Rise & Glide, Episode 6: Adya Misra
TRANSCRIPTION:
Holly Pye: Hey everyone, welcome back to Rise and Glide. My name's Holly Pye and sadly I'm not joined by Maddi today because she's away racing at the Canadian SUP Nationals so I hope you join me in wishing her good luck for all of her racing. She's doing the sprint and the technical races tomorrow on Saturday, and the 20km long distance race on Sunday. So yeah, really excited to hear how her races went when she gets back! But today in the meantime we have an episode with Adya. Now Adya is a really cool paddler. She's been paddling for over 10 years and she started in Sweden. Since then she's moved back to the UK. She's taken up canoeing, kayaking and stand up paddle boarding. She wanted to give back to the community and so she took up coaching and since then she's coached thousands and thousands of paddlers which is a really cool statistic. She's very passionate about getting minority groups into paddle sports to spread the love and she initially became a "She Paddles" ambassador which helps more women get into paddle sports and since then she's now founded "People of Colour Paddle". So let's get into this episode and hear what she has to say!
Holly Pye: Hello welcome Adya! We're really excited to have you on the podcast today. Thanks for joining us. How are you today? How's your day been so far?
Adya Misra: I'm good, thank you. It's been an interesting day. I'm a little bit sick, so you can probably hear it in my voice, so I apologise. But yeah, it's been really good. The sun's finally shining again, so my mental picture also looks a lot better, and thank you for having me. Thank you for persevering through all of our very busy calendars. I know it's not easy to find time for everyone, so I appreciate that.
Holly Pye: No, it's great to have you we're really lucky to have you on today. So we want to talk to you about all things, all kinds of paddling. There's lots of paddling going on in your life. Let's start right from the very beginning. How did you get into paddling? Tell us more about yourself, just in general, as well as how you got into paddling, what you do, who you are.
Adya Misra: Yeah, so my name is Adya and I work in a commercial publishing organization. That's my day job, and I lead a team of people who do. Fairly interesting, but in this context, quite boring things. We do like reputation management and brand management, that kind of thing and we do lots of investigations into fraud. So it's very busy, and, of course when I'm not working, I do kayaking and paddle boarding and coaching, which I love and absolutely love being on the water coaching people through their journeys in paddle boarding, whether they're starting or established. I love doing my personal adventures, so I'm pretty much up for any type of paddling, but I do prefer to do coastal exploration, which it's lucky for me because I now live 15 minutes away from the sea.
It wasn't always like this, so I'm very grateful, and yeah, I do quite a lot of paddle boarding and a lot of kayaking. But I also do canoeing when I can. Just it's a much bigger craft, so it's not as easy for me to get out in my canoe. But when I can, it's a really good laugh. So I do, yeah, do lots of things. And I guess I haven't been paddling as long as most people in paddlesport, but also it is a lot longer than many people, so it's a weird time frame. So I do paddlesport quite a lot later in life than other people do. So I wasn't introduced to it as a child or as a younger person. So it was quite late twenties really when one of my friends introduced me to kayaking and it was because I was living in Sweden it was the middle of summer and she told me this is what Swedish people do in the summer, and I said "okay, fine, but I'm not Swedish, so I won't do this" and it took her a couple of weeks to be fair. She persevered, every week she would send me a message saying "the bookings are up" and "do you want to try it this week?" and I would just say, "no, I'm really busy, I'm really busy". I used to work as a researcher in a lab at that time, so my life was very busy. I was working pretty much 12 hour days, including weekends, so for me, work was life, and the thought of leaving the lab at 5 o'clock to go kayaking was just... Completely bizarre. I was like, who does that? Why would I do that? And if I do that, I'll make a total fool of myself. I've never done any sport. I'm not strong. But, bless her heart, she persevered for at least four weeks. I've got emails that prove it, and I finally signed up one week because I just got fed up of her asking me.
I said, "look, fine, I'll come this week, and I'll bring another friend because I don't trust you" and I convinced another friend of mine from the lab to come with me and get in a double kayak because that's how scared I was. And I think it was almost life changing for me at that time. Of course, I didn't know it then but it was... It was a beautiful Stockholm evening on the lake. It was sunset, we did a short open water crossing, which I'm surprised now that I think back to it for complete beginners. We went to a nearby beach, we had a swim, we had a picnic and a barbecue. It was really beautiful. The only thing I remember from that night was coming back to base and going for a pint with everyone and really being unable to lift a glass of water because my arms were just knackered and of course I had no technique. Nobody told me what to do. I just went for a paddle and I really enjoyed it, and I went back every week, and then it started to get more frequent. I started doing it two, three times a week, building distance, and of course, no coaching or anything, so I was just doing whatever I could. Yeah, that's where it started, and I started doing lots of sea kayaking there as well. I was really lucky. I don't think most people's first introduction to paddlesport is sea kayaking in the Baltic Sea or circumnavigating small islands in an archipelago, but yeah, that's what my introduction was, and it was really special.
Holly Pye: That's amazing. That sounds so cool. What time of year was it again that you were in?
Adya Misra: I was living in Sweden for about two and a half years and it was middle of summer. People in Sweden start kayaking around midsummer when it gets warm enough. There's no winter kayaking for leisure paddlers. My friend started around midsummer trying to coax me out of my indoor, indoors life and I finally made it out on the 27th of July. I was looking at the emails the other day and yeah that's the date.
Holly Pye: That's like a paddleversary!
Adya Misra: Yeah could you call it that! It's coming up to 10 years this year, so it's a very special July for me.
Holly Pye: You'll have to celebrate!
Maddi Leblanc: 10 years already, holy moly, time flies, eh? I'm so curious to know, for your first paddle, when you went out there, what was the Baltic Sea like? Was it actually cold? Did you have to wear a wetsuit or a drysuit or anything like that, or because it was summer, was it quite warm?
Adya Misra: It was so warm, Maddi I can't... I've never paddled warmer seas again, just because of the Gulf Stream at the Baltic Sea region near Sweden is really warm. I shouldn't be saying this, but we actually used to go in t shirts and shorts because it was so warm and it was very normal for people to do that, it wasn't a big deal. Like in the UK, we're quite military about what we should wear because of cold water shock and things like that. But in Sweden, even the lakes, they're so warm. As soon as it's mid June, July, people are jumping in their underwear into the lakes, they carry their bikinis around. It is, the water is very warm. So yeah, it's very nice.
Holly Pye: That's so different from... we went to Poland in September last year, which is also the Baltic Sea. It was September, so it could have been really good weather, but it was not great weather that week. They had like rain and wind and it was about 12 degrees and the Baltic Sea felt Baltic. It was not very fun. It wasn't cold. It, sorry, it wasn't very warm. It felt really cold because there was no sunshine.
Adya Misra: Yeah, I think by September, Sweden was also very cold. It feels like November. I think very short, but very intense and hot summer.
Holly Pye: Yeah. So did you have, when you were growing up, did you know much about paddle sports at all? Did you live near the water? Was it something that you watched or just, totally different world?
Adya Misra: It was completely different. I didn't know anybody doing paddle sports. We live very close to a surfing beach, so I used to see people surf and I did try some surfing, but obviously when you don't do any sport as a kid and then as a 20 year old rock up to a surf point and say, Hey let me go surfing. And you pick up the surfboard and you're like, this is really heavy. I can't do this. So it was really hard just carrying the board and it's a really long beach in Tynemouth. So you have to walk a really long way with the foamy and at that time I thought, "I don't even know why I'm doing this to myself. I'm so bad at it. Why am I trying?" And of course that, just a couple of surf lessons were the only thing I tried. Terrible at it. Didn't ever, didn't try anything else again until I tried kayaking. So yeah, we didn't, nobody in my family does any sport, which is probably why I never did anything either. Yeah, I think it was a very different life. Most people who haven't met me in 25, 30 years don't really recognize me anymore just because my life is completely different now. I do all these things outside, whereas when I was a kid I was very shy and indoors and quite reserved, I would say and I'm none of those things anymore.
Holly Pye: That's amazing. It's a big confidence booster!
Maddi Leblanc: I think that's absolutely incredible. Can you actually tell us - I'm so curious to know then what happened from your first paddle to where you are now? Like, how did you fall in love still with paddling? Did you just go out once a week after that first experience, or were you you stepped away from it for a bit nah, and came back to it, or?
Adya Misra: Definitely not, there have been no breaks. I think it was love at first sight, and I kept going back every week for this social paddle, and of course my friend who got me into it she, at the time, had time, so I don't know if this is common knowledge, but Swedes take about four weeks off in the summer, and they do nothing except do outdoor things. It's a very enviable position to be in, and she was like, on a Sunday afternoon, she would message me and say, "Should we go kayaking?" and we would just casually go out and do a 10km circumnavigation of the Island I lived on, and then we started doing that three, four times a week. I got really fit actually, like my distance paddling got a lot better because it was a big lake. There was sometimes wind and waves, and for someone who's never done any sport to feel like they can actually do things like that is quite a big thing. Which is why I love paddle sport, because I think it's less of that athletic bridge that you have to cross, you can progress quite quickly. You can get quite strong and fit very quickly, especially if you keep doing the same things over and over again. So yeah in Sweden, I did quite a lot of, yeah, just three or four times in the city, then going out to the sea on the weekends and then it was time to come back home. I moved to London and my first thing was to find a place where I could go kayaking. So fortunately, London has a very big river going through it and I joined a very nice kayak club in West London and I started doing weekly paddles with them, which again, were more like three or four times a week paddles. But it was a very different ball game. The kayaks were different, the water was different, there was tides to think about and sewage releases to think about, and I wasn't allowed to go all the time. I couldn't just rock up and go by myself because the waterways are a little bit more dangerous. There's lots of barges and, big boats and fast rowers who could snap your neck off if you weren't watching. So we always had to go in a group. It was a really different environment and I absolutely loved it and that's when I actually learned everything about kayaking and canoeing on the Thames and yeah, went to look out for floating bits of sewage.
Maddi Leblanc: That's quite fascinating to try a new sport as someone too who never really participated in a lot of sport growing up somewhere else too, like in a country that's not your hometown and really truly fall in love with it and be able to bring it back home, and I bet that must have felt really cool to already have a community here as well and be able to join that.
Adya Misra: I think that's the thing, definitely. I think that's the thing, after London I've moved three times and my first question is there a kayak club I can join? So we, my husband and I now live in the Northwest of England, just outside Liverpool and I didn't grow up here. Don't really know anybody here, and when we were moving here, my first question was, is there a kayak club? And there is one right in the middle of the city. We lived 200 meters away from it. So there was a lot of kayaking happening when I first moved here. This is where I started paddle boarding as well. So yeah it's really nice that we have those clubs where you can join reasonably easily and go for a few paddles. There's always somebody to help you. It's unstructured learning at its best and really nice social.
Maddi Leblanc: Wow, how long have you been in the area that you're in now?
Adya Misra: I've been here since 2019. So yeah, just over four years and it's finally starting to feel like home, which is great.
Holly Pye: That's awesome. I'm really interested how did you get into stand up paddleboarding because I feel like a lot of us paddlers, or not just paddlers, people in general who do sport, we stick to what we're good at. I do lots of stand up paddleboarding, and I think I have maybe never sat in a canoe? Maybe I did when I was at school or something, like in a, an outdoor activity kind of day out. But definitely not recently and, I, no, I guess not through lack of opportunity because I know people who have canoes and I know there are canoe clubs around but I just go paddleboarding instead. So what made you jump, make, to take the jump in and try a different kind of paddle sport?
Adya Misra: It was a couple of things that happened all together obviously I was in a brand new city, slightly vulnerable didn't know anybody else, and we were living in this beautiful Albert Dock area in Liverpool, we've got, the city has UNESCO heritage status, so there's lots of salty water in the middle of the city surrounded by very nice, cool, old buildings, and I used to see this This person posts pictures of paddleboarding at night, so all those beautiful buildings reflected on the water and I thought That's a nice picture. It's quite cool. But obviously our club didn't do any night paddles at the time and I wasn't I wasn't signed off to lead paddles on my own, so I couldn't just rock up and say "I'll organize one". So it was always at the back of my mind, but I don't know if you both remember 2019, but paddleboarding wasn't as big as it is now, and it was definitely one of those emerging disciplines, possibly, in the UK at least, and I was just kayaking, minding my own business, but I had quite a bad experience on the sea in the summer, and I thought, actually I'm not going to do any kayaking.
I'm just not going to do it, and I'm going to... Just do something else and unfortunately because we were living on the actual water, I couldn't just completely give up on water sports or paddle sports. It was always going to be part of my life, I knew that, and so I contacted this lovely woman who was running sessions. I just did a beginner group lesson with her on a very warm September evening. It was really difficult, I was like, "oh, why do people do this? It's so hard to stand up". I could maybe stand up for 30 seconds, take a quick picture, and then sit back down and I know that's how it is for most people, isn't it? And yeah, it was really nice, and I didn't do any paddleboarding after that because it got cold in October, November, and then we went into lockdown straight after. So it was... It was like a taster for me to try something else while I was figuring out what I wanted to do with my kayaking, just because I just couldn't face getting in a boat. And I bought a secondhand board just before lockdown, which was very lucky, and I did some of my own paddles by myself which is crazy. I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know how to inflate a board. I didn't know how to use a paddle. I was just treating it like a canoe really. I can go canoeing. I can do this. It's the same thing, and I managed to get quite good at it until I went to a proper lesson and the coach looked at me and they were like, "what are you doing? That's not the way to paddle a paddleboard". It's okay then, let's learn this thing properly.
Maddi Leblanc: Get shot down, you're just trying something new.
Adya Misra: Exactly. All that confidence.
Maddi Leblanc: You're like, "I know what I'm doing!" Oh no.
Adya Misra: It was really funny. It was one of those things. Of course, now there's lots of resources, but when you pump your board, you stop when it gets really hard, and that's exactly what I did, and there was nobody to tell me that I had to take it all the way to whatever PSI. So I was apparently for almost six months, paddling a paddle board inflated to five PSI. I have no idea how I managed that. But I did, and that's why when I went to a lesson, my coach was like, "keep going" a I was like, "Oh, it's done". It's no, it's not done. Keep going.
Holly Pye: See we're laughing about that but I bet there's a lot of people listening who have done exactly the same or are still doing exactly the same.
Adya Misra: I think we all did. Yeah, it's so easy to do because there's nobody to tell you. I think there's a lot more resources now but of course you have to actively look for it and see if there's any tips available but yeah it's a very normal thing to do.
Maddi Leblanc: It's getting hard and I kid you guys both not. I like before we hopped on this call, I was giving a very first introduction paddleboarding lesson to someone right here in my own backyard, and same thing! She was like, "Oh I'll pump up the board and I'll let you know when it's ready" and I'm like, "okay" and I got my stuff off and then I walked over to her and she's "Oh, I think it's done", and I looked at the gauge, it wasn't even at it was at one or two, and I said, "okay I know it looks like it's blown up", but, I said, "you gotta keep going", she's like "really?" and I say "yeah it's okay really, you gotta go until it feels hard" and she's like "whoah" it's such a common mistake we've all been there, done that kind of situation. I for sure definitely did that when inflatables started to come around, and I had to pump them up too, but, oh man, it's just not knowing, right?
Adya Misra: Exactly. It says 25 PSI, but the gauge isn't moving. The gauge must be broken. That's what I always think.
Holly Pye: I think that's also a reason why so many people... I mean you mentioned how paddleboarding, stand up paddleboarding, took off in recent years. That's one reason why I think a lot of people haven't then maybe progressed it further. I mean there's lots of different reasons why. Maybe people just don't want to and it's the cost and everything as well. But you have a much better time paddleboarding if your board is pumped up properly, if you're using the paddle correctly, if your technique is better, and so you're not getting quite so tired. Whereas so many people go out and things aren't correct, that it's really hard work, or it's not actually that enjoyable, and so they do it once or twice, and then they go back to doing something else. Yeah, you can have a much better time on your board if it's pumped up properly.
Adya Misra: I think so too, and I think that's why people do that thing where it's, "oh it has to be hot, it has to be really flat, and then I'll go and do it, otherwise, I just can't" and I've been trying to convince people that, that's not the way it has to be. It's fine if it, if that's your preference, but you can build your skill level to go out in other weathers because, let's be honest, it's not always like that, but it's changing that narrative is really hard. So people often choose, "oh, I'm just going to go when it's no wind, because that's what suits me at the moment". Especially
Holly Pye: Especially if the board is... More wobbly because it's bending as well.
Adya Misra: Yeah. Yeah, exactly...
Holly Pye: Oh, and then, and since then, have you been doing more standup paddle boarding, or do you still do a lot of kayaking, canoeing? What's, what kind of things do you prefer now?
Adya Misra: So it's really difficult because there are only seven days in the week and there are three paddle crafts that I really like so I tried to come up with a system, but it doesn't work. So there are some months where I do quite a lot of kayaking and then there are some months when I get on my board quite a lot. For instance, in June, I've spent a lot more time on my paddleboard and I've not really managed to get in my kayak. But previous months, April and May, I was really neglecting my board because it's definitely a mix. I do coaching in canoe, kayak, and paddleboarding, but I also like to mix it up, so when I get paddleboarders who are really struggling with something, I'll put them in a canoe, and I'll tell them to try it in there, because the paddle is smaller, and the craft is heavier, so technically, it should be a lot harder, so if they can manage it in a canoe they should be able to manage it on a board and so I try and do goofy things like that just to keep things interesting and keep my skills up as well as much as possible because I think for me it's obviously something I really enjoy and I don't want to stop doing either one of them. So it's just about, yeah, playing Calendar, I always call it "Calendar Tetris" and just finding the time for everything.
Maddi Leblanc: That's so cool. I feel you so much on that, I have a friend here on Lake Erie who has an OC1, and there's so many days where I'm like, "man, I just want to go like in the OC", but then you want to SUP and Holly, I'm sure you can attest to the days when the wind is blowing and you're like, "I wanna take the wing out today!" Like, when you have so many toys, it's like hard to choose between them.
Adya Misra: Yeah, exactly!
Holly Pye: I saw a clip of a podcast a while ago from some guy, it was completely unrelated to paddle sports. But some guy was like, "you all have seven days a week. I have 14 days in my week. My first day is from like 6am till 2pm and then my second day is from 2pm" and I was like, "actually that's a really good way of putting it". If only I didn't have to work. That's my biggest dilemma. I'm like... "There's loads to do, there's loads of time, it's just work I've gotta fit in". Exactly. That's further down on the priority list.
Adya Misra: Exactly. If someone could sponsor us to have these extra days on a Monday, that would be really nice.
Holly Pye: Absolutely!
Maddi Leblanc: Right? Right! Oh, that'd be great. Or I'd vote for the creation of an eighth day or something in the work week!
Adya Misra: Actually, if we are thinking about things, if we just reduce our working day by one day, that would be great. I think four day weeks are a thing in many places. That could be really fun.
Holly Pye: Yeah, definitely. The trouble is, if you start doing a four day week you then want a three day week, and if you're doing a three day week, you then want a two day week, and it just gets worse. And then suddenly you can't pay your bills anymore, and have too many paddleboards.
Adya Misra: Oh no!
Holly Pye: Yeah, we don't want that. Yeah. So how did you get into coaching? Because, so you now coach in all three paddle sports. What led you from just going paddling and having fun and being part of the canoe club to wanting to be a coach yourself and yeah how did you get into that? Did you do some courses or?
Adya Misra: Yeah, so I think it started when I was in London kayaking on the Thames and I think it was a little bit related to me wanting to go out more rather than just be restricted to club nights when I was allowed to go out, so I really wanted to build my skills, and of course it came in hand with helping out, and I think for me it was really just seeing those people helping others, I really wanted to help other people who are joining the club. So once I had been at the club about a year, I thought, "okay, I should be helping" and I'm an experienced paddler now, of course, didn't know what I was doing, but still I wanted to help the people who knew even less. And that's where it started! So I started helping out as an assistant on some of the easier paddles that we were doing and then our club had the opportunity to send us on a very subsidized coaching course. Unfortunately in the middle of November, so I had to jump in the very frozen River Thames many times to rescue people. I was not happy but it was really subsidized. So instead of paying 200 pounds, we spent, I think, 50 and it was really close and it was with people I knew. So it was really nice and it was like an entry coaching qualification. So we could organize like small taster sessions. That qualification no longer exists. But it was a really good one because it combined two qualifications that currently exist. So you could do taster sessions, but you could also operate on your own if somebody signed you off and you could take people a little bit further than entry level instructors can these days. So it was really nice, and just trying different crafts. I tried kayak slalom that time. It was crazy. I got hit in the face so many times. It was great. But I think for me, it was really like, it was really building my skills and really helping other people.
That was my main motivation and I think it just... I think it's one of those things that we have with these courses, because you always have to do like an action plan and you always have to do a development plan. You automatically start thinking about what you're going to do next, and at the time they said, "Oh, you should do this, so this is level one. Now you should do level two. You should really start thinking about level two". I had no idea what to do with that information. I obviously knew that I needed to spend more time on the water, and just get more comfortable with leading people and coaching and things like that. But, it was already set out that I had to work on Level two next. Level two disappeared a month later, there was no level two. Everything changed and everything became really confusing. Our qualification systems really changed, the names changed, everything got rebranded, and I just didn't do anything for a couple of years and I did the following coaching qualifications last year or year before last, maybe last year. So I think it can be quite difficult to keep on top of these things, but it is really nice that they exist so that you can build your skills. And for those people who want to carry on coaching as their profession, can also have the opportunity to. There's a real pathway, you're never lost like other professions where you just don't know, "how am I going to get my next promotion" or "how do I get a pay rise in paddle sports?" It's at least a little clearer how you get around that. So it's cool, but yet it was a strange journey for me.
Holly Pye: Yeah, that's cool. What are some of the proudest moments you've had as a coach since starting that journey? Actually, Have you had any sort of students who have really developed?
Adya Misra: I think many people, I think at this point I've been coaching since 2017. So it's probably thousands of people people I don't even know anymore. And I think, people who I probably helped on the title terms that many years ago are probably doing their coaching qualifications now. I never get to see them because I never hear from them, or I never really, I've not really kept in touch with people, but I think it's that organic process where people, it's like... it's not anybody's job. They just want to get better and they want to help other people. It's really nice for me to see when people take on that legacy and say, actually, "lots of people were helping me as a volunteer, so now I want to volunteer as well". I really like that. For me, that's that's my proudest moment as a coach, when I can instill that feeling of people wanting to do it, rather than it being a chore or a job or something that they have to do. Yeah, it sounds really cheesy actually, but I think when people agree to help, it's really nice.
So recently I've been running lots of courses at my current canoe club, and I just asked people to help me. I had so many offers for help, and I had a vested interest. I really want those people to start running these courses, but I didn't tell them that. They just thought they were going to help me. When I gave them the opportunity to take part as a leader, as a coach, they were really surprised. But I think it's really important that we create those opportunities for people to help and understand what we're doing in paddling, helping other people and getting them through those, pathways or ladders or whatever it is really important to me. So yeah, I really love it when people help out.
Maddi Leblanc: That's absolutely incredible. It must be cool, eh, to think of the ripple effect from your friend literally introducing you into this sport, and now how many people, like you said, thousands, and, that you've been able to like touch, and even though you don't keep in touch with some of them now, it's like you said, maybe they're off getting their coaching certifications, or still continuing to paddle, and who knows, maybe they've even started their own business or something like that.
Adya Misra: Yeah, and it's really nice to see people progress, and for me, it's just that as long as they carry on paddling, I just feel really sad when people say, "oh, I don't have time for it anymore, so I'm not going to go paddling" and that breaks my heart. So yeah, I just keep encouraging people to get out as much as they can.
Maddi Leblanc: That's amazing. Do you think then you'll still continue to coach for a long time?
Adya Misra: Yeah, definitely. I absolutely love it. People always say that. It's it's really difficult to find time to do personal paddling and coaching, which I agree with, but I think that feeling when I see people come off the water and they tell me, I always play a little game with them. I always ask them what they've learned, what made them laugh and what they need to carry on working on. That process really sparks a lot of light bulbs in people's minds. They think they're just having a good time, but they've learned so much and they've used their body parts in ways they haven't done before. They're feeling muscles that they haven't felt before. They're engaging their brains and their cognitive processes are working as well. So it's a really positive place to be as a coach, of course. I wish I could do more of it. But I think, yeah, at the minute it's definitely really enjoyable to see people progress.
Maddi Leblanc: Yeah absolutely! I'm so curious now to know what is your work life balance in terms of having more time to be able to paddle now? Because I think you said when you first started, you were basically working all of the time. Yeah. But now do you have a job that allows you to be a little more flexible so that you can have time to coach?
Adya Misra: Yeah of course I don't work weekends anymore, weekends are for paddling, which is good, and I also coach in the evenings or do my personal paddling so I basically clock out at 5 or 5:30pm, and say, okay, it's time for my other life, and it really helps me switch off. I think it works both ways. If something is happening with my paddling, that's not quite working as I'd like it to use work to switch off and stop thinking or stop obsessing about it. So it's really nice to have both in my life. But like we were saying, it would be really nice to have an additional day to go paddling a little bit more. I applied for a job a couple of years ago that would allow me to work four days, but without a pay cut. I didn't get it, so it's a bit sad, but I think that thing about work life balance is changing in the UK a little bit, so I'm hoping that in future, four day week.
Maddi Leblanc: It's always typical. Crossing, crossing our fingers.
Holly Pye: I know. It's always typical, especially in the winter, that your days off or the weekend is... It's super windy, super bad weather for paddling, and then Monday to Friday when your Saturday desk is like nice and calm and sunny.
Adya Misra: I know. It's terrible. I used to have a job that I actually had most of my colleagues in the U.S. So I could go Monday lunchtime paddles on the sea, like two hours, quite a nice session. But I can no longer do that. It's very difficult. So it has to be before 8a.m. or after 5p.m.
Holly Pye: Ah, maybe that will change in the future. Yeah, maybe... I know in April last year you founded "People of Colour Paddle". Would you be able to tell us a bit more about that and how? Yeah, what led to you starting that organization and how your coaching kind of intertwines with that group?
Adya Misra: Yeah last year feels like a really long time ago, but I'm going to try and remember as best as possible. I qualified as a SUP coach in... I want to say it was April actually, and the person who was assessing me was generally just asking people what they're planning on doing with their coaching qualification. I may have blurted out without any thought or plan that I wanted to set up a mentoring scheme for people from ethnic minority backgrounds who don't have access to mentoring support if they want to progress in paddle sports. So I had a very lofty vision of, "Oh, I'm going to start helping all these people. They might be like me, a little bit confused. What should I do next? And I'll help them". And as time went on, realized that there aren't many people like that because they just, they're not in the sport. I was quite naive to that. I spent two days with with other people from the global majority group who lead in different sports. We had it was almost like a conference or summit in Dorset where we each talked about our sport and why we do it. So it was climbers, hikers swimmers runners. It was really cool to be surrounded by community leaders who are leading groups. For people of colour, ethnic minority backgrounds, and really striving to change how our communities perceive these outdoor activities, and while I was at that summit, I just quickly created an Instagram page, "People of Colour Paddle". It just happened, I think it was midnight on a Saturday night, because I thought, If I don't do it now, someone will talk me out of it, and I'll just never do it.
And, that's how it started, and then... I think in the last year, it's changed about 20,000 times just as every tiny organization is. The goals have had to be, been developed quite a lot because I had no idea what I was doing. I still don't really know what I'm doing. I'm just trying to do something that helps people and that doesn't, disadvantage me as somebody who's doing something on our own, but really People of Colour Paddle is just about creating opportunities for people from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK to try paddling in an environment that is familiar to them. I'm trying to create opportunities close to home, for example lower cost for instance, and without having the usual barriers, like "you must be able to swim, you must wear a wetsuit". That's that sort of thing. So we're doing very different beginner sessions. What I imagined is very different to what reality looks like, but I love the reality. It's I'm very proud of all of the sessions that I run because they are, they're nothing like anything else. I've ever seen, and I feel like if those spaces had existed for maybe me or my mum as younger people, we wouldn't have been we wouldn't have been so alienated from sport, if that makes sense. Yeah, I think it's quite a garbled answer. Sorry about that. But I think it's, yeah, it's really about creating opportunities for people as, as much as I can.
Holly Pye: That sounds awesome. Was there a lot of demand for it when you first started, or did you have to persuade, how did you advertise the sessions, was it through your local canoe club, or how did you get people in?
Adya Misra: Yeah, so I think in terms of demand, I think things are changing slowly. But very slowly people want to try things, but again, it's like what we were saying before, it has to be a really hot day, it has to be really flat, so it's just trying to get past that initial barrier of weather and cold water. I advertise pretty much everything from social media because, I wanted to set up a nationwide network rather than be restricted to where I live. But I think when I put out a call last year for somebody who, people who just want to pedal with me, I think I got 150 responses. Wow! I'm never gonna get to every one. But obviously these are people who are completely naive to any sport altogether and when I started I had one paddleboard to my name and not a very good one. I think it was really challenging. I was really surprised but also humbled that so many people trusted a random stranger on the internet to take them for a potentially risky water sports activity, but I think yeah, it was really nice. I've still got 150 people in various parts of the UK just waiting for me to come down to them and take them out for a paddle. So yeah, it's quite difficult to get people interested and engaged because I think people like the idea of it, but it is, there are a lot of things to get past before they can get to the water's edge and say, okay, I'm ready.
Holly Pye: Yeah, that's understandable. Would you ever consider having, I mean I don't know how easy, it's probably not easy at all, but different centres around the UK, having people running sessions on your behalf, people who say there's like a big demand for it in somewhere like Brighton for example would you consider spreading out, if you can't personally get there, just having a "People of Colour" paddle session?
Adya Misra: I think... so when I started, that was the plan but nobody wanted to help them, that's the unfortunate truth. I reached out to many organizations. Some people were very keen. Some people wanted to have lots of Zoom calls with me, and I spent about 12 hours of my summer just talking to people, but nothing came of it. So I should be very clear that driving around the country with eight paddle boats isn't a choice. I had to do it because nobody wanted to help, except for a few people who I partnered with and they're very lovely individuals who are doing this just because they want to help. But most people didn't, and I got some very funny emails about why I'm doing it, I don't belong in the area, so I shouldn't be doing it. I asked a lot of people to facilitate conversations with centres, or clubs, or businesses. It didn't work very well which is why I had to change my strategy, I had to apply for money to buy equipment, and it's not very equitable for me to spend a lot of my time going around places.
But, people are genuinely messaging me once a week saying, "when are you coming?" and that's, it's equal parts really nice, but equal parts also quite a lot of pressure, like somebody messaged me to say, "when are you coming to Cardiff?" and I'm thinking, "God, Cardiff is really far away from me", even though on the map, it looks really close. So I asked them to come to Bristol because I'm going to Bristol this weekend to run a session and that's actually one of the few places where I was able to run a session. Just with a partner and I don't have to carry my kit. I don't, I'm not solely responsible for everything. So a little bit more relaxed and much more enjoyable.
Holly Pye: It's one thing if it's your full time job and you're being paid to travel and, being looked after when you're there and, but it's totally different when it's your free time. And you're doing it voluntarily. with kit that you've bought yourself and yeah, that's hard.
Adya Misra: Yeah, it is. It's one of those things where I don't have a van, I just have a big car, so I bought all these paddle boards and then I thought, "oh, I don't think they're going to fit in the car". So it's just like every kind of step of the way I've had to really think outside the box or try and make things work just because. I know that people just want to try it, and a lot of people are waiting to try it with me. They won't go to anybody else, which is really nice, but again, a lot of pressure.
Maddi Leblanc: I can imagine like you said, it's that trust factor, right? Probably through word of mouth, and the people that you have been able to get on the water, they probably are somewhat familiar with you, and who you are and really... I have a lot of trust in that I think people want a really good experience on the water, and if I heard your name around town, if you were in Canada, I would probably do the same thing. I'd be like" I know, I've heard her name, I want to go out with her" and I think that's so important, especially in a paddling community like the one that you have. That's very special, but you're right. That's a lot of time and a lot of your own effort that, you gotta go to these places to help people out, but I think that's so cool that the demand is there. I think it just means that your idea was phenomenal, to have that idea in the first place and like how much it's probably grown for you, eh? In the past year?
Adya Misra: It has, I think last year was really crazy because I started almost too late and I was scrambling to contact people and run sessions and things like that. And we had really monster heatwaves, so I had to cancel a few things because running things in, I don't know, 35 40 degrees heat just doesn't work. But this year is a little bit better, I've actually already crossed 100 people on the water for the first time which is amazing, and I don't usually count these things, but I have a dashboard which shows me how many certificates I've issued, and I saw it the other day and it was really nice to see, and we're only really halfway through the season, if not less. Yeah, it is really nice, I think. It's just... Getting people from that initial stage of, "oh, I just want to try something" to "I want to keep going". That's where I'm trying to take it. So fingers crossed. I think things can only get better.
Holly Pye: How do you run the sessions? Do you get people mainly come once for a bit of a taster and then not come again or do you get like returning people that want to come to every social every week a bit like you did when you started paddling?
Adya Misra: Yeah it's different. So I guess so what I'm trying to do really is to create, because it is a sports club, I'm trying to create a membership that comes back again and again, so I will prioritize people who want to come back a second time. So I've got a really nice group of people in London who have been with me more than once and they are now coming with me to the Lake District to actually do rescues and learn about journeying and travel planning a journey on your own and just doing a bit more than what they've done so far. So I'm really excited about that building, that core group. I've got a core group in Liverpool, I've got a core group in Bristol. So things are happening, but of course there are always gonna be people who try it and say, actually this is just something I will do once a year and that's totally fine. Actually, I forgot to say I've got a group of amazing women in Bradford who if you saw on the street you would never imagine they are into paddleboarding, but they are. They did it in their full hijab and no wetsuits and they had an amazing time and I've got like lots of sessions planned with them and it's... It's so exciting for me to see people get excited about the sport rather than anything else. So yeah, I definitely like to have people come back again and again so that we can start building a few more skills.
Holly Pye: That's incredible, and those people can then go on to pass the information on again, which is great.
Adya Misra: That's the hope, that's the hope. If I could just set up like little hubs, where people are based and, source equipment for them so that they can just go out on their own because they have enough skills. That would be ideal scenario for me.
Holly Pye: Yeah. How does the mentoring side of it work? Do you chat with a few people like one on one? And do you find that you give some people a lot more support if they're asking kind of lots of questions about it rather than just... Trying it and going paddling. Do you find that some people are really, they want to know everything, they've got lots of questions, and they need that extra step?
Adya Misra: I guess at the moment we've not reached that stage yet. We haven't reached that stage where people have lots of questions. It's still a very much a big shiny toy waiting in the distance where people are just like," okay, I just want to go and try it and just be better at it". I think it'll take at least another year or two before people are getting to that stage of, "Oh, let me think about becoming an instructor", for example because when I first started "People of Color Paddle", I think people assumed that it would be like everybody else, that we have a few sessions and we think, okay, we're good enough to become an instructor and start helping people out. My sessions are not like that. People are very afraid and people are very cautious and people are just trying to get out of their comfort zone. So I think maybe another year or two and I'll be hopefully running some instructor courses. But for that, I have to upskill myself first. So it takes time. All of it takes time.
Holly Pye: Yeah. It's important not to rush. The best part is the time you spend getting to that final point.
Adya Misra: And just learning and enjoying, and I think what people really like is the nature side of it. So somebody told me they love birdwatching. So their favorite way to now starting to birdwatch. Somebody on my sessions a couple of weeks ago in London actually started picking elderflower from her paddle board and she loved it so much. It was so nice to see because elderflower grows in very unfriendly places, and when you're on the canals here, it's very easy to grab when you're on your board. So it was really nice for me to see people enjoying themselves in a very different way.
Maddi Leblanc: That's so cool. Wow. What an honor that, that must be like. I'm fangirling over here. I'm like, "wow", everything you do is so incredible, and I think we need more people like you. I think we need more people changing the narrative, breaking down the barriers that do exist in sport whether we know what they are, some of them, and maybe still to the ones that are unknown. But I think, yeah you're truly leading by example and what you're doing is. So I hope that, this summer you continue to just get more people on the water and help them fall in love with being out there and enjoying the space, how they want to enjoy it and yeah, just having a good time.
Adya Misra: Yeah, that's the plan. Hopefully I can just keep on doing it and not, try and balance it out with everything else, which is sometimes hard, but I think it's, it's one of those things.
Maddi Leblanc: Yeah, as long as you get your personal paddles in to that's it! It doesn't matter!
Holly Pye: Exactly! "People of Color Paddle", it's run basically by you as a complete volunteer. Is there anything that, we can do or our listeners can do or other organizations can do? I know you have some support from a small handful of organizations at the moment, but is there anything that we can try and do to help better, whether maybe we could even set up some kind of donation portal to help you get more equipment to, loan to people who are paddling or anything else that we could do to help.
Adya Misra: I think the best thing that people can do is when I advertise a session, and this sounds really overtly cynical, but I think social media algorithms don't promote small accounts, obviously, we know that so if a bigger account shares a post, that's really helpful. And oftentimes people will do it really late after I've already stopped selling the spaces or I've already had enough people, and then I start getting very last minute queries asking me if they can jump on a paddle with me. So I think from my point of view, if people see that I'm sharing, I'm announcing a new city where I'm going, if people can share those posts on either Instagram or Facebook or Twitter, that really helps. Because, again, I have no idea how these algorithms work, and when I figure it out, they change them. And so when people share it, somehow people find out, and then people can sign up.
Holly Pye: That's incredible. The more people that can come, the better, and people can't come unless they know it's happening, so no, that makes total sense.
Maddi Leblanc: Exactly.
Adya Misra: Yeah. And sometimes people just don't find out or they find out too late, which is really sad. And yeah, I tried to do guerrilla marketing by just printing off flyers and putting them around Liverpool, but it doesn't work very well. It's just lots of paper wasted and potentially used as something else. So yeah, I think if we're relying on social media as I am at the moment, if people can share, spread the word, that's really helpful. Yeah
Maddi Leblanc: What's what's your Instagram handle or Facebook handle? If you are on those platforms that our listeners can follow.
Adya Misra: Yeah, so on Instagram it's just @peopleofcolourpaddle and same on Facebook if you just search for us. You'll find it straight away, and on Twitter it's at POCPaddle because they don't like long names. And yeah, it's really easy to find us. I didn't put any cool acronyms or anything because I find them confusing. Yeah, it's definitely very easy. And, of course, the more people that like us in our, unfortunately, a very number obsessed world, people think that we are doing better work if we have more followers and somebody recently told me that I only have a hundred followers on Facebook. Why do I think that an organization would support me? And I thought... Okay, I didn't realize my worth was measured in followers, thanks.
Maddi Leblanc: That's when you tell them it's it's quality, not quantity.
Adya Misra: It was just one of those very strange things where people said, Why are you even expecting support? You don't have any followers. And I thought, okay is this like that weird capitalism thing where rich people just get richer? Okay, great.
Holly Pye: That's a good way of putting it, actually. That's, I'm really surprised at that. I think that's really rude, to be honest.
Adya Misra: Yeah, they wrote, they wrote it on a public platform and nobody challenged it. And I think that's the other thing that people can do if they want to support either people of colour paddle or other community groups. You will see people write lots of very weird things and if more people challenge it, or if more people put positive comments, then those negative comments get buried. But people don't like to get involved. They either feel uncomfortable or they don't want to engage. But I think it would really help if you did engage because then we see lots of nice people commenting rather than just that one person who said we're stupid or we don't deserve to do this, or whatever else they wanted to say. Yeah, I think sharing positivity on social media is also really good, if you can yeah, absolutely.
Maddi Leblanc: Oh yeah. I'm gonna share it right after this this recording when we're done. Thank you. Thank you.
Adya Misra: Thank you. Thank you.
Holly Pye: Do you have a website or anything? How do paddlers book onto a session, what's the best way? Is it to send you a message or to find you through that, those channels or to go online?
Adya Misra: So I think obviously socials are a great way but I'm trying to because of the problems I mentioned with the algorithm, I'm trying to get people to either sign up to a mailing list with me or usually just become a member and it's really low cost. It just helps me keep everything so I don't have to tell the entire world where I'm going. I have recently become a little bit concerned about people becoming very aware of where we are, just because of everything's out there in the open. And I love transparency, but I do worry that sometimes people might come to us and say very strange things, and I wouldn't know how to handle it, because it is just me.
So I'm trying to get people, encouraging people to sign up as members, and then we can share, like a normal sports club would. Everybody doesn't need to know what we're doing all the time. There is a website again, if you Google "People of Colour Paddle", it'll show up. People can sign up to be members quite easily and it's $10 for the whole year, where you get access to events, lessons and coaching, everything subsidized. Yeah, we can just carry on doing that, and that also builds up a little bit of a kitty in the club in case I need to help somebody, I don't know, book a train ticket that they can't afford or book them a taxi so that they don't have to spend six hours on a bus, something like that, or get them a new paddle for their, I don't know, instructor qualification in the future. So I'm just trying to... I'm not a business person, but I'm trying to just build up reserves where I can to just help the people through the club.
Holly Pye: That sounds great. We'll check it out and share it. Thank you. What's next for you and for People of Colour? Because obviously you're separate, but, separate but together. But you do a lot of paddling outside of People of Colour Paddle as well. So yeah, what's, what are the next steps for you? What are you looking forward to the rest of this year?
Adya Misra: Rest of this year, I'm really busy with "People of Colour" paddle sessions until I think September and end of September actually, and at that point I will have a month to start really training hard for some leadership training. So I'm trying to do my open water leader qualification in paddle board. Which involves going on big lakes, but also on fast moving rivers. So I'm a little bit nervous about that because I've done very little training all year, and there are lots of rapids to get stuck in and just practicing rescues and things, and the assessment's already booked for November. So we'll see. We'll see. That's what I'm aiming for at the moment. But I'm also doing my coastal leadership in kayak and paddle board. So I've got quite a lot of homework to do still, so I need to really start training on all of those things. But yeah, I'm really looking forward to just getting out more and helping people progress again as I go out on bigger water and get people out as well, just to have a nice time and learn some new things. But for "People of Color" paddle, I think we've got a very busy season of paddle. So I'm in Bristol this weekend. I'm in Manchester the following weekend, I'm doing a weekend in the Lake District where, as I mentioned, I'll be running a few courses to upskill people so that they can feel really confident and maybe, try and go out with a bigger group or join a club. And there'll be a few more weekends like that till September and then I'll take a break and start applying for grants to do something different next year. So I think next year will be some new things that I'm thinking about. Maybe doing some whitewater, some sea kayaking, a bit more interesting progression for people who have already been this year. So yeah, it's It's all very much of a cloud in my head right now, but I think definitely bigger things, but fewer fewer shorter sessions, just more, focusing more on progression.
Maddi Leblanc: That's so cool. That's awesome. Wow, it sounds like, yeah, you've got quite a jam packed summer, but and lots of good people to enjoy it with!
Adya Misra: Yeah, hopefully. Hopefully, and I just want to get my, because I love exploring. I just want to get my coastal leadership sorted so I can, yeah, I can say that I've done it.
Maddi Leblanc: Yeah! Oh my gosh. Holly and I wish you like the best of luck with that! I'm sure you'll get it, but it should be fun!
Adya Misra: Thank you. Yeah. It's always these assessments always happen in the winter. So half the fun is putting that massive dry suit on and practicing rescues in zero degrees while your hands feel like they're about to fall off.
Holly Pye: I remember that. I've not done much. I do paddling, but I don't really do many qualifications because I haven't really got into coaching or anything. But I remember when I was doing some work with a club when I was at uni and I did my like just quite a basic stand up paddleboarding instructor course, but you had to do various other steps, like a powerboat course and first aid and all of that as well. I remember doing the powerboat course in, I don't know what month it was, but it was freezing cold and it was cooled off several times because of like hailstorms and torrential rain and snow. Then we went out eventually and all I can remember I have nightmares of pulling up this anchor, this like metal, wet, cold anchor with my hands that would barely move and it was just horrendous. So pulling people out of the water is even harder.
Adya Misra: Yeah, in the winter as well. I know Maddi's more used to it than we are. Proper winters!
Maddi Leblanc: Still though, your water, like the ocean, oh my goodness, it's still pretty dang cold where you guys are too, I mean we definitely have a lot more ice and snow, but it's it's still cold nonetheless. No one likes putting on a dry suit, it's just not a thing!
Adya Misra: Definitely not!
Holly Pye: Maybe Maddi's more practiced at warming up afterwards than we are! Well it's been so lovely to chat with you today, Adia. We've been really looking forward to this conversation for quite a while, and it's been lovely to have it, so thank you for your time, and thank you for all of the information that you've shared with us. We're going to take a look at your social media, at your website, share it far and wide, and hopefully we all have really good things to come over the rest of the summer so all the best with everything that you are doing and I'm sure we will chat with you again soon!
Adya Misra: Yeah, thank you for having me. It's been really nice to chat to you both and yeah, hopefully we get to paddle together someday. If you're my way let me know. I'm sure I'll be down your way in very soon.
Holly Pye: Yeah, no, let me know if you're ever near Devon and if I'm coming up towards the north of England, I will be in touch for sure!
Holly Pye: Thanks so much for listening to this episode today with Adya, Maddi and myself. Really hope you enjoyed it and looking forward already to sharing next week's episode with you. So have a great week and I hope you get out on the water.
Maddi Leblanc: Rise and 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.
