Latest / DunkersPodcast / The Hometown Paddle | Kevin Bell on Adventure, Water and Place

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The Hometown Paddle | Kevin Bell on Adventure, Water and Place · DunkersPodcast

0:09
Well, today's guest is one of those people who quietly sits
0:13
and gets on with doing extraordinary things.
0:17
No fuss, no fanfare, just a slightly stubborn refusal to sit
0:21
still. Kevin Bell, Busy slacker by his
0:24
own admission, surfer, photographer, community grafter,
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almost ex footballer and a man whose version of a casual idea
0:33
somehow turned into a paddle boarding 200 miles from Abersoch
0:38
to Poynton. Yeah, 200 miles on a paddle
0:42
board. Let that land for a second.
0:45
Back in 2019, Kevin set off from Abersoch Beach not for
0:49
headlines, not for ego, but to raise money for Cancer Research
0:53
UK. What followed was part
0:55
endurance, part mental warfare and entirely driven by purpose.
1:00
But that's only 1 chapter. This podcast is also about
1:03
what's been his life since uni in Aberdeen, all the way through
1:08
to Abersoch today. From his earlier days via the
1:11
University of Aberdeen to a stint in estate agency and more
1:15
latterly into the world of publishing and events as
1:18
Executive Editor with Sensations, Kevin's journey is
1:23
anything but linear These days. He's right at the heart of the
1:26
Abasot community, helping shape events that have grown from
1:30
local favourites into nationally recognised fixtures.
1:34
And if he's not doing that, there's a fair chance you'll
1:36
find him out with a camera on a board picking up rubbish from
1:40
Porthnigel or planning the next adventure with his wife Sally,
1:45
usually somewhere not particularly convenient.
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He's not regular dunker, but he's very much cut from the same
1:51
cloth community, driven quietly, determined and always leaning
1:55
into something that matters. So today we're getting into the
1:59
why behind the paddle, what pushes someone to keep going
2:02
when most would stop, and where the challenges like that are
2:05
ever really over and done. Kevin, welcome to Dunker's
2:08
podcast. Thank you, I'm a much better
2:11
person than I thought it was. Well, at least at least the
2:14
headlines treat you very, very much with respect.
2:18
For the record, I do do it for a bit of fanfare and a bit of ego.
2:22
Love a bit of that. But yeah, all the rest is
2:24
probably true. Ish.
2:25
Excellent, excellent. I don't know whether all our
2:28
facts are absolutely spot on, but hopefully you'll, you'll,
2:32
you'll correct me as we go along.
2:34
So before we get into the paddle board experience, because that's
2:37
obviously something that you, you're well known in the village
2:40
for and and have been for what, 067 years now?
2:44
Why Aberdeen Uni Scottish Roots. No more too much fishing if I'm
2:51
honest with you. I was a reasonably clever lad
2:54
academically, but probably where the busy slack a bit comes in.
2:59
To be honest, I love the other side of my life.
3:02
I've always run away from my studies, run away from work as
3:06
fast and as soon as I can, always doing my best as I got
3:09
older. But I think in my mid teens I
3:11
maybe got a bit too much into my fishing and my football and my
3:14
cricket and didn't study quite as hard as I should have done.
3:17
So I was meant to be going to Reading University and the
3:22
reason I chose Reading was because the River Thames and the
3:25
River Kennard meet there, so it's one of the best fishing
3:28
locations in the UK. However, I didn't quite get the
3:32
grades needed and I'd somewhere in my list of universities put
3:35
University of Aberdeen on a whim.
3:37
You know when you fill the last couple of boxes in on the form.
3:40
And I was a very surprised young man a few months later to
3:43
discover myself on a 14 hour train journey to the University
3:47
of Aberdeen, which was a lot colder, a lot further away, a
3:51
lot less friendly to what was a course fisherman in those days
3:55
like me. But it was a great experience.
3:57
So I didn't so much choose the University of Aberdeen as my
4:01
marks shows where I was able to go.
4:04
And no regrets by the sounds. It's all loved it.
4:06
No, because Aberdeen I think is one of the very few universities
4:10
where you can learn to ski. There was a ski club that went
4:13
over to Glenshee every Wednesday and on the Saturday as well.
4:17
I'd go if the football was called off, which it was quite
4:19
often because our grounds were regularly frozen up there, so
4:22
you could go over as we had everything in those days.
4:25
I think it was virtually free with the university learned to
4:27
ski and that was a big part of my life for a while.
4:29
It took me off to Switzerland after university for a bit of
4:32
skiing and living the life of a ski boom and so on.
4:35
So yeah, it turned out good. Absolutely loved it.
4:38
So this busy slacker is just sort of been threaded through
4:42
that part of your life, at least that's is that.
4:44
Do you think that's where it started or?
4:46
Yeah, Well, like I say, I've, I've always, as I've got older,
4:50
I've got better at working out, I think, which is I think you
4:53
should take what you do very seriously and do it as well as
4:56
you can, but you shouldn't take yourself too seriously.
4:59
So I think I've always been pretty good.
5:03
I'm getting my work done, doing it well now.
5:05
I learned from that teenage experience.
5:07
And then going off and do the things that really lift my soul,
5:10
lift my spirit, like sitting by a lake, fishing, standing in a
5:13
river, fishing, surfing for the last 25 years or so, out on my
5:17
paddle board, sailing. I've sailed all my life, bit of
5:20
windsurfing, playing cricket. I've played cricket for 40 odd
5:24
years, football. So take what you do seriously,
5:27
but don't take yourself too seriously because within a day
5:30
or two of leaving any organization, however important
5:33
you were, and I've been in leadership teams, you can't, no
5:36
one cares. They move on.
5:39
So, you know, I know too many people who've sacrificed their
5:41
life to work, friends and family and lost a lot.
5:45
And honestly, I'm sure when they reflect on it, they must think
5:48
not sure about that. So, so that's kind of what I
5:50
mean. I'm a busy slacker in the sense
5:51
I do lots of stuff. I'm a bit of a slacker in the
5:54
sense that I try and to deliver work with the minimum of effort,
5:57
but I think I do it pretty well these days, unlike that teenage
6:01
boy who ended up in Aberdeen. So and Sally, did she, did she
6:06
greet you or meet you and you were sort of still living that
6:10
life or did you meet Sally later on?
6:12
I think I. Was about this is embarrassing.
6:15
I'm absolutely sure. I think I'd just left university
6:17
when we met, maybe 20-2, something like that.
6:21
And Sally is fabulously beautiful now, in my opinion.
6:25
She was ludicrously so in those days.
6:27
So I was pretty smitten. But nevertheless, I did go off
6:30
to Switzerland for eight or nine months to go skiing and work in
6:34
a ski resort. So we sort of got together a
6:36
bit. I went away.
6:39
I don't think I told her we weren't like close at that
6:41
stage. So I didn't sort of say I'm off
6:43
to Switzerland. Oh, right.
6:44
Kind of disappeared, really. And then we met again the next
6:47
summer where she told me off a few times for disappearing and
6:49
we kind of got together after that.
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I've been very happy to see that there ever since.
6:53
There was a thread of intention on her part that already sown
6:56
was there. Yeah, well, on my part as well.
6:58
I wasn't very good at communicating.
7:01
Yeah, funny how live takes you because you're you've been in
7:04
the communication business as well.
7:06
Yeah, pretty good at comms, no self publicity and stuff, and I
7:09
think I've probably told her I was a great guy and the very
7:12
person she wanted, but then I cleared up.
7:14
Yeah, exactly. And.
7:16
I'm glad she waited. It is the most important point
7:18
to make it. Absolutely.
7:19
Privileged that she waited. Yeah, yeah.
7:21
And I'm sure she ruined the day in her sometimes when she met
7:25
you because you, you probably sound as though you you take off
7:28
now on occasions, do you? Well, I, yeah, I think I've
7:31
always thought personally think relationships work best where
7:34
you spend a lot of time together, do a lot of stuff
7:36
together, but also have a better distance.
7:38
And I think probably in various times I've overstretched that.
7:42
I used to, I used to go after the continent carp fishing on
7:47
big public reservoirs for a week or two at a time where you camp
7:51
out by a giant lake and catch these huge 40 LB carbs.
7:55
Quite a challenge you saw living pretty rough and so on.
7:58
And I've done that a few times and I'm reflection maybe when
8:01
the kids were younger, perhaps could have just got the local
8:04
aid for the afternoon instead. But I think I always think I
8:07
came back a better, more interesting person and Salah's
8:10
always supported me and stuff I've done.
8:12
And I don't think I've kind of abused that, but I I maybe would
8:16
tickle that a bit if I reflected and.
8:18
Yeah. And I do think there might be a
8:21
slight angle if she was sitting next to you at the moment and
8:24
she got she got equally could get hold of the microphone and
8:27
give her side of the story. But equally, I genuinely think,
8:30
and in the same way she does stuff, you know, yeah, I'm a big
8:34
Manchester United fan. Cells had a season ticket at
8:36
Manchester City for over 50 years.
8:38
So we've got quite a contrast that she goes off to.
8:41
She's still got a season ticket, goes off to City games a lot and
8:43
so on. So we've always had a little bit
8:46
of distance and difference at times.
8:49
And I actually that's good for relationship and it's the thing
8:51
that makes you look them. And I think one of the reasons
8:53
that so like me is because I did do all this stuff, still do all
8:55
this stuff. I still get really excited by a
8:58
new song on the radio. I still get really excited about
9:01
a new surf paddle board coming out that I wanted to buy.
9:04
This cell gets really excited about the new signing for cities
9:08
so. Yeah, you.
9:09
Know it's about finding a way, isn't it?
9:11
Do your stuff and try and stay together.
9:13
I think we've managed to do both.
9:14
Yeah, I think that sounds as a really successful recipe and and
9:18
Hell's Mouth or Porth Nigel is that was that part of of you
9:23
finding something deeper in yourselves?
9:26
Yeah, it was actually I So I, we, I first came to Abersock in
9:30
1961. So I was only two.
9:33
And actually Abersock nearly killed me because.
9:36
So I should hate the place? You really should you, Yeah.
9:39
We were, we were camping and we used to, mum and dad were big on
9:42
camping. We used to go.
9:44
They were both in education. So we'd have really long
9:46
holidays in the continent of you not in some glamorous super
9:49
expensive because once you got there, if you were camping it,
9:52
there's no more to be there than it did at home.
9:55
So we'd go for four or five weeks and then come back, have a
9:59
few days tidying up and then we'd kind of round off the
10:01
holidays with another week in Wales.
10:03
In this instance it was Abbasar. The first time I came, stayed on
10:07
the farm in some back. My mum, she was always a bit of,
10:12
she was quite ahead of a Simon mum, big into her Eastern
10:15
religions, a bit of a shouldn't have described herself as a
10:17
hippie, but quite keen on sort of alternative lifestyle,
10:21
alternative diet. So when she discovered you could
10:24
get unpasteurized milk from this farm, she was all into that.
10:28
Yeah, let's get on to that. It's brilliant.
10:29
She's not got all these chemicals in, had all these
10:31
processes done or whatever. So we drank the unpasteurized
10:34
milk and we didn't know it at the time, but it gave me a
10:37
disease called brucellosis, which took me the 18 months to
10:41
diagnose, by which time I was in a pretty bad way.
10:47
It it, it's not usually fatal because partly because it's now
10:50
been nearly eradicated and they know how to treat it.
10:53
But in those days and that she came across a Doctor Who happens
10:56
to know it, then there's a good chance it wouldn't be diagnosed.
10:59
In my case, it wasn't for nearly 18 months.
11:02
And yeah, I was in a pretty bad way and it has affected me
11:04
physically or, or my, my life to a degree.
11:06
I struggle with my joints and stuff.
11:08
It left a bit of a legacy and it, it meant I developed much
11:12
slower than I should have done for a few years.
11:14
But luckily I, we stumbled on a doctor who'd actually done his
11:18
thesis on it or whatever, and he said, yeah, that was.
11:21
Fortunate. Yeah, Yeah.
11:22
I went into hospital for a few weeks, had antibiotics poured
11:26
into me for I think it was six weeks, and after that I was
11:30
fine. But it did leave it a bit the
11:32
legacy. So technically I shouldn't
11:34
really like Episode, I should have, but I had such a good time
11:37
both then and in future times that it's kept me coming back.
11:41
But getting back to why I love Hell's Mouth.
11:44
So we used to come in the early 60s, carried on coming on and
11:47
off, right through to probably my mid teens in the mid 70s.
11:52
And then you know, you go a different way.
11:54
My mum and dad moved the Lake District, used to spend a lot of
11:56
time there sailing and so on. We had a little place by
12:00
Coniston there, which was great fun.
12:02
We kept our boats there. So kind of had a bit of a
12:04
separation from Abersoch and then when our own kids were
12:07
little, we a bit similar thing. We've been on holiday on the
12:10
continent, had a great time, wanted to get back to a
12:14
beautiful beach. Sat there in Manchester at work
12:16
saying where should we go? Friend of work with Sarah, she
12:19
said go to Abersart and I remembered that and how
12:22
beautiful the place was. I was like, yeah, well I haven't
12:24
thought of that. Went there, had a week here,
12:27
absolutely loved it again as always.
12:30
I think even we're looking out the window now, it isn't in my
12:32
head. The sun always shines in other
12:34
side if you know what I mean by that.
12:35
It's. Absolutely no.
12:36
Absolutely. There's sunny disposition about
12:39
the whole place, so you feel. Like it's sunny all the time.
12:42
Absolutely. And we, so we did that and then
12:45
we started renting cottages here with Sal's sister and her
12:48
family, extended family, which eventually we moved as the
12:52
families got bigger to Ridoli and the big farmhouse behind
12:55
Hell's Mouth. So we used to walk down to the
12:58
beach there every day, a bit of a trek.
13:00
And it just flicked to switching me.
13:02
I suddenly realised that there was big horizons, you know, the
13:06
endless skies, the big sunsets were actually what turned me on
13:10
more now than the little secret pools.
13:13
I used to love fishing, sneaking off deep into the woods to a
13:16
little hidden river or little secret pool fishing, still love
13:19
doing that. But actually the big skies, the
13:22
big horizons had kind of penetrated my soul and they were
13:25
what turned me on. I can still remember we're
13:29
actually staying a weekend at Tin Dong, the big house just
13:32
around the corner from us that backs on to.
13:34
Help us. Great.
13:34
Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of the little cottages
13:36
there, yeah, perfect for surfers.
13:39
And I can still remember I was thinking about this on the way
13:41
here, running along the beach. It was early autumn and it was
13:45
sunny and there was a little bit of a breeze.
13:47
And I had my arms out. And there was a song by the
13:49
Gigolo Ants called It's Where I'll Find My Heaven at the time.
13:52
And I was sprinting around like an aeroplane and the kids were
13:54
following me. And we're all shooting, singing
13:56
It's Where I'll Find My Heaven. And.
13:58
It's stayed like that ever since your happy place yes, exactly.
14:02
It's now your home place. It is.
14:03
Yeah, very lucky. Yeah.
14:05
So. And that's obviously is what
14:07
gets you up in the morning because one thing I do ask
14:09
people when on the podcast is what does get you up in the
14:12
morning, but. What gets roughly my son
14:14
celebrating me granola with a bit of love.
14:15
But yeah. But as I say, I fully do it for
14:18
her. But yeah, it is.
14:19
And in fact, I absolutely have to now because I'll never be an
14:22
early bird struggle with early mornings or more of a night
14:24
bird. But I do do this little surf
14:27
check on Instagram port and I will surf check.
14:30
Okay, so I'll do a daily little check on the way.
14:32
I don't pretend to be a surf forecaster.
14:34
That's the job of the boys in the village at West Coast Surf
14:37
and fill out of the salt water sports and so on.
14:40
But I just do a record of what it's like at that moment in
14:43
time. Take a little video, take a few
14:45
pictures. So I do that every morning.
14:48
So that kind of gets my head working, gets my feet working.
14:51
I walk down to whatever bit of the beach you fancy that day,
14:55
take my photographs. Hopefully there's people
14:57
surfing, in which case I'll stay for a while with my good camera,
15:00
try and catch some pigs and people surfing.
15:02
I'm no Phil Boyd. Nothing like.
15:04
That. No, but not bad at capturing a
15:06
surfer in action. So yeah, that's what gets me up
15:10
in the morning, the fact I live in such a beautiful place, going
15:13
up to the upstairs lounge, looking out over the Bay and
15:15
still lifts my soul every single morning.
15:18
And then, yeah, I put my big coat on, put my boots on, wander
15:21
down to the beach, take the photographs, maybe do a bit of a
15:24
litter pick, maybe collect some driftwood too.
15:27
I do a bit of, I make rustic furniture out of driftwood and
15:30
stuff, OK, all my life. So I'll collect a bit of that
15:33
and get on with a project. So do you have a rustic
15:36
furniture reel showroom that people can?
15:39
I'm coming not. Anymore I used to have I did
15:41
you. I've always doubled in as well
15:43
as having a kind of corporate career doing stuff.
15:45
I've always doubled in in sort of business and other stuff.
15:49
And I had I had a place called wood on the water, a kind of
15:52
studio and workshop on the Macclesfield Canal.
15:55
OK, funny if the place I've paddle boarded back to on the
15:57
right. Hometown paddle where I used to
16:00
make sort of cool rustic furniture.
16:03
Not the kind of nailed together stuff, more kind of more of an
16:07
American style where you use round mortise and salmons and
16:10
create really simple furniture. Big slab of wood for legs from
16:15
driftwood. Or whatever.
16:16
And you get a very simple, beautiful piece of furniture.
16:19
So, yeah, I used to do that. So I did have a show and now bit
16:23
of a haters are present. The thing I've done more
16:26
recently, I make the odd little table for people and I may do
16:29
one for a project that's going on at present with a a tree that
16:32
came down at Lamb Bedrock. There's a project there that the
16:35
is based at the gallery which will see people making bits of
16:39
furniture and so on from that wood.
16:42
People genuinely far more talented than me serious
16:45
professional wood, you know, woodworkers and craftspeople.
16:48
John from making little that some people will know, but I
16:51
might have a go. We're doing one of my very, very
16:53
simple. Smasher.
16:55
Yeah, tables, yeah, as part I love doing but.
16:57
The fact you're going to surround yourself with these
16:59
people who are equally as absorbed into into this sort of
17:03
skill and these arts. Much more so, in truth, I did.
17:05
Yeah, yeah. But yeah, it's going to rub off.
17:07
Isn't it? And the little thing I do that
17:09
some people might have seen is I make the, the wooden footprints
17:12
that say leave only footprints on various beaches.
17:16
OK, 3 or 4 on Hell's Mouth right there.
17:18
There's a couple I've got to put back up at what used to be
17:21
called footprints. The Beach Cafe.
17:22
Yeah, Yeah, they got knocked over when the barrier came down.
17:26
There should still be some on my bedroom beach.
17:28
There's a couple over on beaches on the on the North Coast.
17:31
So I make these little literally.
17:33
Footprints. Yeah.
17:34
We've seen them, yeah. Yeah.
17:35
So I do those as those gradually fall apart and I get older and
17:39
have more time for that and less time for service, which as I
17:42
said to you earlier is never seems to quite come that moment.
17:45
Yeah, I don't. Want to stay on the water?
17:47
As well, I think I think that was a real a real sort of under
17:51
score when you told me earlier on just before we came onto the
17:54
podcast that your dad was mid to late 80s and he was still in a,
17:59
in a canoe or. Yeah, yeah.
18:01
He used to live in the Lake District and we used to, like he
18:04
was a sailing instructor. I was growing up so we used to
18:06
do loads of sailing and kayaking and canoeing and fishing and
18:09
stuff in the lakes. And then unfortunately my mum
18:12
died fairly relatively young as in it left him as a a guy
18:17
retired on his own up in the late district.
18:19
He he, he carried on with for a few years, but he, he moved down
18:23
to Kent, been here, my brother and to kill my sister bought a
18:26
beach Hut at Whitstable, a bit like the beach huts here, had a
18:30
little sit on top of it. And yeah, right.
18:32
So he was 888788. He was still going out and he
18:35
sit on top with his little dog on the fore deck.
18:38
Not very far in the end, you know, 20 yards out, but a bit
18:42
like me. And I'm sure it's where I got a
18:44
lot of it from. Immersed in the sea, sat there.
18:47
He'd been there, he'd been in the Navy in the Second World
18:49
War. So it's kind of.
18:50
Oh gosh, water was really in no DNA.
18:53
Yeah, yeah. And say tort sailing and so on.
18:55
So yeah, I, I kind of think that I'll perhaps get more into my
18:58
rustic furniture, do more writing and so on when I'm in my
19:01
late 80s, because until then, I'm planning on getting out on
19:04
my paddle. Boards, and that's a little.
19:06
Sailor boat I have here, yeah. So is there going to be another
19:09
paddle board adventure? I mean, we're going to get to
19:12
this because it's going to grab people.
19:14
I know it's certainly grabbed my imagination when because we were
19:18
living down here at the time and it's.
19:21
But you wanted people and you came to support.
19:22
Isn't you when? We were, absolutely, yeah.
19:24
Really, loads of people were so, so good and so kind, made it
19:28
possible and supported us. So the people who haven't, who
19:32
weren't there and weren't part of it, let's just sort of wind
19:34
back and let's just crown capture that that sort of the
19:38
reason. The moment, I mean, to start
19:40
with, it's an obvious answer. There's an obvious question.
19:43
Did anybody think that you're absolutely crazy?
19:45
Yeah, plenty of people did actually, but I'd a few years
19:48
earlier I worked the last sort of corporatish type job I had
19:52
was in Stoke on Trent and my dad just passed away for he wasn't a
19:57
tragedy, he was old, he was crazy, but he just passed away
19:59
and obviously that impacts and you know, and I was particularly
20:02
close to him. So he just passed from pulmonary
20:06
fibrosis and Sal's dad was suffering from cancer and wasn't
20:11
far off off leaving us as well. So I did a much smaller project
20:15
called the paddle board commute from outside our house on the
20:19
same Macclesville canal I arrived back at.
20:24
On the hometown paddle. So I set off from Pointon and
20:27
Paddle to work in Stoke on I had to cancel setting off
20:53
twice and eventually says off. I literally had to have people
20:56
breaking the ice for me and stuff to keep going and I was
20:59
doing it all in a work suit with a trilby and a.
21:02
Little as you would, yeah. I'll find some photographs for
21:04
you. Yeah, please do.
21:05
Please. So that was a paddleball
21:06
commute. Did that raised a fair bit of
21:09
money. I'm just giving for the
21:11
Pulmonary Fibrosis Trust, I think it was called and then Sal
21:14
was walking alongside with a a bucket and various friends did
21:18
it collecting cash off people and we donated that to Cancer
21:22
Research UK in, you know, in respect of a dad's.
21:25
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Issues at the time.
21:27
So I'd done that and then we came here, came here, we'd been
21:30
here a little while. I'd really got into paddle
21:32
boarding. I'd started maybe I was probably
21:35
one of the first ones into it. About 25 years ago I, I saw
21:39
someone paddle boarding at MC Cross.
21:40
Never seen it before 25 years ago.
21:43
Couldn't believe how cool it looked like walking on waters.
21:45
So I bought one straight away from Brookbank canoes in in
21:49
Stockport, long gone sadly, and learnt to do it so and then
21:54
gradually got more and more into it and into surfing it to
21:56
replace, you know, conventional prone surfing.
22:00
And then my daughter got diagnosed with with cancer,
22:04
which was a pretty alarming time.
22:06
Absolutely must be. Relatively young in a mid to
22:09
late 20s. So I kind of like most parents
22:13
on the day you want to be supportive on a personal
22:15
day-to-day basis. But also I just felt like I
22:18
needed to do something, if I'm honest that, you know, obviously
22:20
I wanted to raise money and that was the the purpose, but also to
22:23
help my own sort of headspace really as though doing this was
22:27
doing something It clearly wasn't really other than raising
22:30
the money, but it. Absolutely.
22:32
Indirectly it was, yeah. Yeah, the lift is a bit.
22:35
She loved the facts. I was doing it and so on.
22:37
And I think that captured a few people and people were amazing.
22:41
You know, Phil and Emma from Abersoch Water Sports was so
22:43
supportive and helpful in planning the trip and so on.
22:47
So that's why I did it. Yeah.
22:48
And I don't know what can't remember now.
22:51
I guess we hadn't moved here that long.
22:53
And I just thought, yeah, I used to live by this lovely stretch
22:55
of water. I worked out that you could
22:57
paddle all the way from Abersoch to Boynton virtually without
23:02
getting off off the water. And so, yeah, I decided.
23:05
To have a go, yeah, We'll, we'll, we'll know a bit more.
23:08
I think the where you live actually shapes the type of
23:12
challenges that you take on doesn't.
23:14
Yeah. Well, we lived in Higher Point
23:16
because as a kid I used to get the bus up to the Macclesfield
23:20
Canal right by where we eventually lived.
23:22
That was one of my little adventure places.
23:24
I'd have my fishing gear on the bus as a little lad.
23:26
In those days, you'd probably go on the bus on your own a bit
23:28
younger, to be honest. And yeah, that was my little
23:32
adventure playground. I'd go up there, you know, we
23:34
lived in a pretty nice place anyway, and she was Hume.
23:36
But this lovely countryside by the water catching fish.
23:40
It was like my adventure place. So that's the reason we, we
23:43
actually moved to, to higher point when Sal and I got
23:46
married. I we used.
23:47
To because of access to. It's just a place we'd, we'd,
23:50
I'd loved as a kid and we'd come to love together.
23:53
And yeah, it was by the water. And as you say, that was a
23:55
conscious choice, you know? Because.
23:57
Water shaped my life to a very great extent.
24:00
OK, so we've got, we've got a picture now that you're sitting
24:04
there, you've got people like Phil and Emma who helped to to
24:07
plan this out. You've got it in your mind that
24:09
this is what you're going to do. And the obviously the first
24:14
thing that you've got to sort of think is, well, where do I start
24:17
from and where do I go from? I mean literally because so I
24:22
mean, where did you start from? So we started from, I think we
24:26
started from Footprints, actually.
24:27
Yeah, I think you were. Yeah, from the Beach Cafe there.
24:30
I think we did. And then paddled across to
24:32
Mickey's Cafe and did a collection there, which was a
24:35
kind of theme which sometimes took a bit of a diversion so we
24:38
could get the cash buckets out to actually collect cash along
24:41
with the. You didn't carry the cash book,
24:43
that's why. The incredibly brilliant Sally
24:46
Bell was a superstar and generally looking after me on
24:49
the whole trip. She was incredible driving the
24:52
camper van every day along kind of alongside me meeting up where
24:56
we finished up. We'd then sleep in the camper.
24:59
So were those were those stops planned or was it when you just
25:02
got absolutely fat whacked out and you no.
25:05
No, I know we planned them quite carefully because obviously
25:08
there's there's tides and so on that you have to be aware of.
25:10
So funny if I've just written an article for Abbasol Life, the
25:13
magazine that's in the shops right now, about coming into
25:18
the, the stretch from Porthur whistling sounds to
25:21
Porthuscaden. And I got it wrong.
25:23
The tide there, I left whistling sounds.
25:26
I thought the tide had turned. It hadn't.
25:28
And I went nowhere for about an hour.
25:29
It's like on a convertible, the tide flies down that North
25:32
Coast, it flies down there. So yeah, he has to be really
25:35
careful with the planning. And that's where Phil was
25:37
particularly helpful. He understands all that, you
25:40
know, his own water knowledge and his lifeboat stuff and
25:42
everything. So he was really helpful.
25:44
There was a book called Kayaking North Wales that annoyingly did
25:48
a similar tripping or part of it in reverse but by kind of mirror
25:53
mirror imaging. The advice in that you could
25:56
work. Out where to go?
25:57
Where to go which? Period of time of tide that you
26:00
needed to be on. So yeah, it all made sense.
26:03
And also it needed to be a sensible distance.
26:05
I think it was about sort of 10 to 15 miles each day was
26:08
technically what what we did. I wasn't lucky.
26:11
It was in June, July I think, and the wind was just
26:17
uncharacteristically, phenomenally strong for almost
26:20
the entire trip, and of course in completely the wrong
26:22
direction. Howling from the north down the
26:25
the North Coast of the whole trip was actually much harder
26:28
than it should have been. A couple of times I had to just
26:30
get out, get off, wait for a few hours.
26:33
I had to go back and do one or two stages.
26:36
Kind of go oh, right, OK, OK. Go back and know when the wind
26:39
had died. So it took a bit of knitting
26:41
together on the hoof, really. Day by day, yeah.
26:44
Has the weather allowed? Yeah, exactly.
26:46
But again, that's where people were brilliant.
26:48
I remember Dave Lammercraft, a friend.
26:51
He came and met me with some brownies he'd cooked for just
26:54
little things. Like that when you were
26:55
absolutely right in the middle of that, the brownie keeps you
26:57
going, Yeah. Pal P1 of 1 of I originally was
27:00
going to paddle all the way up the North Coast to Talacra and
27:04
then paddle across the D estuary to New Brighton and then go down
27:08
the Mersey there. But the winds were so strong
27:10
that the the Coast Guard so wouldn't let me paddle across
27:14
the D Estuary. So I had to paddle up the D
27:17
estuary into Chester. And that was one of the two most
27:21
difficult stages. Actually, the DS3 is a pretty
27:24
grim place, if I'm honest. Is it really full of, I mean,
27:27
it's not as a casual grant. No, no, it's full of post
27:30
industrial wreckage, jetties falling in and so on.
27:34
OK. It's which on a paddle board you
27:36
have to be really careful of, you know, you wear a waste leash
27:39
and stuff, but not to get caught in stuff.
27:42
And because of the tides, because I had a different plan,
27:44
I had to leave Flint Castle. I think it was at like half 7:00
27:47
at night. So I'm heading off in onto this
27:50
of the de Estuary. It's starting to go dark.
27:53
The wind is blowing a Gale again, and it's pushing me
27:57
across to the far bank, almost around the kind of buttress that
28:00
I needed to get past. And then I had to paddle up into
28:03
Chester in the increasing dark and into the middle of the city.
28:07
And that was quite sketchy just in terms of the the physical
28:11
conditions, but also sort of mentally it was quite hard.
28:14
Work. I was going to say that sounds
28:15
almost as though the the sort of it had stopped being about the
28:18
distance and it started being about the minds.
28:20
That day was just about getting it done it.
28:22
I just had to do it. So I ended up in Chester about
28:25
half 10 and we I managed to pull it out in a horrible bit of the
28:29
river and that's the only night we stayed in a hotel.
28:32
I said to Sal I'm a bit done in. Here oh.
28:34
God so physically and mentally. And so we stayed in a lovely
28:38
hotel to the Hilton by Chester Racecourse that night.
28:41
But what I was coming to was the next day.
28:42
I then had to paddle up the canal effectively to Ellesmere
28:45
Port to replace crossing the D estuary.
28:49
I got on the canal and the bloody wind again.
28:51
I was thinking of a nice quiet day.
28:53
I'm not on the open sea. The wind came howling down the
28:56
canal. I was one of the few days where
28:57
I thought I really could do without this.
29:00
But my mate from school though he's fished with all my life
29:03
together. Pete turned up on his bike and
29:05
he cycled alongside me on the tow path and he obviously he got
29:09
me through that day. I would have made it I guess
29:11
because you just do. But he made it a really, you
29:14
know, an semi enjoyable experience.
29:17
Well and a pint together, pint together afterwards.
29:19
So the number of people who helped out like that were
29:21
amazing, just getting through the the difficult days.
29:24
Do you think episodes and adventures like you've obviously
29:28
sort of, I'm not, I'm going to come back to it in a minute.
29:30
This is just something in my mind.
29:31
Do you think they've become over commercialised?
29:34
Because from what it sounds from your tale that you're telling us
29:37
now, it's it was really about people, about the friends that
29:42
were sort of metaphorically just grabbing you and pulling you
29:45
along and taking you from 1-1 situation to another and.
29:49
Actually new friends really because I, you know, I decided
29:54
to do this paddle from a new home sound of Abersoft to my old
29:57
home sound of point. And initially I just said, so
30:00
I'm going to do it without even working it out and then started
30:03
to plan it. Some of it wasn't fun.
30:05
A lot of it wasn't that difficult.
30:06
It was just about puzzling, but quite a bit was.
30:09
And I so as I got nearer to the day and even during the journey,
30:12
I put posts out on Facebook and so on and social media saying
30:16
I'm doing this bit, can you help me?
30:18
So for example, Chris from the Snowdonia Watersports, Absolute
30:22
superstar. You might see him downwind
30:24
foiling down across the Bay. OK, Yeah, I.
30:27
Didn't know him from that. I think Phil put me in touch
30:29
with him. He escorted me down the Menai
30:31
Straits, which is another pretty sketchy bit without company and
30:36
he was a superstar and I know him quite well now.
30:38
I'd surf with him occasionally on on that so he came out of
30:40
nowhere. Then I put a message out and
30:43
said no. I'm planning on paddle boarding
30:45
up the Mersey Estuary from New Brighton to Runcorn.
30:49
And technically you can't do it. I don't think anyone had done it
30:51
at the time. It's too dangerous, no one will
30:53
let you do it. And because the tide is massive
30:56
and fast there, and these two guys, one of whom actually
31:00
commutes in a kayak of the Mersey Estuary to work.
31:04
Cool. And then a guy called Adam, who
31:07
works as a safety and rescue guy on the Mersey, He, he, he, he's
31:13
a pal of, of Christians. He came and the pair of them
31:16
escorted me up the Mersey estuary, this frankly terrifying
31:19
stretch of water where the water's moving about 100 miles
31:22
an hour and the tides are about, this huge boats about.
31:26
And they were. I'm a great belief in myself in
31:28
stretching the truth if it gets you to do stuff.
31:30
Adam was on his radio to the port authorities saying I've got
31:33
this guy who's pedal balling around the whole of Britain
31:37
trying to get up the Merseyer. And they were literally
31:39
diagnostic diving in these giant boats, me and my little paddle
31:42
board to go up there with these two guys next to me.
31:45
So yeah, people were absolutely great and they got me through
31:48
it, definitely. So yeah, yeah.
31:50
So you were physically alone, but absolutely your spirit was
31:53
just wrapped up with the community.
31:55
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
31:58
So what do you think you would do it again?
32:02
I I talked to Emma, funny enough from us at water sports about
32:05
potentially doing something. I mentioned it to her where I
32:09
don't think I could do what I did.
32:10
I've got I've played cricket and football all my life, I've
32:13
surfed all my life, 10 before. I've had a few joint problems
32:16
all my life and this historic illness and I'm not sure
32:19
physically I could do it now. I was also in quite a bad car
32:22
crash in my late 40s as I've got a permanently dislocated
32:26
collarbone, so I had to stop prone surfing and take up paddle
32:30
boards. Oh right, that was great prone.
32:32
Surfing. But so it was no, no, no.
32:34
Great loss to the world of surfing I can assure you.
32:38
And those things have got a bit worse.
32:39
I tried to resurrect my cricket career with Patelli Cricket Club
32:42
last year, played two or three games, had great fun.
32:45
But it hurt too much being honest and and it's always hurt
32:48
a bit all my life. So it's not like so wimping out
32:51
of that. So I don't think I could do a
32:54
paddle everyday situation again. So what I might do is tram
32:59
paddle, but all the lakes of Snowdonia.
33:02
So just do 11 week, you know, go home, do another one the next
33:06
week. So you know, do transfinite
33:08
ballot any of the ones that will let you.
33:10
And just ideally get a little group who wants to come and do
33:12
it with me on each lake and stretch it over a summer, maybe
33:15
even 2 summers. Not not put the pressure on
33:18
myself like I did with the hometown paddle, which was good.
33:20
It was good pressure because it made me do it.
33:22
But just do something that's a bit more manageable.
33:25
And each one is a little project, raise a bit of money
33:28
and do another one. So.
33:30
So yeah, I might do that. I was thinking about it this
33:32
summer. It won't happen this summer, but
33:34
maybe next summer. And, and people can then sort of
33:36
parachute in and do it with you and they, they can get the kick
33:39
out of that. They can help raise some money.
33:41
And then they don't they they presumably won't feel on their
33:44
own as to have to do every single one.
33:46
No, exactly. So, you know, they can do what
33:48
people look like. There's a, a family called the
33:50
the the Smedleys Claire and she's called John or husband and
33:54
there could they just met me on grill beach one day, you know,
33:57
and literally clap me along and stuff like that.
33:59
And I made a lot of friends as a result of the home sound paddle.
34:02
So just in the same way people, if we do do the the lakes, one
34:05
people could either come along and paddle with us and whatever
34:07
they want or just turn up, you know, another day by the lake
34:10
and help us collect money with the buckets and.
34:12
So on. And before we leave that I'd
34:14
like to sort of come back to you, you now you've gone up the
34:17
Mersey. It's it's this north wind is
34:20
still going against you. What's it like paddling in
34:24
suburbia? Because, you know, and yeah.
34:26
That was that was interesting. So from there onwards, once you
34:28
got to Runko and got out and hopped onto the canal literally
34:32
right next to the estuary, it's kind of a seamless joint there.
34:35
And then paddled through Cheshire and that was quite
34:38
nice, that bit on the Bridgewater Canal and just
34:41
staying in some nice little farm campsites and so on.
34:44
And then ended up going around the back of Old Trafford, the
34:48
United's ground. I'm a bit.
34:49
OK, he's. Standing on the United sand on
34:52
my paddle board. I bet there's not many pictures
34:54
like that. No, no.
34:56
And then carried on into the city centre where again some
34:58
great friends, Paul and Helen Moores, they, they met us and
35:02
bought us lunch and so on. And I had the huge paddle board
35:05
in Deansgate Locks, all these beautiful cool bars.
35:08
And there's me in my wetsuit and this massive paddle board.
35:12
The bouncers were coming, yeah. Is this, is this guy real?
35:16
For real. Yeah, that I had to paddle
35:18
through the centre of Manchester.
35:19
That was a little bit sketchy. There's one bit where you have
35:21
to go under a sort of underpass near Piccadilly station, which
35:24
is is famous for, well, famous for the sale of sexual
35:28
activities that particular area. OK, so I paddle as quick as I
35:32
could through there came out the other side into.
35:34
East, you didn't get a proposition.
35:36
There. I didn't, No, no, I suspect I'd
35:37
have to have paid. Yeah.
35:41
And then Eastman and then that's a really sketchy bit of the
35:43
canal there. And there was there was a a
35:46
bunch of guys who were trying to do the right thing.
35:48
They clearly wanted to turn away from the road while they were
35:51
injecting drugs into themselves, but actually turned to face the
35:55
canal as I paddled bass. So I paddled past the guy,
35:57
injecting it into his groin, which, OK, very very sad and
36:01
everything. And absolutely it.
36:03
Did make me feel a little bit uneasy.
36:05
Yeah, yeah. So it was a little bit of that
36:07
bit of the urban bit wasn't great, but you're soon out the
36:10
other end. And then yeah, all the way up to
36:13
the High Peak Canal, I think it's called.
36:15
And then the Macclesfield Canal and and home where a whole bunch
36:17
of people from pulling met me with.
36:19
Oh right, amazing. And Sally had accompanied you
36:22
effectively mile for mile. Yeah, yeah, we're probably more
36:24
because she was she would kind of tramp our little spots where
36:27
she could see me and give me a wave so that the estuary night,
36:31
for example, she she was probably in places where it
36:33
wasn't great to be to be honest. She was getting onto little
36:35
jetties and and bridges because she knew right?
36:38
Both knew it was not going to be an.
36:40
Easy set of the journey. That so she just turned up and
36:42
gave me a wave and that just makes a massive.
36:45
Difference oh, it's she was a. Superstar still is a superstar.
36:48
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
36:49
And I was, she was worried, you know, in the way I was just
36:51
doing it. She had to worry about is he
36:53
going to be all right? So in some ways it was probably
36:54
harder for her actually. Yeah, yeah.
36:56
And clearly challenges like this from what you're saying, they
37:00
don't for you as a an individual, they never leave
37:03
you. They just no.
37:04
It's just seem to exchange shape.
37:06
Yeah, yeah. And it's, as I say, it's made,
37:08
you know, I I'm not the best at holding onto friends, if I'm
37:11
honest. I'm always too busy doing stuff.
37:13
Yeah, it is. It's a weakness.
37:14
All my life I've worked with some Great.
37:16
If you want to be a pal, just do what I'm doing.
37:18
Yeah, yeah, exactly. But I did meet some great people
37:21
and that is the good people talk about the negativity of social
37:24
media. I, I now they use it or look at
37:26
it like that. What it is great for is
37:28
connecting with people long so you might never see them again.
37:31
Yeah, but you have a connection. You see what they do.
37:33
They see what you're doing. Yeah.
37:34
Little things that merge. A song you might both like or a
37:37
view you like. You suddenly realize you've got
37:39
that shared, you know that shared interest and that social
37:42
media is brilliant for that I. Think Were you playing me just
37:44
as just gone through my mind? Were you playing music while you
37:47
were public? No, I'm not a fan of that
37:49
actually. I actually love my music.
37:51
I've got I love sitting him upstairs.
37:53
Yeah, sure, I've got a record player like most middle-aged men
37:56
have, as well as my all my other streaming stuff and everything,
37:59
but no, I'm not a fan. I think if you're out not being
38:03
judge mental. No, no, no, no.
38:04
Turns you on. But for me, being there is the
38:07
thing. Witnessing it, feeling it,
38:09
hearing it where you are is the thing.
38:11
I don't want some music that I might absolutely love and
38:14
confusing me. No, because.
38:16
I wanna feel what's out there. And you can catch that another
38:18
time. Can't.
38:19
Yeah. It's as simple as that.
38:21
So you clearly care about the place, about Abasok, about your
38:26
home, where you live now, the beaches of the community.
38:29
Is that, do you think that's what keeps pulling you back into
38:33
these new bigger ideas? Obviously the new the the
38:38
perspective paddle board, the new paddle board challenge?
38:41
Or do you think is it something else?
38:43
Is it something absolutely core and in your DNA that just says,
38:47
Kevin, today's a new day, going to have a new challenge.
38:50
Yeah, I don't think so much about necessarily about new
38:53
challenges. I've always liked change or my
38:55
life and have a very linear career at all and lots of
38:58
different things. You listing some of them before
39:01
because I, I, I exactly get bored easily.
39:03
I just like doing new stuff. And so I love waking up here and
39:08
and think about new stuff here can be just paddle boarded up a
39:12
Macross rather than you know, of course, Nigel, if if you like it
39:16
might be. I'm a big dweller.
39:18
That's the other thing I love. I love dwelling me just by being
39:20
very active. I also love the exact opposite,
39:22
which is dwelling. So sitting in a Cafe with a
39:25
coffee and a good book and so on.
39:27
So sometimes it can just be, yeah, should we go over to the
39:30
pub on the front? But Aaron, have a coffee there
39:32
and sit and read in the sunshine there.
39:34
So. So I'm not, I'm not necessarily
39:36
about challenges. It's just about doing something
39:39
new every day and doing it in the sunshine, whether that's
39:42
literal or metaphorical in this beautiful place.
39:45
I've been lucky every single morning to wake up here.
39:48
So do you feel there's there's an odd question, but again, in
39:53
my mind, do you feel there's a responsibility that you've got
39:55
to sort of because you live somewhere like this and you are
39:59
living the the the live in the area that you feel a
40:02
responsibility to give something back I.
40:05
Don't know if it's a responsibility, but I, I've
40:07
always written all my life. So as well as whatever corporate
40:10
or other jobs I've had, I've always written for magazines and
40:12
so on. Had that as a parallel career
40:17
and as about three years before we're moving here, I took over
40:20
the editorship of Avocado Life magazine.
40:23
And one of the reasons I did that was because I do like
40:26
sharing how brilliant this place is and how beautiful.
40:29
And, you know, there's so many different versions of it.
40:31
A lot of, you know, the place gets slagged off a bit on social
40:34
media sometimes being full of rich idiots or whatever, which
40:38
is obviously nonsense. Sort of clear there is the odd
40:40
one, but. Rich or idiot?
40:43
Both. Moving on.
40:45
Yeah. But but you can do so many
40:47
different versions of it isn't some people.
40:49
Oh, I can't stand the village in summer.
40:50
It's mobbed with paper. I absolutely love it.
40:52
Yeah, it's one of the reasons we.
40:53
Stopped the energy. Yeah, it's buzzing and
40:55
everything and, but the real point behind that is you
40:58
literally only have to walk half a mile and it's a completely
41:00
different place. It's a beautiful, stunning,
41:03
natural place as well as the, you know, to to complement the
41:06
kind of busy village and everything that's going on
41:08
there. So I've always liked the idea of
41:10
trying to share that and how great it is and, and what the
41:13
the sort of contrasting attractions of it are.
41:15
You know, the water sports, the beaches, the busy village, all
41:18
that sort of eating opportunities, drinking
41:20
opportunities, but then the ability to walk a few 100 yards
41:24
and be somewhere stunningly beautiful with almost no one
41:26
else about. So it's more about sharing.
41:28
I think that's the same reason to a degree.
41:31
I run the surf check and wonder. No illusions.
41:33
Probably most of the followers aren't surfers.
41:35
I don't think they, I think. Of.
41:37
Pictures of like I used to, I used to when I was sat in my
41:41
office in Manchester. I used to love seeing a picture
41:43
of here on the day. So I kind of do it for those
41:45
people as much As for the surfers.
41:47
I just want to share how cool and beautiful it is.
41:50
That's, that's great. That's great.
41:51
And and I was thinking because you're, you're an adventurer,
41:55
there's no doubt about it. Not everybody's going to do what
41:58
you've done and not everybody dare to do what you done.
42:02
One of our residents or the residents of the village is
42:05
obviously Bear Grylls. And I thought to myself at the
42:08
time when I was sort of preparing in my mind for for our
42:12
podcast, that it's interesting that Abersoch is a home to you
42:16
and is a home to Bear Grylls. He's a very public face of
42:20
adventure. And then there's you the the
42:23
sort of quietly paddle boarding 200 miles without a camera crew.
42:27
And I just thought to myself, different styles, but the same
42:31
instinct. Just get on and do it.
42:33
Yeah, it's. Very nice to compare me to bear
42:35
grills. But he might say the same
42:38
actually true. He did once compliment me on one
42:41
of my boats and. I still there you go a little.
42:43
Bit of shit. I had a little quad bike type
42:45
boat. Very cool.
42:46
Yeah, but AZ go and he did like he was a bit envious of that.
42:50
But yeah, I think I'm about a factor of 1,000,000.
42:52
So I'm smaller in adventure than the bear grills.
42:55
But yeah, it's I think it's just a place that stirs you, isn't
42:59
it? And it stirs you to do stuff.
43:01
And it doesn't matter whether those that that stirring stirs
43:03
you to swim 10 yards in the sea or to, you know, paddle board
43:07
250 yards. But I would say again, I'm not
43:09
going to lie, I do also like the interest it developed.
43:13
So when I did the paddle board commute, that first one I was
43:17
telling you about from pointing to Stoke, I had.
43:19
I did have ABBC film crew. Oh, did you?
43:21
And I did have a local you. Superstar, are you?
43:25
I've always been quite good at getting publicity for stuff.
43:28
I've always been a writer, always been.
43:30
And it's kind of what, although I've done various different
43:33
jobs, the thread running through them all has been not a
43:36
salesman. I don't even be a very good
43:37
salesman at all, but kind of someone who's good at raising
43:41
awareness of stuff at the positive bit.
43:43
So that was the job I did in Stoke about, you know, it's a
43:46
difficult city with lots of yeah, yeah, I was working in
43:50
regeneration there. And although a lot of that is
43:53
physical stuff, organising building projects and
43:55
development projects which which I've done on and off all my
43:57
life, in reality that that's a process that anyone could do.
44:02
I think what I've always been pretty good at is the bit about
44:05
raising the awareness places. So I managed the acquisition of
44:09
the old Spode factory in Stoke on Track, for example, and then
44:13
put in place a master plan to regenerate that as a kind of
44:16
mixed-use place with the kind of arts at its core.
44:20
And, and that again, the, the, and it's working really well,
44:23
moved on a long time ago, but it's working really well there.
44:26
And I think so that is about getting that publicity and
44:29
awareness out there, which I've always been good at, you know,
44:32
working with the media and so on.
44:34
I did. I did a bit of work there with
44:36
Keith Breimer Jones, you know, the Potter who's doing the.
44:39
Oh, did you? Yeah, Yeah.
44:41
Yeah, he's a big, but he obviously does the pottery throw
44:44
down programme there and worked with him on the Stone Meadow
44:47
City of Culture bid, which was never going to be successful but
44:52
was important in putting the place on the map.
44:54
So yeah, so I and I again, kind of my role there was about sort
44:58
of publicity and so on. I'm sure Keith's forgotten me,
45:00
but I still remember him. You remember he was a top, well,
45:03
again, a really top man in a in a situation where he didn't need
45:06
to be as generous as he was. He was great.
45:09
Absolutely. Yeah, and you nudge me here
45:11
because I grew up in in and around Stoke myself.
45:14
And I, I did the I was the live event to compare for the
45:18
National Garden Festival. Oh, if you remember, that was
45:20
six months. So yeah, that was that was an
45:23
awesome sort of time. So on to be worth watch.
45:25
Gullit Valley. Victoria Valley.
45:27
Victoria Valley, Yeah, Festival Park.
45:29
Yeah, well, I built a roundabout Notoria Valley.
45:32
Not quite as bother as actually, but believe me, it took a lot of
45:35
doing. Yeah, you were on to those
45:38
bloody traffic. Yeah, yeah, it's snowing up that
45:42
the a what is it a 55 or A500A500?
45:46
Yeah. OK, OK.
45:47
So I'm going to sort of wrap up, but I'm going to bring back to,
45:51
to Duncan because, you know, I think it's, it's, it's healthy
45:55
that we, we come back to the core.
45:57
And sort of first of all, to ask you, is there anything else that
46:02
you'd like to bring into this podcast that we haven't talked
46:06
about that you think is worth a, just a, a message that sort of
46:12
may motivate other people to do just what you've done?
46:16
Yeah, maybe not exactly that so much more just a reflection on
46:19
some of the stuff that people do.
46:21
So I think the reason we're doing this is originally Dash
46:24
Mark Durston. Yes.
46:26
Who owns Have a Sort Life magazine and runs a lot of the
46:29
races, the Sensation Group races.
46:32
And he's done a pretty incredible job over the years.
46:35
But, you know, he's had his ups and downs like anyone doing the
46:37
sort of diverse range of things that that he's done.
46:41
But you know, he's Sean Abbastock, Life magazine.
46:43
It was his 25th anniversary last year.
46:45
It's 26. It's now 26 years that's been
46:48
running for. And that irrespective of where,
46:50
it's all right for him. He does a brilliant job, I think
46:53
of promoting the, the, the, the village and and so on.
46:56
And then he puts these races on every year and you know, there's
46:58
a massive challenge. There's always competitors
47:00
coming in, there's always new rules and regulations.
47:02
He ran the Waitstock festival, so Mark May not have wanted to
47:06
do this podcast. He's somebody likes to sit in
47:08
the background. But so he said I definitely.
47:11
Would hope that people reflect. On every stuff you can't, yeah.
47:14
Like I say, he said, he's up to downs.
47:16
Like everyone would have done something like that for that
47:18
long, but to keep bringing as much activity and interest to
47:21
this beautiful little place as he's done, he's pretty
47:24
remarkable. It is, isn't it?
47:25
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Ditto we've now got, there's
47:29
The magazine is now edited by Jess Wilson and she's doing a
47:32
brilliant job. The magazine gets better every
47:34
issue. So it's more about people like
47:36
that who are doing their, their bit, I think to make this well,
47:40
to help people reflect on how beautiful it is and bring it to
47:42
people's attention and, and promote it and hopefully support
47:45
the businesses in the, in the, in the village and so on.
47:47
Who? Who you know need it?
47:49
Yeah, yeah. And they support it and that's,
47:52
that's what makes. It such as such an.
47:54
Attractive glossy coffee table magazine.
47:57
Hopefully it supports them and they support it and it's a
47:59
really yeah, really Yeah relationship.
48:01
So really it's that and and Ditto anyone who does similar
48:05
stuff that, you know, the like the lifeboat fundraisers who put
48:08
the, the the aren't they? Incredible.
48:10
Yeah, so. And I do a bit of hosting of, of
48:12
events with RNLI, the, the music quiz and, and bingo and stuff.
48:17
But really we just do the easy bit upfront.
48:19
These guys are working behind the scenes all the time raising
48:21
money. So it's folk like that.
48:23
I think I who's going to bring anything in.
48:25
It's just a hoping people sort of recognise and respect and
48:28
reflect on what a great job all those people.
48:30
Yeah. And I think that that's, do you
48:31
know, honestly, I think that that's almost a thread that was
48:35
woven and has been woven over the last 5 1/2 years into the
48:38
Dunkers. Because, yeah, the Dunkers came
48:40
out of of Emma and Hattie and they'd sort of, they just had an
48:45
idea. Well, they were going to do
48:46
something in the middle of COVID and you weren't, we weren't
48:49
allowed to. You got to socially distance,
48:52
you weren't allowed to get together, blah, blah, blah.
48:54
And they just sort of decided they'd do it.
48:57
And, you know, for the first six or nine months, there were five
49:00
or six of us. And I was the first man there.
49:04
That's why they christened me the half, because I've got these
49:07
red trunks and never, never lived that down.
49:10
But that's another. Great initiative, isn't it?
49:12
Yeah, and if you don't do it? I think a lot of people follow
49:15
you guys and sort of feel like they do it.
49:18
But you know, yeah, that place removed if you like, so they're
49:20
still in bed. You know, they, oh, go and have
49:23
a cold show, Yeah. Absolutely.
49:25
Exactly. So more power to your elbow.
49:27
Yeah. Well, and, and The thing is,
49:29
it's a daily. It's a daily just like you and
49:32
Sally having granola in bed. It's it's our daily routine.
49:36
It's you've got to do it because your, your, your day wouldn't be
49:40
complete if you didn't. So if you were going to dunk,
49:43
where would you dunk and who would it be with?
49:45
Well, I sort of think I do a version of dunking because I try
49:48
and get in or on the sea every single day.
49:50
So there you go. For me it, and it sounds trite,
49:54
probably this, but it would be on port and I will getting in
49:57
there spending a day there getting my son over from
50:00
America. We were big surfing buddies.
50:02
I miss him every single day. He went over there to play
50:05
football and he has ended up back there playing football and
50:09
coaching football now. So I miss him enormously.
50:11
So there with with Lori and his wife Sarah, my daughter Sophie,
50:16
her little kids Charlie and Summer and Sal and just having a
50:19
little gang of us on the beach for the day.
50:22
Have a dunk, have a surf, have a body board, have a a little
50:25
bonfire in the evening and a barbecue and just have a little
50:28
family time together. It's got to be the life, isn't
50:31
it? Best place in the world.
50:32
Absolutely. I'm going to ask you.
50:34
My last question is what somebody else has actually left
50:37
for you, because I'm going to ask you when we're off air to
50:40
give me a question for the next interviewee because and, and
50:44
I'll, we'll never tell you who it was, but I just hold on to
50:48
those questions. And it's a very simple one for
50:51
you, but or very simple to, to, to ask, but it's probably a big
50:55
one. And that is who inspires you.
51:00
I mean, probably in terms of, of helping develop what I think
51:03
must be in you a bit already. That love of water I think came
51:07
from my dad in a, in a more sort of practical sense.
51:10
We built a mirror dinghy together when I was about 5 that
51:13
we used to sail off the beach here.
51:16
But my mum, also my mum, you know, as I said, she's quite an
51:19
alternative character, quite ahead of the time and very much
51:22
and so dabbled in Eastern religions and so on.
51:25
And you know, I, I think if I'm anything I'm not, I'm not
51:28
religious. I'm probably a pantheist, you
51:30
know, somebody believes in the, the earth having a sacred
51:33
quality rather than deities and so on.
51:37
So she, she probably indirectly inspired me to think maybe
51:41
differently about how the world works and what really is, you
51:45
know, your your own personal version of spirituality and
51:49
soulfulness. But also she was a big sailor
51:52
used to get, she taught me to say my dad couldn't do it.
51:54
He got angry too quickly. He got it wrong.
51:57
So yeah, to be honest, my mum and dad are probably the ones.
52:00
I I played cricket and football with my oldest brother for a lot
52:04
of my my teens and 20s and he's a very different character than
52:09
me, but got a great sense of humour.
52:11
And that kind of help me realise that humour can be a really
52:15
powerful tool in trying to kind of promote things and sell
52:18
things. So it's kind of family stuff.
52:20
I was going to say that. Ditto Sally.
52:22
You know, Sally's a much calmer, quieter character than me, but
52:27
she's also very kind of resolute and sticks with people and so on
52:31
and and and stays friends with people and follows stuff up in a
52:34
way that I don't. But she at least helped me do it
52:37
better than than I might do my daughter.
52:41
Absolute superstar. She's the most grounded person I
52:43
know. She has a very kind of, you
52:45
know, challenging career. She works a very senior level in
52:48
sales and stuff. And yet she's the most grounded
52:50
person I know. And Ditto Laurie, my son, who,
52:54
you know, his football adventures have taken him all
52:57
over the world really. And you know, that that's
53:00
inspired us to do stuff. 18 year old lad went off to Milwaukee to
53:04
play football when his dreams of playing for Manchester City were
53:07
taken away. And he just found a way and, you
53:11
know, played professional football for 10-15 years,
53:14
something like that. So all those people it might
53:16
sound naft to describe your. Family.
53:18
No, no, no, not at all. They've all inspired.
53:20
Hopefully I've put a bit into them as well.
53:22
That's come back at me. But yeah, Mum, dad, family of
53:25
what? What what's inspired me most?
53:27
And then maybe Wayne Coyne, the lead singer of The Flaming Lips,
53:30
my favorite. Yeah, don't quite know how or
53:33
why, but he's been a that's. A left fielder.
53:36
Yeah, musical thread through my life.
53:38
They have. Them and The Cure are still my
53:40
two favorite bands, much as I love new music to Yeah, Wayne
53:43
Coyne and Robert Smith have also inspired me.
53:46
Well, let I, I just, I, I've really, really enjoyed this,
53:51
this chat and I can always just say one thing and that is I hope
53:54
the Duncan spirit goes with you. Thank.
53:57
You very much. I've loved it, even if I've
53:58
rambled on, I'm sure hopefully people got a sense of stuff.
54:01
So thank you. They'll listen to our to the
54:03
donkeys. Thank you.
54:04
They'll listen to the end, I promise you that.
54:07
Good, good.