Ditching Your Safety Boat

Elgol, Isle of Skye

The key to success in pushing your perceived limits.

All of my stand up paddleboarding expeditions have been without support on the water. I strongly believe that each individual should choose the level of support they need on the water based on experience, the levels of your comfort zone and personal and specific expedition circumstances and facilities.

I’ve never really had the option of a safety boat available to me. However I have always entered into my expeditions with a deep respect for the oceans and my vulnerability to the power of nature, with my safety kit and precautions well thought through. So please, if you do need a safety boat for your expedition or trip, then there is absolutely no shame in having one. The safety boat I’m referring to here can be as much metaphorical as physical.

More info on staying safe on your SUP here.

There have been so many times on the water when I’ve wanted to give up.

I’ve been exhausted, hungry, grumpy, aching, fed up, lonely. In so many of those moments, if I had had a safety boat there alongside me, I wonder if I would have taken the easy option and jumped aboard, forgoing my challenge and my destination. But without that boat there, I’ve had to push through all of those feelings, to find the strength and motivation from deep within to continue, to reach my destination because the alternative, staying on the water, wasn’t an option.

Time and time again I’ve made it to land unable to believe just how far I’d paddled that day, how hard I’d pushed myself, the varying waves of emotions and feelings I’d gone through, many of which told me to give up in their own way. How easy it would have been to just jump on a boat, have a hug from someone onboard, get that pep talk, have a nap, but then miss the tide window to carry on, and had to relinquish my goal for the day.

Instead I’ve found reserves of resilience and strength, both physical and mental, that I didn't even know were there, waiting to be discovered if only given the opportunity to present themselves.

I’ve managed distances day after day I didn’t think possible, found reserves of positivity to provide my exhausted brain with to carry on, and pushed through burning physical pain and fatigue to get to my destination that night, because I had to - I had to get to land. Time and again I’ve discovered ways to comfort and support myself when there’s been nobody else to keep me going, cultivated positivity when I would have just wanted to moan and grumble to someone else, and held my head high and cracked on. How much easier would it have been to give up just a few miles short of those achievements and empowering moments, if a boat had been there?

That’s not to say that having a team, acknowledging your own limits, and being respectful of safety, aren’t important. They are absolutely crucial. But so often we rely on our safety nets instead of achieving what we’re actually capable of.

So what is your safety boat? What do you keep falling back to or relying on, what’s standing between you and pushing your comfort zone or your perceived limits that tiny bit more, and realising your true potential? Whether that’s in a physical challenge, your career or a project you’ve been working on. What is there giving you the option to give up before you achieve what you’re truly capable of? And how can you banish it?

I think just acknowledging that we have a safety boat offering us the easy way out can help us to really ask the question of whether we truly need to step onto it in that moment, or whether we have a few more paddle strokes in us, and wondering where those paddle strokes might take us.

Self respect? Achievement? Empowerment? Nudging our comfort zones and growing as people? Improved fitness and physical goals? 

Just again, remember to stay safe out there on the water - if you are pushing your limits in a physical way, please please do it safely, respect your limits, and always respect the water.