes ! Our good friends , and local paddlers , Sam Valman and Matt Stephenson joined us for the paddle which we set out for on 3 April 2021 .
Why were we doing this ?
With everything that has happened over the past year , we wanted to do something positive to help people during lockdown . So we decided that raising money for the great work Mind does in supporting people with their mental health , would be a great way to do this . Mental health affects everyone and is something a lot of people are really struggling with right now . As someone who uses paddling to look after their mental health and wellbeing , this was particularly important to me and supporting Mind has always been at the centre of this challenge .
The credit for our paddle challenge is owed entirely to ‘ Ibbo ’ ( James ). Having completed a 24 hour challenge paddling laps of the Upper Dart in 2020 , it led him to think about whether he could do something similar locally . I have to thank Ibbo for inviting me to join as training for this gave me focus and kept me positive in what might have otherwise been a really difficult few months of lockdown . www . britishcanoeing . org . uk
Preparation
As all four of us came from a white water background with no experience of long distance paddling , it was clear we were going to have to do a lot of training ! Over three months , we each committed to ramping up our hours on the water no matter the weather – and Nottingham had a lot of snow and ice this winter . I paddled roughly 1000km of flat water over three months in preparation for the challenge .