SUPfest
Paddleboarding in the Lake District
When Charlie mentioned to her friends that she will go to a paddleboarding festival over the bank holiday weekend, nobody believed her at first. Yes, there is such a thing as a paddleboarding festival. SUPfest takes place every year at the end of May at Drybeck Farm in the Lake District. In 2024, Charlie as a SUP instructor was part of the team and got to see behind the curtains of SUPfest.
What SUPfest is about
Quick summary: paddleboarding, education, inspiration, music, fun.
At the heart of SUPfest is, of course, paddleboarding. Races, games and casual paddling on the river Eden are what visitors are looking forward to. In 2024, unfortunately, the weather put a challenge on the organisers. It had been raining for three days straight leading up to the event and the water levels were a lot higher than usual. Plus, the river Eden was very fast flowing. The most important task for Charlie and the safety team on the first day was to put up signs and barriers about the river being closed.
It was only on the Saturday afternoon, that the river could be opened and festival attendees were allowed to race each other in teams of 8 on Mammoth boards. Later that afternoon, they could paddle on the river in small groups with an instructor. The weather had turned surprisingly nice and some even got a little sunburned that day.
Workshops, training and inspiring talks at SUPfest
The fact that the river had been closed for half of the day did not reduce the fun for festival goers: SUP instructors and experienced paddlers offered plenty of land based workshops and trainings to keep the fun going. From rescue techniques to race paddling, SUP fitness, Yoga and even a match of SUP polo on land; plenty of smiles could be captured.
For those that preferred to sit down for a bit or for those that sought inspiration for new adventures, there was a wide range of talks on offer at three different stages. Be it white water paddling, SUP Surfing or challenges like paddling the Great Glen or climbing the highest peaks in the world, everybody was given the opportunity to find a new goal to aspire to reach on their paddleboard (or other outdoor adventures).
A playground for SUP aficionados
Charlie had already been on the grounds the day before and she saw different brands unloading demo boards and setting up stands: Starboard, Bluefin, Red and Fatstick were present at SUPfest 2024. Charlie couldn’t wait to try them all! The field by the River Eden slowly turned into a playground for all those that love paddleboarding. Apart from different sizes and shapes of inflatable SUPs, Red had brought a 4-person Dragon board, Bluefin had 8-person Mammoth boards as well as Tandem boards. Starboard had certainly the biggest board quiver offering everything from racing boards to foiling boards, inflatables and hardboards.
Charlie had been on the river safety team and was helping paddlers getting on and off their boards. On the Sunday afternoon finally, she got to paddle out herself. A few minutes in and one of the other instructors offered her to try a different paddle. It was a Hypr Hawaii, a brand Charlie hadn’t heard of before. To keep it short: she loved that paddle!
The location of SUPfest
SUPfest takes place every year at the last weekend of May at Drybeck farm near Armathwaite, about 25 minutes from Carlisle in the Lake District. It used to be a pig and cow farm until 2015 when flooding lead to a lot of destruction. It has since been converted into an event venue and campsite with glamping. There are hot showers and toilets on site. There is the option to book a hut, some of which even come with a hot tub.
There is a stage and a bar inside the former barn which makes it the perfect location for music events or weddings.
Charlie was probably the only person there that had not come in her own vehicle, but on public transport. There is a train station in Armathwaite with a regular connection to Carlisle and Leeds. From the train station it takes about 35 minutes by foot to the farm. There is one taxi company in the area that would pick you up from Armathwaite station and drop you off at the farm. You can reach them under 01228 247 365.
Due to the bad weather her train had been cancelled and she took a taxi from Carlisle. There is a taxi stand outside the train station and the ride was GBP 30.
Who’s behind SUPfest?
SUPfest is organized by John Wilson of Lake District Paddleboarding with the support of Simon Palmer of SUP Adventures. Also to mention are supporters like LeedsDock Paddleboarding who organize the SUP polo matches and other local paddleboarding schools and instructors.
Supporting good causes
One thing Charlie always loved about the paddleboarding community is that the majority of its members, even the businesses, aren’t in it to become rich; they simply want to share the love for the sport and get more people involved. That was no different at SUPfest in the Lake District. The generosity of the SUP brands at the festival that allowed everybody to use their boards is one side of it. The other is that there were plenty of charities involved in one way or another and there is a high risk here of forgetting to mention one. So this part is probably not exhaustive:
Shoretees did not only provide as one of the sponsors all staff uniform for the weekend of SUPfest, but also supports good causes with every purchase of their sustainable clothing. Everything is made from recycled material and a part of the profits goes to Ocean Co, a charity that collects plastics from the beaches of this world.
As much as plastics don’t belong in the ocean, neither do invasive plant species such as the Himalayan balsam. The Eden Rivers Trust too had a stand at SUPfest to educate about the spread and the importance of cleaning a paddleboard properly when changing location. The team of BioMate was on site too and cleaned every board before it touched the water.
Brendon Prince, who paddled all around Britain, offered an interactive talk for kids to teach them about water safety. Charlie had heard a lot of those things during a surf lifesaving training a few years earlier, the difference now was that it was made for kids to understand the hazards of water. Brendon represents the charity Above Water that is dedicated to the prevention of accidental drowning.
Those are good causes you can expect to come up in the context of watersports. There was one more though that was surprising for Charlie. She had missed the talk and movie screening, instead she got to chat directly to the person behind it: In 2023, Marc Cotterill and three of his friends took on the challenge “Crossing for CF” and paddled 80 miles from the Bahamas to Florida. Not only was it a personal challenge; it was meant to raise awareness (and money) for cystic fibrosis – a health condition that Marc himself knows all too well.
Before they ventured across the ocean, they sought help from John Wilson, the same John that organises SUPfest, to learn how to paddle. In 2024, almost a year later, they returned to SUPfest to share the story and the documentary about the SUP challenge for CF “Do Something Epic”. This is the good cause that mostly stuck with Charlie because of the personal story behind it and because it shows the amazing things you can do on a paddleboard that bring personal growth and make a difference to the lives of others. The documentary is available on YouTube.
