PADDLER 50
Katie on Clevedon on her first paddle as part of finishing Toby ’ s challenge
As you can imagine , I ’ ve spent a fair bit of time recently looking at Ireland via Google Earth . There ’ s one place called Clew Bay that is just in the Rockall Sea area , and it looks amazing with hundreds of tiny islands to weave in and out of all bright emerald green , with mountains in the distance . It might be a total pain regarding tidal planning , and the chances are that when I get there , the weather won ’ t be as good as in the photos , but I ’ m looking forward to it .
PADDLER 50
Katie on Clevedon on her first paddle as part of finishing Toby ’ s challenge
“ kayak school called Traumuntana Kayak in Palamós , and Marc Martin and Anton Kuhn offer training sessions , paddles and swimming pool rolling sessions on weekends . I ’ m there if I can make it ( read , convince my partner to deal with the kids ).
The idea has always been to learn along the way as well . Since I ’ m kayaking with experienced paddlers and coaches , they have helped me to correct my technique and learn new tricks . Nicky Mansell was instrumental in getting me out in a sea kayak for the first time in January and introduced me to different strokes . Julie Perrin helped me pick up Toby ’ s kayak in Cornwall and introduced me to edging in a short paddle on the Fal before I took it up to Bristol . As did Mike , Katie and Dave from the Avon Club helped me get better . The challenge is for me to keep track of the recommendations and work on them .
What do you find to be the most challenging part of learning to sea kayak ? I am not being as good as I ’ d like and getting frustrated . After a year of writing in Toby ’ s voice about kayaking , I think I convinced myself I was an excellent kayaker , only to find that , outside of my imagination , I have a long way to go to even call myself a kayaker at all .
More specifically , I didn ’ t imagine there being so much hip movement involved in kayaking , and it sometimes feels like I ’ m trying to learn dance moves , which I ’ ve never been very good at . I understand the theory of what I should be doing ( more technique and less force , for example ), but that gets lost in translation when I try to get my body to do it .
The one saving grace is that I feel comfortable on the sea . Having grown up sailing and done dinghy sailing as an adult , I can face it with appreciative respect rather than outright fear .
How have you managed your grief with the passing of your two brothers , Marcus and Toby ? By writing a book ! I ’ m a Trained Expressive Arts Therapist , and before writing the book , I was wellversed in using the arts as a kind of holder for emotions that are difficult or limiting to keep inside all the time . I lost my mum to mental illness when I was 11 ( although she is still alive ), my dad died in 2010 , and then both of my brothers ; if there is one thing I ’ ve learnt about loss , it is that it never really goes away , we can just learn to live with it better .
For me staring grief down in researching the book , listening to Toby ’ s voice recordings or reading his writing in notebooks that still smelled of him was hard , but I just kept going . As I filled in the gaps in his trip that I hadn ’ t heard about first-hand , I began to feel like I was getting some extra time with him after he died , being brought along with him on his adventures at some of the best times in his life . I hope the final book does this for readers who know him .
One thing I ’ ve observed in myself and others when facing grief is that we often desire to change things in a big way after a loved one dies . We can ’ t all switch jobs and move to another city , as I did when my dad died , or start a family as I had just done when Marcus died , but we can choose to create something . That something could be a book , it could be an adventure , or it could be something else .
Do you plan to keep kayaking after completing your challenge , and where ? I ’ m trying to stay focused on this challenge and developing my skills , but I expect to continue kayaking afterwards because it ’ s such a nice thing to do !
Spain has plenty of coastline to explore , so I ’ d probably start there . One evening , it did occur to me that if I completed the Spanish sea areas in the Mediterranean , plus the Skagerrak and the Baltic , Together Toby and I would have kayaked in all the sea areas in Europe . But I think there will have been enough bagging sea areas by then ; it will probably be nice to launch the kayak from the closest beach and appreciate being in the wonderful space where the sea meets the land , and only kayakers can revel in .
DO YOU HAVE A DREAM PADDLING DESTINATION AND WHERE WOULD IT BE , AND WHY DOES IT FLICK YOUR SWITCH ?
As you can imagine , I ’ ve spent a fair bit of time recently looking at Ireland via Google Earth . There ’ s one place called Clew Bay that is just in the Rockall Sea area , and it looks amazing with hundreds of tiny islands to weave in and out of all bright emerald green , with mountains in the distance . It might be a total pain regarding tidal planning , and the chances are that when I get there , the weather won ’ t be as good as in the photos , but I ’ m looking forward to it .
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