SUP500: 500km. Non-stop. One paddleboard. One purpose.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I’m taking on SUP500, an attempt to paddle 500km non-stop on a stand up paddleboard, without touching land, to raise money for Above Water and help educate thousands of children in water safety and drowning prevention. Starting on 25th September.

What are we raising money for?

My aim is to fund 10 Young Leader Water Safety Training Hubs across the UK.

Each Hub can support up to 50 schools, with every school sending 3 or 4 Young Leaders to be trained by Above Water. Those young people then return to their schools equipped to teach their classmates about water safety and drowning prevention, through classroom sessions and whole-school assemblies.

That means a single Hub has the potential to reach thousands of children.

Fund all 10 and the impact could be huge.

And there’s an added opportunity. The 10 highest donors will each have the option to nominate an area of the UK where they would like Above Water to deliver one of these Hub sessions.

Autumn and winter are the perfect months to get this education into schools, ready for when children and families return to the water next spring and summer.

The challenge

I’ll leave Torquay and attempt to paddle 500km without stopping and without setting foot on land.

This isn’t about suggesting that everyone should paddle hundreds of kilometres offshore. Quite the opposite. Through the challenge I want to demonstrate that enjoying our blue spaces safely comes down to knowledge, preparation, experience, the right equipment and understanding the risks.

I’ve spent much of my life around water and I know the enormous positive impact the sea, rivers and lakes can have on our physical and mental wellbeing. I also know how quickly things can go wrong when people don’t have basic water safety knowledge.

That’s why I’m doing SUP500.

500km to help give thousands more children the knowledge that could one day save a life.

Please donate whatever you can and help us create the next 10 Above Water Young Leader Hubs.

Thank you.

Brendon