Helen Jenkins, co-founder of the newest stand up paddleboarding school on the Mon and Brec Canal delivers their very first session to Zoe and her husband. Sharing the business start-up considerations for Blorenge SUP while still working full-time, Helen also offers the importance of a paddleboard session with an instructor and what students can expect to learn under her tuition. Concentration and mindfulness are key to not falling in!

Helen is keen to encourage everyone to try stand up paddleboarding and talks with enthusiasm about what it means to her personally and how she first found herself ‘having a go’, when surfing didn’t cut it for her. She believes it’s an activity that helps to keep you young and will take every opportunity to throw her board onto the canal and go for a blast!

 

Zoe Langley-Wathen  00:22

Well hello there lovely people, welcome back to the HeadRightOut Podcast. My name is Zoe Langley-Wathen and we're here with episode four today - I can't believe we're on to the fourth episode already. It's just this is such a whirlwind and it's so exciting. What's even more exciting today is that we are going to be talking to Helen Jenkins. Now this was a recording that was done, quite a few months ago now. June, if I remember right. This is a slightly different recording because it's shorter and there are some different sound qualities to it, partly because we're cruising on the boat. Partly because we have boats going by, and because we have people out on the towpath. This is a face-to-face recording, not done over Zoom or over the phone, so please excuse the recording. It's still a great episode with Helen.

 

Zoe Langley-Wathen  01:09

So Helen is a paddleboard instructor. She and Damon, her husband have just recently launched their new paddleboard school in Monmouthshire. It's near Abergavenny and it is the only paddleboard school on the Mon and Brec Canal. So I'm not going to say anything else we're just gonna launch straight into the conversation.

 

Zoe Langley-Wathen  01:35

So if you can hear background noise it's because we are cruising the boat down to Gilwern. We are going down to meet Helen and Damon who are the founders of Blorenge SUP, and this is very exciting for both us and them because this week is their launch week, for their new stand up paddleboard school. This week, it was also Mike's birthday, so I have got him a paddleboard lesson for his birthday and we happen to be their first customers. So this is a very exciting time around.

 

Zoe Langley-Wathen  02:15

Hello Heron! The heron has just sprung out from underneath the bushes. That was amazing. He was about a metre away from me. Such graceful creatures. Right, we're cruising the boat down and we're just about to go under Bridge 101, so we're not too far away. We've got to get to Bridge 104. I'm looking forward to having a chat to Helen after we've had our session. I think we're going to be doing a little bit of mini celebrations for Blorenge SUP, and for us as well. Because this will be my first interview for HeadRightOut... and it sounds like my kettle's boiling. Wouldn't you know it?

 

Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:10

Okay, well hello everybody and welcome. Today is the 21st... no, it's not, it's not even the 21st. It is the 19th I'm ahead of myself. It's the 19th of June 2021, and today is an exciting day, because I have certainly headed out of my comfort zone today. I have been for a paddleboarding lesson with my husband. It was a birthday present, and I bought him the birthday present, because a friend of mine that I have made whilst I've been living up here on the canal has just set up her own paddleboarding business and it's Blorenge SUP, founded by the wonderful Helen and Damon Jenkins. Hello Helen!

 

Helen Jenkins  03:53

Hello.

 

Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:54

How are you, Helen? How are you feeling?

 

Helen Jenkins  03:56

I'm good, thank you, yeah.

 

Zoe Langley-Wathen  03:57

I'm feeling very bubbly after that fizz. My knees are wobbling for different reasons. I'm really really grateful to you for just taking the time to come and talk to us like this, because you've been working hard. You've spent some time working with Mike and I, on the canal. I hope we haven't been too difficult, but yes we've we've been up and down paddleboarding on the Mon and Brec Canal, and it's been absolutely amazing. And we even broke open a bottle of fizz. I say we, YOU broke open a bottle of fizz to celebrate, because this is not just OUR first time, or Mike's first time, (it's my third), but tell me this is quite an historical moment for you, isn't it?

 

Helen Jenkins  04:43

It is today was our very first ever Blorenge SUP paddleboard session, and I was so pleased when I saw that Zoe had booked it for her and Mike. It absolutely made my day. So it has been... I was absolutely thrilled to do it and the first time nerves evaporated. But as soon as I saw you guys, because I just thought this is gonna be such a lovely start to this, you know this whole job. This whole thing.

 

Zoe Langley-Wathen  05:11

Of course it's a journey isn't it? It's an adventure. And I have to say I was I mean I was excited anyway when you told me that you were starting this business, Blorenge SUP. And so is it Blorenge SUP, not Blorenge S. U. P. is that what you just said?

 

Helen Jenkins  05:23

Yes, either or. It stands for stand up paddleboards.

 

Zoe Langley-Wathen  05:27

Yes, yeah. Okay, so yeah, I was really excited when you said you were starting Blorenge SUP, and I had in the back of my head that I wanted to get a lesson booked in for Mike for his birthday, which happened to be last week. So when you messaged me to say it's happening, we've had the go-ahead from the Canal and River Trust, it was like, 'wow, this is this is definitely going to work!' And then I spotted, just purely by coincidence, because I'd liked Blorenge SUP on Facebook, I spotted the post that came up to say 'we're taking bookings'. I was in there like a rocketI! It was pure instinct. And just yeah, it just kicked in, and I booked. I didn't know we were the first. I'm just delighted that we were. It worked out really well. So, Helen... I mean, where did this all start?

 

Helen Jenkins  06:17

Well, Damon actually introduced me to the sport. He's taken up surfing and sort of in early middle age really, and I never really got on with surfing. I think I was probably too late to the party there. But then when we started moving on, he said come and try stand up paddleboarding. I absolutely loved that. That was totally my game. I've always loved the water, in an y case. That sort of swimming in and I like the hand plane. I don't know if anybody's aware of that. But definitely paddleboarding, you can go as fast as you want, or if you just want to get on the water and give yourself a chance to relax at the end of the day. That's what I really like, is just getting my board out after work, chucking it on the canal and just being in the moment.

 

Zoe Langley-Wathen  07:09

I know it feels like a real buzzword at the moment, but it's such mindfulness, isn't it? Just being able to go out there and paddle, and like you say go at your own speed and take in the sights, and I might not be at that place just yet. But I did experience it today I had a few wobbles and I had a few shakes and I know you spotted my knees shakes, particularly when I was getting up from my kneeling position up to my standing position.

 

Helen Jenkins  07:36

Yeah...

 

Zoe Langley-Wathen  07:36

I haven't done that for a couple of years. I have been paddleboarding twice before but once was seven years ago, in Poole Harbour, and the other one was in Shropshire with my good friend Arry. And, you know, I had the same shakes then, but I think it's going to take me a while to get back into that. But I definitely, definitely felt that almost feeling of meditation. And you'd asked me one question, (and I have to apologise for this right now), but I know I realise now what you're doing, but you asked me one question. I think it's something about HeadRightOut, and that was it.... I was blah-de-blah-de-blah-de-blah. And I suddenly went from the knee wobbles went and I just clicked into this autopilot, and was just appreciating where I was. And it took my mind off of being scared. So that was really clever, thank you! So I'm gonna stop blah-de-blah-de-blah, now. So how long did it take for you to set up?

 

Helen Jenkins  08:35

I think it's probably taken about at least eighteen months to get to this point where we're actually able to offer the first session. We've talked about it and so we started doing the training to become instructors with the Water Skills Academy. So we had to do the Water Safety Course. We've done the Foundation Instructors Course. And in between that we've had to do the three-day First Aid and really start getting all the paperwork together, and get the permissions of the Canal and River Trust in order to operate. We live in a beauti