PADDLER 46
PADDLER 46
a new confidence in their abilities, and reignited an adventure spark that had been lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. They told me they’ d returned home each week buzzing and smiling, more like themselves and with more patience for their families. These conversations, surrounded by nature and water, organically flowed to minimising wildlife disturbance, non-native invasive species, marine protected areas and even topics like overfishing.
ABOUT CAL
Cal Major is a world-record expedition paddleboarder, ocean advocate, filmmaker, podcaster and veterinarian based in the Scottish Highlands. She is the founder of the UK charity Seaful, connecting more people to our ocean through transformative ocean experiences and resources to empower ocean citizenship.
THE SUP BUG HAS BITTEN
My dream with this programme was to enable confidence and competency to continue paddling after our sessions, with our boards available for local exploration of our sea and lochs. The SUP bug has bitten both women in this initial cohort, and they have paddled several times since, exploring new places locally. Both have said they feel significantly more connected to the ocean, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally, since learning to paddle, and that their understanding of the ocean, including marine life, ecosystems, and human impact, has also increased significantly.
This has served as a reminder to me not to overcomplicate things, that paddling is such a connecting experience, and that sometimes all that’ s needed is to support that first step, share these amazing blue spaces, and the rest will fall into place.
Massive thanks to Palm Equipment for supporting our Women’ s Highland SUP programme, and thank you for reading about our project!
If you’ d like to volunteer with Seaful, please get in touch: hello @ seaful. org. uk
As a small charity, every donation makes a big difference. If you would like to support Seaful, please visit https:// seaful. org. uk / donate /. Thank you.