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Maddi Leblanc: Hello everyone and welcome back to our final episode of this season for the Rise and Glide podcast brought to you by my co host Holly Pye and I'm Maddi Leblanc and we're super stoked to actually just wrap up the season and talk about our favorite conversations and a lot about what Holly and I learned. But first and foremost, Holly, how has your week been? How are you doing today?

Holly Pye: Hey Maddi, so good to see you again! I cannot believe how quickly this season has gone. I mean it's not the end of the season in terms of paddling, but it's the end of the season in terms of Rise and Glide. I have had such a crazy week this week and yeah, lots of paddling, lots of working, lots of... Rushing around left, right and centre. How about you? How has your week been? 

Maddi Leblanc: Yeah my week's been really good as well. My family and I, we got a new puppy so I'm taking care of him as I literally watched him just run by me. I don't know if you saw him on my screen run down the stairs! So he's been a handful, but like super fun and yeah, just training consistently I'm getting ready for worlds in Thailand, just like you are in a couple months. It's been nice to just put my head down and focus on that for the next little bit. 

Holly Pye: Yeah, no, I've seen some of the work you've been doing, it looks super cool, and yeah, I'm also excited to go to Thailand, but before that I have the ISAs in France next week, which is crazy and...

Maddi Leblanc: That is so crazy!

Holly Pye: Yeah, I know, and then a couple of weeks later the Europeans in Portugal, which I'm really excited for, but I haven't booked a single thing yet. I haven't booked travel, I haven't booked accommodation, I haven't even entered, I don't think, so I have loads to do. That's my plan for this weekend is to get my life in order. But anyway, enough about our training and our paddling. This podcast is not just about us! It's about all of our favourite guests and some really special moments that we had throughout the last ten episodes! Yeah, ten interviews that we've been doing with people. I wanna take us back to the very first episode that we released with Mathieu from TotalSUP.  Actually, something that really stood out to me, and this was ages ago now. was when he talked to us about how the very first time he went paddling he caught a wave and he just threw his hands up in the air and couldn't believe it because it was so cool like that's such a special moment isn't it that's something that you have to i guess save forever as a forever moment! 

Maddi Leblanc: That's right! I loved learning about Mathieu's story and how he got into stand up paddle boarding and I think having him as our first guest for the podcast was really a great way to kick off celebrating the sport of SUP and why we love it so much and not just from a competitive or an athletic standpoint, from a point of just pure love and joy and having fun on the water and that's what Mathieu I think embodied. And so I agree with you. I really enjoyed having that conversation with him. And I think that was a great way to, to kick off the season! For sure! 

Holly Pye: Yeah, absolutely. And I guess if anyone wants to follow the next few races they can probably do that through TotalSUP I'm sure he's going to be at some really cool events over the next few weeks when we are busy training and paddling and not recording. Were there any other kind of special moments or really good memories you've got from the last few episodes, Maddi? 

Maddi Leblanc: Yeah, absolutely. I think after Mathieu, I know we talked to Anthony Vela, and I definitely have a very deep and special, heartfelt connection with him and it was just an honour to hear his story as well, and how he transitioned from being an ocean athlete and a waterman his whole life, but then finding paddling and taking it to this really high performance level and how now, just his goal in life is to share that with other people and also get people to just really find passion and love and stoke in the water. So I would probably say Anthony was one of my most favorite conversations that we had just because I know him so well and he speaks so well. So I definitely highly recommend if people haven't had a chance to listen to that episode yet, definitely they should go back and have a listen. But I'm curious too for you as well Holly what was maybe one of your favourite moments as well that we had this season with someone that we got to talk to?

Holly Pye: Oh my gosh, there's been so many. I think every single episode that we did, I I've taken something away from. I actually really enjoyed that conversation with Anthony as well. I think that was one of my favourites. And I just need to get over to California, maybe next time when you're there, I'm so up for coming and I really want to come training with you guys, I think it'd be such a great place to paddle. His enthusiasm for the sport is just infectious, but I also enjoyed, I found really interesting our conversation with Caroline. I learned so much and found her story really inspiring about paddling as somebody who is deaf and who struggles to hear without her implants I really enjoyed speaking with Adya as well about her paddling background and how hard she's worked to encourage so many people into the sport. I think that's incredible and she's just continuing to do, I'm following people of color paddle on Instagram and most days there's updates and she posts so much like informative stuff as well to anyone. It's not just about the sessions so that's definitely, you know a group to keep an eye on. Our chat with Sarah, that was one of the early ones as well, it feels so long ago now! Our chat with Sarah Perkins, like I just had no idea, how useful a stand up paddleboard could be in research and in science, that was also quite cool. I've just, basically, all of these conversations we've been having, I've come away from each of them, saying "I need to go and do that myself", I've come away from chatting with Sarah "okay I'm gonna get into this sounds amazing, like I'd love to spend my days doing that like she does". And then I chat to Anthony and I'm like, "oh my gosh I need to go to California and paddle with him". And then I go and speak to someone else and I'm like, "oh my gosh I need to do that". I found it really encouraging and really motivating chatting with everyone this season. I don't know about you, I'm sure you have too.

Maddi Leblanc: Oh my goodness. I think it's actually so funny that you say that because I totally felt the exact same way like every single person that we got to talk to was so unique and so special and sharing their stories definitely inspired me and open my eyes to a new perspective of the sport, because I think you and me, we're very high performance, stand up paddling athletes, but then, when you talk to Sarah, who's a biologist and then you talk to Bella, who rowed across two oceans you, you see this other side that maybe you never did before, or at least I know I never had seen before and it opens your eyes to this new, perspective that I don't think I would have had otherwise if we didn't talk to them and it definitely made me feel like I wanted to go out and do what they did. So I agree with you too, I definitely think you know later on in my paddling life if there's a day where I want to get back into the world of academia and research I'll probably be like Sarah and take my paddleboard to collect some data if I ever want to do anything super intense and challenging, maybe, hey, maybe I will row across an ocean too one day who knows? I think I learned so much from everyone, just like yourself, and it was very special to have those conversations with everyone.

Holly Pye: Yeah for sure. It's actually made me take a step back as well and reflect, I think, after each conversation and being like, "how cool is this that we, stand up paddling has taken us to, not just cool places, like physical locations, but also just meeting these amazing people". I think back to when I started paddling and and the person I was then, and the person I am now, and how much I've changed. And I think that's probably the same for all of us, we all have a story to tell. And, sport, hobbies, interests, these things can take you to some amazing places and meeting these cool people. It's been really inspiring. I've enjoyed every minute of it. I can see your dog in the background. He's so sweet! He's so cute! What's his name?

Maddi Leblanc: I know! His name's Leo. I just had to move him though, out of the bedroom. He tries to steal my shorts! He loves clothing, had to get him out of there. Leo!

Holly Pye: You're gonna have to take him paddling!

Maddi Leblanc: I'm gonna have to take him paddling. That's right, honestly. He, you know what, he's an adventurous dog. I definitely see him coming on the paddleboard with me at some point. Which I can't remember if we had a conversation with someone about bringing their dog on their board. 

Holly Pye: Not really. We briefly spoke to Caroline about it, because obviously she has a hearing dog guide. And I was like, oh, do you take him on the paddleboard? And then she was like, no. No, he gets bored. And I was like "okay, fair enough".

Maddi Leblanc: That's right. I was gonna say, I remember we had a conversation about a dog on the podcast.

Holly Pye: Although actually, maybe that's something... Did we speak to John about it? I can't remember, but I know that John Hibbard of Red Paddle Co, when we chatted to him, he was talking about Red originals. I'm sure they have doggy lifejackets or something. I'm probably completely wrong and I've just made that up, but I'm sure they must have some kind of dog accessories!

Maddi Leblanc: No, you know what's actually funny, Holly!! They do and I can prove it because I actually have a Red Paddleco lifejacket for my other Golden Retriever, Luna, who's chilling with Leo right now. But yeah, the Red Paddleco does make them. They're the cutest things ever, actually. They're really cool. 

Holly Pye: That was a cool story too, actually, yeah? Wasn't it? John Hibbard, going from somebody who didn't even think about stand up paddling, it wasn't his primary sport, he was a competitive windsurfer, traveling the world, doing really cool things, winning competitions, who then one day decided to get into the development and the production of some really good stand up paddleboards. That is a career change, but I don't think he's looked back since. I think it's been a really good move for him, but also for the industry as a whole, it's really pushed I think innovation of all brands, it's pushed the abilities of lots of people as well and yeah, it's great equipment. 

Maddi Leblanc: Yeah, I know. I totally agree with you. I think talking to John was... very unique because of his innovation and his design and his creativity of changing the perspective of his own sport and knowing "okay, this was my own athletic career that's starting to slow down and I need to change my life and go in this new direction, so how am I going to do that?" And the way that Red kind of came along for him just sounded so natural and so much fun. I hope to be like John one day! Honestly, like going back and listening to his episode, I was like, "wow, like I wanna be like you when I get older". When I'm done my athletic career too, I definitely wanna find something that lights me up and makes me very passionate about going to work and like he even said he doesn't view his job like as 'work' cause he just loves what he does so much and I think. That showcases very well in the brand because the products are so good and they're very well made and well done. I think it just goes to show his hard work has paid off! Yeah, I really liked talking to John.

Holly Pye: Me too. Something that stood out for me actually, with John was when he was talking about some of Red Paddle Co. 's greatest achievements. It wasn't like, "oh, we've sold this many boards or we've made this much money". He was like, "we employ this many staff. They all have lives and families and things they like to do in their spare time and we're helping them do that, we are supporting the lives of these families and not just the people in, their office, but people all over the world. People like yourself in working sometimes in a surf shop who sell Red Paddle Co, they help to support the shop, help to support you, you help to support them". It helps the world go around, doesn't it?

Maddi Leblanc: Yes, it truly does and I think that's just what I love about Stand up paddling so much. Man, I'm so biased, but it not only supports people's livelihoods, it supports people's well being, right? And I think, when I think about Adya's episode that to me felt really cool too, that that's what stand up paddling can do as well. It can empower communities and give people voices and change the world on a higher kind of scale, like a different level, and yeah, I think it's just so cool, eh? Did you find, talking to Adya as well, that you like, learned things that you just didn't know before? Yeah. That's how I felt.

Holly Pye: Things that I hadn't even really thought about and also like I was quite sad to hear some things that I assumed our paddling community wouldn't do, but there are people in every space who are not very nice which is a shame. But we spoke to Adya about the ripple effects and how, she's coached thousands of people probably and hopefully they're going on to also inspire thousands of people and how if her one friend when she was back living in, I think it was in Stockholm... If her one friend hadn't introduced her to paddling, she wouldn't have then gone on to coach those thousands of people and there would be thousands of people who had never tried it, or maybe they'd had a different experience with a different coach and they didn't enjoy it so much. And it's, one person's impact is massive. I think that's what I took from Adya. You don't realise it at the time, but... Your impact can be huge and I hope that with the stories from this podcast some of the people listening have taken away new ideas that they didn't think about before or stories that they've then taken home with them or taken to work or taken on the water or discussed with families and friends and everyone has an impact, and I hope that that's positive. But in the water sports world, I think that's what's nice about paddling as well. I was gonna say, it's not an elite sport. There are elite sections of the sport, but you don't have to be good to start, anyone can do it at any level for any reason. You mentioned about well being. It's not a sport that you have to learn how to do necessarily. Yes, there is an aspect of learning how to do it, but you can also just get on a board and mess about and have fun. Fall in, do whatever you want. Treat it as a beach toy or a lilo and, just go swimming whilst attached to it. Or you can race it at the highest level, or you can go and surf it, or you can use it to do expeditions and... In Sarah's case, research. There's so many uses for one stand up paddleboard and I think that's what's so great about our sport.

Maddi Leblanc: I think what you said is very impactful, it's very empowering, and it's very important, too. I definitely think and hope that everybody who did get to listen to the podcast this season felt the same way learned something new, learned how the sport has evolved, has changed over time, from everyone's perspective, right? Whether you're an activist, an environmentalist, an athlete I, I hope... Everybody learned something and took away something valuable and looks forward to maybe a potential season two! If if that's what the people want let us know, send us a DM or comment below where comments are allowed on on Instagram and Facebook and all the social media because, yeah, I think there's some pretty other exciting people I still really want to talk to that I think would be really cool!

Holly Pye: Yeah, me too. I'm super excited for what's to come. I think there's, we've... We've spoken to some amazing people, but there's plenty more amazing people out there who we still need to get their story and figure out what lights them up and why they're doing it and yeah, I guess share their impact too! We spoke to Michael Booth. That was also a really cool episode. We didn't plan to, but we ended up speaking quite a lot about the kind of mental resilience side of racing and how he I guess just trains himself to stay calm in stressful situations, which is applicable in lots of areas of life, isn't it?

Maddi Leblanc: Yes, absolutely. I thoroughly enjoyed that conversation because, I think a lot of people know Michael Booth's story, like how he's got into the sport and they know of his accomplishments and he's done really well, but I feel like the conversation that we were very privileged to have with him was that mental resilience piece, like how do you approach training and life in general when things get hard and you know we even were just talking about it now before recording like how you know... You're balancing your work and your training life and how some days, you know... One has to take priority over the other or vice versa. And yeah, I think that was really cool Michael Booth taught us a lot about how he takes it to an elite professional level.

Holly Pye: Yeah, and actually both of our final couple of episodes as well with both Emily Evans and Bella Collins, they were on a similar kind of tangent, I think. We spoke a lot about just pushing through the hard times and that, the mental side of racing, staying mindful of your moments, and yeah, I think just taking away those pieces that are good for the brain. I'm gonna leave it with that.

Maddi Leblanc: Yeah, definitely we got to talk to some very powerful women with Emily and Bella and very much, yeah, I feel like that high performance level athlete like Michael Booth, but also women who have changed their course in life. Paddling isn't their primary focus now, but it's something that still means a lot to them and carries with them and taught them a lot about how to move forward in their lives and how... Up and coming athletes, like you and me as well, can learn from their journeys and their experiences and what they've gone through, yeah. I feel very lucky.

Holly Pye: Yeah, I'm actually really interested on that note to find out what you've taken away from this in terms of, those final few conversations where I spoke with Emily about like visualization and pre race routines, how she prepares for a race in the days before, but also in the hours and the minutes before a race. Do you do any kind of special routines or mental warmups or what's your kind of pre racing or pre training routine like? 

Maddi Leblanc: Yeah, definitely. I enjoyed listening to Emily's episode because I found, actually, a lot of very similar qualities in what I do before a race or even just before a training session. I usually always do three things. The very first thing is I set intentions for my session or my race. So whatever it is, I tell myself, "okay, what do I want to achieve out of this?" If it's a training session "What do I want to be able to accomplish in this session?" And sometimes it's literally just completing it. There's days where I'm so tired and I just tell myself, "Okay, I just want to finish this session today". Or if it's a race, then I'm like, "Okay, this is my goal, I want to win". Or, I want to maybe not fall off my board in these conditions. Or, whatever. I just, I pick an intention, and I set that intention. And then the second thing I do is... I visualize... Leo! Sorry... Then the second thing I do is I visualize. Then I visualize my intention and what I want to get out of it. I'll say if it's, again my goal is to win the race that's the intention I set, I'll actually close my eyes and I'll sit on the beach for a minute and I'll picture myself running across the finish line. First I actually think to myself, this is what I want to do, and see it happen, and just keep playing it over and over again, until the race gets closer, and then I actually have to go and do my physical warm up, and then just before I go out to do my physical warm up, I take a moment of gratitude and I say thank you to the universe. I say thank you to my friends and my family that have allowed me to be like where I am right now in this moment being able to go paddle and enjoy. So yeah, that's a bit about what I do. And I guess I'm curious to know as well for you too, Holly. Do you do anything similar? Did you learn from Emily, maybe some things that you want to implement in your own training?

Holly Pye: Yeah I guess sometimes I do this better than others, like, all of the scientific backing is there that it works, and people's experience as well. I'm getting better at doing it, I would say I never really used to, and then I kind of struggle with visualisation. I guess it takes practice but I definitely do it with skills, like turns, my turns are my weakness, my step back turns and definitely I agree that if you're confident and you see yourself doing well it and you tell yourself you're gonna do it well, then you probably do it well, and if you're worried about it and you're if you're seeing yourself fail, then you're gonna fail. So I do get it. But I don't really have a routine, I think, in ahead of a race. Definitely I'm paying much more attention this year to the purpose of my training sessions. On my training plan I might have a particular workout, and instead of just going and doing it, I'm like, "okay, why am I doing this today? What is it that I'm trying to achieve? Am I trying to improve my... Endurance. Am I trying to get super fast? Am I trying to work on my starts? Am I trying to practice sprints? Or is this to help with technical racing?" and I guess with that in my head, I can put more into the session. So yeah, I'm working on it, I think, and hearing cool stories like Emily's help me to implement it, I think, and give me the the reason to go and practice it, but there's definitely some cool people who we could definitely chat to in the future with even more on that.

Maddi Leblanc: Yeah, definitely. I agree with you as well. Visualization It is one of those things I have found to take a really long time to actually implement, and to do really well, because I know there's moments where, especially too, before a race... I know a lot of people at the event, and so you're having these feel good moments, and saying hi to everyone, and you're like, "ah", and sometimes it's like meditating, right? It takes a minute to actually just be able to sit down and focus and tell yourself, okay, this is what I want to see in my head and actually implement it. And yeah, I think we could probably talk to a few other athletes or definitely other paddlers in future episodes that have also found different techniques that work for them before a race or before a paddle and paddling with purpose. It allows them to have either a really good session or a really good race, but yeah, practice makes perfect with all of that, and I think that's definitely what I learned through Emily's episode for sure. I think just the more you do it, and the more you at least try, it doesn't have to be perfect, the better your outcome will be.

Holly Pye: Yeah, I'm gonna do that later, because I have a session to do this evening, I am shattered. I have been manic, busy, all week and all day since the minute, since 5:30 this morning and I need to go out training in a minute and it's a really hard session, it's like one of my hardest all week and I'm not gonna skip it so I'm gonna visualize myself completing it and that's gonna help me complete it because the feeling of having done it, going to bed tonight will be better than the feeling of skipping it and just having some dinner and chilling out instead.

Maddi Leblanc: Yeah, that's right, oh, I know sometimes it's those days that feel the hardest, but those days are also the days where I come back from a session and I'm just so happy I did it. I'm like, "oh my goodness, yes!!" it's so rewarding yeah, you're gonna have so much fun and I believe in you. 

Holly Pye: Ah, thanks Maddie. I think the biggest thank you for this whole season has got to go to Paddlelogger. They've sponsored this podcast and they have an award winning app for stand up paddleboarding. You can track all your sessions, there's built in safety features, there's so much cool stuff on on the app. So head to the App Store and download Paddlelogger, please! You can also download it on Apple Watch as well, the two work together and there's loads of cool things on there. Yeah, definitely go and download that. That would mean a lot to us and let us know what you think. And also to Ali from Hands4Feet. He's done all of our artwork for the merch which you can find on the paddelogger.com website. You can buy a t shirt with Rise and Glide on, which is super cool. I've got mine here.

Maddi Leblanc: Looking good, Holly!

Holly Pye: Not that anyone else can see it right now. And I want to thank you as well, Maddi. Thank you so much for your time. It's been great to chat with you and get to know you a lot better as well as all of our guests. 

Maddi Leblanc: Aw honestly, Holly, same to you. It's been such an honor and a pleasure to interview everybody with you and get to know you so much more too on a personal level and just... Really spend a lot of time with some really cool people, like I'm honoured that you got to share your love and your passion and your stoke as well, like you always asked really good questions and I think that's what allowed us to have such good quality results in our guests and I hope for our listeners that's why they kept coming back, you kept wanting to listen to Holly and I, and our guests, so we do really appreciate everyone's love and support, and most especially Paddlelogger. Which definitely has the coolest merch ever I'm not wearing my shirt right now because I came back from a run and I'm like really sweaty, but I'm putting it on after this when I take my shower, and it's pretty dang cool, I love reppin it around town, so you guys can totally head on over to the store as well to get your own Rise and Glide merch, if you love the podcast and want to keep supporting the podcast. Yeah, feel free to send us some messages. We want to know who you want to hear do you want a season 2? Do you want to keep listening to Holly and I? Please let us know. Leave us a rating as well. We would love to know how much you enjoyed this series and if we should do a future one. Thank you so much, Holly.

Holly Pye: One of the most helpful things, if you do want any future episodes, is to subscribe to this podcast. You can do that on this app. And leave us a rating as well. If nobody subscribes, then we're probably gonna assume that no one wants any more. Whereas if lots of people tell us they want more, then we can do more. And please do send us your pictures in your new Rise and Glide t shirts. We wanna see them so yeah, send us a DM, and take a cool picture! Maybe you could wear it whilst paddling. That would be even better, and we can share that on the paddler logger Instagram as well then!

Maddi Leblanc: That would be the best! Yeah, tag us guys. Let us know. We want to see the love. We want to spread the love. Yeah. Hit us up. 

Holly Pye: I still can't believe this season's come to a close. We've had, yeah, 10 really cool episodes over 10 really cool weeks and we're going to take a little break now just so that Maddi and I can focus on our own paddling and our own racing with some really important events coming up and we're hoping to get back to it as soon as we can afterwards. Yeah, we hope you've enjoyed this whole season as much as we've enjoyed recording it and we'll maybe see you next time. If there is a next time, let us know!

Maddi Leblanc: Rising Glide is brought to you by the team behind Paddle Logger. Get more from your paddling with the Paddle Logger app. Find it on the Apple App store today.