my story afloat so far

Having grown up in South Wales, my first experience of boating was with the Sea Cadets when I joined at the age of 12. During my teenage years as a cadet I had the opportunity to try my hand at many small boating disciplines including; Dinghy Sailing, Power Boating, Windsurfing and Paddling. I developed a key passion for the latter and became a British Canoeing Level 2 Kayak instructor at the age of 16.

I can still be found afloat at white water centres, or up and down the river Avon supporting Sea Cadet Kayak training today.

In my later teenage years I also moved to Stratford Upon Avon, where I quickly found myself working as part of a professional team on the River Avon. Working on both Jenny May (a 80ft long tourist cruiser) for Stratford River Tours, and the Countess of Evesham (an 80ft long restaurant cruiser), I gained experience of safely navigating up to 80 people at a time up and down river 3 times a day. I also achieved my Boat Master Licence during this time.

Today I am still involved with helming the 2 cruises on the river Avon, often during the evenings and at peak times in the summer months.

My early 20's saw a key change to my boating career, as I achieved my first RYA Instructor award. Gaining the RYA Powerboat Instructor award initially started to open up opportunities of teaching within the RYA scheme. It also introduced me to a whole new set of contacts and centres. Before long, I also gained experienced Personal Watercraft riding before becoming a PW Instructor and brushed up my Dinghy Sailing skills learnt in my youth, before becoming Dinghy Instructor also.

With all these new found skills, I decided to give up my other role working for a Plastic's Manufacture and go full time freelance in the Water Sports Industry to better follow my passion.

Today, a significant proportion of my time is spent delivering RYA Powerboat Level 2, and the Personal Watercraft Proficiency courses in a variety of well known RYA Recognised Training Centres around the UK. Although I still get the opportunity do teach some paddling and Dingy Sailing from time to time as well.

So what's next? ...I get asked this question a lot!

Having developed a key passion and interest for teaching the RYA small boat schemes, my plan is to further develop my skill and knowledge in this area.

In particular over the winter/spring month of 2022/2023 I aim to increase my advanced theory knowledge and start on the pathway to become an RYA Advanced Powerboat instructor within the next 2 years.

Outside of power sports, I also am planning to increase the amount of Dinghy sailing opportunities with a view to becoming a Senior Dinghy Instructor within the same 2 year time frame. So a busy couple of years of CPD lay ahead!