Pick Up A Paddle
Author and paddleboarding instructor Anu Aladin looks back on her introduction to the sport and gives advice on how to get started
Anu paddling on the River Thames.
I first saw stand-up paddleboarding while on a trip to Hawaii in 2010. A middle-aged paddler walked across the beach with what looked like a giant surfboard and a stick, then glided off into the sunset. I didn’t even know what the sport was called but I was mesmerised.
The following year I took a lesson in Cornwall. I spent much of the session in the sea because my legs were shaking so much, but the moments I managed to stand up felt incredible. It was freedom.
At the time I was living in my native Finland and when I moved to south-west London in 2012, I honestly never imagined paddleboarding would become such a big part of my life here. I’d bought a hard board after Cornwall but sold it before moving because I didn’t know where I’d end up living, whether I’d have a car to transport it or even if there was anywhere to paddle in London.
I ended up in Teddington, right where the tidal and non-tidal Thames meet, but at the time I didn’t know what tidal waters meant (we don’t really have tides in Finland). I certainly didn’t realise you could paddle the Thames. I knew about rowing from the Boat Race and, of course, boating and riverside walks, but I’d never thought of the river as somewhere you could explore standing on a board.
A group paddle on the Thames Tideway.
River lessons
I found a local SUP school, Active360, at Kew Bridge, and went out with one of the founders, Paul Hyman, for my first Thames session in late autumn. He’d kayaked the river for years, so paddling with him was like getting an introduction not just to London paddleboarding but to the river itself.
The waterway was completely different from the lakes and sea I’d paddled before. The foreshore was exposed, muddy and slippery and Paul explained the tide was ebbing. We launched upstream and I remember the odd sensation of standing up while the river was pulling the board the opposite way. I hadn’t appreciated how powerful the tide could feel.
It was windy, so we ducked into the stretch at the junction of the Grand Union Canal and River Brent, paddling to a more sheltered area with boatyards and a weir. It felt like discovering a secret side of London, only accessible from the water.
A later trip at high tide showed me a completely different River Thames. Wider, it carried us upstream towards Richmond, where we stopped for a drink before riding the ebb back. I was fascinated by how much the same stretch changed with the tide.
I was hooked. Paddleboarding always gave me a sense of calm and presence, but in London it was also the aspects of adventure and exploration that made me want to carry on. I hadn’t expected to find that here.
A post-industrial landscape at Bethnall Green, on the Regent’s Canal.
Where to start
For beginners, I’d find any sheltered flat water where you can focus on the basics: getting up from kneeling, turning, stopping and practising getting back onto the board. Self-rescue is an important skill to learn early.
For inland waterways, calm canals, reservoirs and enclosed docks are often ideal because they usually have little or no flow and limited traffic. In Paddle London, my level one routes are exactly those kinds of places and where I’d point beginners. A quiet canal can actually be a great classroom, as long as you are mindful of boats and understand basic waterway etiquette.
