Read about our first year in business in Kent in our first positive impact report
When the idea for the Paddle Cabin was born one year ago, we never imagined what it could and would become. It makes our hearts soar when we hear from so many of you about how much joy the Paddle Cabin has brought to your life. How many of you have made friends for life in such a short time. And how many of you call the Paddle Cabin your happy place!
Setting up a new business during covid-19 restrictions came with a number of challenges, from equipment arriving in time, to getting all our relevant qualifications, to group size restrictions, to both of us working other full time jobs at the same time. So, our aim was to welcome 50 members to the paddle life, deliver paddleboarding sessions during the summer season three days per week and, if we are lucky, be 60% booked. Perhaps we were cautious, or sensible, but with so many unknowns, we opened our doors on the 1 May 2021, not quite expecting to land with such a splash.
Fast forward to the end of the season in 2021, and the Paddle Cabin achieved more than we had ever imagined from our endless Zoom calls together late at night during lockdowns last winter.
In 2021, we have…
Welcomed 310 paddleboarding members to the cabin to live their paddle life all year round
Taken 750 awesome people out on the water through our lessons, SUP yoga, SUP meditation, Singles SUP events, Paddles to the Pub
Run weekly club socials, water safety and rescue skills, drills, kit evenings for our members, with 30 – 50 coming each week
Led 186 members on adventures to discover new paddle spots, including our meaningful trip to Snowdonia, to head back to where the Paddle Cabin all began (don’t worry, we will be going back again if you missed out)
Introduced 36 (very cute) dogs to the water safely with our SUP Pups sessions
Hosted British Canoeing training courses for 45 paddlers over the autumn to keep our members learning
Raised over £1,200 for our charity partners (Breast Cancer Now and West Kent Mind) with our Flamingo Fundraiser and Pirate Paddle
Held 4 river clean ups, removing more than 100 cans and bottles, road-blocks, shopping trolleys and more
Received 5* Google reviews from 90 happy customers, who all loved learning with us
Stopped juggling and took the plunge to both quit our full time jobs to bring the paddle life to Kent all year-round (wahoo!)
Won the Muddy Stiletto’s Best New Covid Business Award 2021
Our incredible crew! What a season we have had. And we couldn’t have done it without our staff – Ian, Tracey, Helen, India and Dan. The biggest thank you to you all for your hard work, passion and dedication to the Paddle Cabin to make its first year possible. You all live and breathe our core values; welcoming, happy, curious and responsible. And we love you all for it! Thanks to little Chip for running our SUP Pups sessions too! Another big thank you goes to all our awesome members.
We have loved getting to know so many of you, hearing such inspiring stories and seeing our members grow in confidence, SUP skills and water safety over the season. We wanted to know what our members thought about the cabin and here’s what they told us.
This makes our little hearts burst with pride and we feel so lucky and privileged to be able to add so much to your lives. We focus on the benefits of paddling for your mental health and wellbeing and our members call the cabin their ‘happy place’ and it is ours too.
Our mission is to create a supportive and welcoming community, with high quality teaching at its heart. Our focus is on creating meaningful and tailored coaching experiences for our paddlers to meet their goals, whatever they may be. We are still paddling throughout the winter, and we can’t wait to see what year two brings us.
We can’t sign off without saying thank you to some special people for their involvement and encouragement this year…. A huge thank you goes to Red Paddle Co, Paddle UK, Jenna Sanders, Hayley’s parents, Jo’s parents, Dave Cornthwaite, Keeley Pearce, Sandra Lewin and Rob Powell for all your incredible support this year. And a final huge thank you to our friends and family for your patience and understanding with missing out on so many social events this year because we’ve been paddling! Happy Christmas and we can’t wait to see what 2022 brings ☺
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