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Curious and looking for a new challenge Pip Piper decided to give canoeing a go after
injury prohibited her from running and rowing. Taking to the water in an open canoe with
her paddling enthusiast neighbour last October, Pip hasn’t looked back and is even taking
on her first canoe challenge to raise money for charity.
I KNEW I WAS GOING TO
LOVE CANOEING BEFORE
I EVEN GOT IN THE BOAT
Words Pip Piper:
When I finally retired last summer I was looking
forward to engaging more fully in sport so I could
enjoy myself and peg back the damage of years of
inactivity. Determined to ‘crack on with the plan’
I started running again and loved it. In June 2016
I fell down some steps and twisted my ankle, and,
really stupidly, having said I would go for a run
went out and ran four miles on an already painful
and swollen foot. It was a mistake, and one that
cost me both my running and rowing ambitions.
My first efforts must have been more than
a little frustrating for Ian. My upper body
strength was very poor and although I was
used to being in boats, canoeing is very
different to rowing so I was pretty useless.
This usually resulted in me having to go for a
lie down whilst my husband Tony bought me a
much needed cup of tea. At the time of writing,
(April 2017) I am regularly completing five
hour paddles! I was delighted when Ian and
Michael invited me to participate in their next
adventure, paddling the Caledonian Canal (and
back) to fund raise for Breast Cancer Now.
I am proud to say I may have become a competent
paddler – although I still sometimes forget to
hold on to the painter when I get out of the boat
and have on a few occasions watched in dismay
as the canoe has drifted down the stream!
Canoeing is a fantastic sport at any
age, but for a women of advancing
years and limited starting fitness
it is fantastic as it doesn’t put any
strain on the knee or ankle joints!
I would recommend canoeing to anyone. You
may not be lucky enough to live next door to an
consummate enthusiast with his own boat and a
determination to paddle come-what-may, but there
are lots of clubs, and in my experience paddlers
are a pretty cheerful and welcoming bunch.
By early autumn 2016, at the age of 58, I felt even
more rudderless and decidedly twitchy. My neighbour
Ian Styles had, with his son Michael recently
completed a canoe trip raising money to combat
breast cancer. I was intrigued – and envious – I
wanted a challenge, a cause that would give me the
opportunity to exercise and to achieve something
I had never done before. When Ian agreed to take
me out in the canoe, I was delighted. I knew I was
going to love canoeing before I even got in the boat.
Where am I now? I started canoeing in October
2016. We started out with a half hour paddle up the
Bridgwater-Taunton Canal and half an hour back.
I neglected exercise for many years being
preoccupied with family and career. Like many
women I just got heavier, less fit and less confident
about my own physical strength. As a student
I gained a taste for rowing, and, in 2010 at the
age of 52 I was motivated to take it up again.