Challenge Yourself to be Stronger

OCTOBER IS BREAST CANCER AWARENESS WEEK: If you would like to support my challenge please do so by wearing pink every Friday for the month of October and donate any funds raised to Challenge the Channel on the justgiving link below, I will be wearing pink throughout the month. Thank you.

Developments since the endurance training row:

It’s been a quiet few weeks since the endurance training row on the 5th October, I received a surprise email mail from Greg Searle congratulating me on the row and wishing me luck for the challenge. Now as everyone knows I'm not a rower and I have never met the great man, but I do know who Greg Searle is and I am humbled to have received the email from one of our top rowers. 

My coach and his partner Jenny Glass and Kern Toussaint flew off to Vancouver, Canada on the 8th October for the World Coastal Rowing Championships (a place I have always wanted to visit) the good news is that Jenny came 19th after her heat and B Final, Congratulations Jenny!!

There are articles on the endurance training row online: 

https://www.britishrowing.org/2018/10/adaptive-rower-paul-smith-obe-completes-30-mile-solent-row/

http://www.iwcp.co.uk/news/16971466.wheelchair-user-takes-on-epic-rowing-challenge-in-memory-of-friend-who-died-of-cancer/ 

           

I was reminded that until my 30 mile row the furthest I had rowed prior to this was just under 6 miles the week before.

Training:

Total of on-water training hours (including the endurance row) 28 hours and the total gym hours are 381, all contributing towards the challenge which we hope to do on May 25th 2019. I have a fantastic team around me, Mike and Emma are two very experienced rowers and coaches, without them this challenge will not be possible. Both coaches and I met on Wednesday 17th October for a debrief on the endurance row and lessons learned, we also discussed winter training and the way forward, plans are now being put in place which includes diet. 

Sponsors:

We have some fantastic sponsors onboard, you are all fantastic, thank you for your kind support, however we are still in search for a main sponsor for the challenge we are also looking for a sponsor to cover the remainder of training, if you know of someone who may be able to help please let them know or contact us. I am also in search for a waterproof sports watch with GPS and HR monitor to use in the gym and on the water, if there are any manufacturers out there who may like to sponsor this please feel free to contact me. Thank you.

Other News:

I finally caught up with Dawn Taylor CEO of Alexandra Sports, Dawn was my first sponsor for this challenge and has supported me in my other challenges over the years. Thank you Dawn for your kind support again.

We will be sending measurements to those sponsors who don’t have your company name on the boat at the moment, as you know everything was delayed but now mike is back we can now finish this off. 

Sorry it’s a very short update this week in comparison to previous weeks, stay safe, stay happy. Thank you for your support.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ChallengetheChannel

Social Media Sites: 

https://www.facebook.com/ChallengeTheChannel/

https://www.instagram.com/challengethechannel/

Very Best Wishes

Paul

Supporting Children and Teenagers with life threatening illnesses and people with breast cancer.

Sponsored/Supported by:

Eastney to Needles - Endurance Row Friday 5th October 2018

The sun rose to welcome us to the start of the endurance training row from Eastney to the Needles IOW.

We set off at 08:10 from Eastney made our way along the Eastney and Southsea shoreline turned out to see to avoid the submarine underwater defence, then began our transit across the Portsmouth Shipping Lane where we were approached by the water police who informed us that a Navy vessel was entering the harbour, as we were halfway across the IOW suddenly disappeared under a shroud of fog. The decision was made to turn north and head towards the mainland shoreline for safety reasons. We headed along the north channel staying close to the Stokes bay and Lee-on-Solent shoreline as the solent had all but disappeared in the fog we reached the Southampton Shipping Channel in approx 2 hours. We waited by a north channel buoy for a while because we heard ships fog horns then out of the mist appeared the Red Funnel ferry heading up Southampton water into Southampton, then a decision was made to sprint the 800/1000m width channel and hopefully find the Calshot North Cardinal buoy and safety, we almost bumped in to it! As we reached the buoy the fog began to lift and there on the other side of the Solent was Cowes and the IOW, the sun shone and everywhere was visible. We headed towards the IOW so we could find the strongest tidal flow heading West/Southwest and on to the needles.

We reached 23 miles (the distance of the channel crossing, I am training for) in 4 hours, we continued on and arrived at 26 miles in 4 hours 30 minutes. As we approached the Needles they suddenly disappeared in fog and all we had to direct us was the Needles lighthouse fog horn.

We reached the Needles in 5 hours 30 minutes which considering the delays due to the fog and that I've had only 21 hours 30 minutes on-water training it was a decent row. I would like to thank my on-water coach Mike Gilbert, my Safety Officer Chris Partridge and my technical coach Emma Gueterbock and my sponsors for your support and a special thanks for all you kind people out there who have been behind me all the way.

The hard work is not over, we still need to find a main sponsor and someone to sponsor the rest of my training. A lot was learned from this row which we will work on over the coming months.