“I have worked with young people with additional needs since November 2010. I started at Truro College and within the first couple of years, I realised that most of the activities that neuro-typical young people undertake whilst on holiday seemed to be deemed unsuitable for those who may be neuro-divergent, so families coming on holiday would choose not to participate at all.
We want to change that! It took some time to get started, but Suse and I began running Accessible Adventure in February 2023 with a view to providing Coasteering activities to groups such as Cornwall Accessible Activities Programme (CAAP). We had some success in the first summer but then, having seen the growth in popularity of Stand Up Paddleboarding we decided that we should perhaps look into offering this alongside Coasteering.
In September 2023 we secured some funding from the Cornwall and Isles Of Scilly Growth Fund to be able to buy some paddleboards and get the necessary training. We bought the boards in January 2024 and started learning.
At the time, the only course available that would give us access to the sea was the SUP Coastal Leader. We signed up for the training with Reach Outdoors in Devon and attended the course in April 2024. From the feedback at the end of the course, it was clear that our largest focus needed to be our own paddle experience. I have been a teacher for over 10 years, and Suse works at a nursery school, so group management and communication skills were already pretty strong, but personal paddle skills required some development! We set out to rectify that.
By February 2025 we were in a position to consider the assessment and contacted JP. He informed us of the new SUP Tidal Leader award that would still give us access to the areas of the coast that we needed, but without being quite as intense as the Coastal Leader. As the clients that we were aiming to attract would not be looking to paddle a mile offshore in 3ft of swell, we accepted JPs advice and decided that the SUP Tidal Leader was the right award for us. We booked him for 13th June 2025. We’d only been paddling about a year!
Shortly before the assessment JP informed us that because it was the first SUP Tidal Leader assessment, Darren Joy would be there to assess him assessing us. That just made us even more nervous! On the day, we had 4 “clients” for the assessment, one of whom is a young lad I work with who has Autism but loves being in or on the water, so it was perfect that he was there as this was the whole purpose of Accessible Adventure! He is also eager to be involved in Accessible Adventure. The weather was pretty miserable, but the day was fantastic. We even had a seal follow us down the river for a good mile, playing in the wake of the boards! Nobody really likes being judged on their performance, so when JP informed us that we had both passed, the relief was fantastic!
Massive thanks to both JP and Darren for their time and support on the day!
We have since been granted a licence from AALA to run sessions for young children, and as a result have secured bookings for Young People Cornwall, an organisation that offers drop in youth groups and mental health programmes to local children, and CAAP, a charity in Cornwall for people with additional needs.
Hopefully, this is only the start, and our vision of making the Cornish Coastline available to anyone of any mindset or ability, will start to bear fruit!”
Become a SUP Tidal Leader!
If you love exploring coastlines and estuaries, learn how to guide others on exciting SUP journeys where you can share your passion for paddling in dynamic tidal environments.
The SUP Tidal Leader award is for confident paddlers who want to safely lead others on coastal and estuary trips. Building on your existing skills, enabling you to take others out in up to force 3 winds, with no restrictions on tidal movement or flow.
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