Risk , choice & passion.

What if ? Extreme sports have an element of risk that we expect, but do our families ?I always talk to my parents, partner and friends about my passion. I’ve had two near misses ,each time I reflect on what happened and the consequences that could have been .Was I prepared? did I make a mistake? Or was I just unlucky? This is a progression of your paddling life.. You must trust in your ability, equipment, training but most of all Your judgement. You are responsible for your own actions and decisions . In paddling I see a lot of peer pressure , sometimes good ,sometimes not. Yes some times I felt pressure if I didn’t run a drop ,what would the others think?. A lot of the time my mental state was not right so I made mistakes.

So that’s brings me the the last thing. As you progress though the technical side of paddling ,you’ll see skill changes to more mental preparation. “I feel good about this wave” this focuses me on what I’m doing and not what might happen. On the other side , after a stressful week I was paddling when we reached a rapid that I’ve paddled lots of times before. We stopped to inspect it, my head was not in the right place so I walked round. The group looked at me and said “you did it last time what’s up?” It was my decision and I made it.This is only my view, but I hope this helps you to make the right choices .

See you on the water.

Barry