On Sunday the 14th of June 2026 we met for our monthly HydroPaddle, this month we were in Tring and hosted by The Grand Junction Arms as usual, a lovely country cask ale pub that sits on the waterside of the Grand Union Canal.
We met up at about 9am to inflate boards, kit up and get ready for the safety briefing, then a 10am Ish start.
Graham F is as usual working on his distance paddling and opted for the 10K.
Sam, Sue, Julia, and Winney for the 5K distance, sadly we were missing Anthony and Brendan for this one.
Zoe was timekeeping and Dave and Graham were marshalling with the help of Graham F as on the water cover.
The sun was out and the temperature was nearing 18 degrees with only a slight breeze.
This month Dave was on his SUP, and his improvement was noticeable, well to Zoe, because once out of sight he produced his seat adjusted his paddle to a double ender sat down and continued to paddle like he does kayaking, this was until he was nearing the eyeshot of Zoe on the return, when it all went back to standing up and powering through to the end. quite impressive but with a few frowns from paddlers as he announced he will ache tomorrow after that. (he has since admitted it to Zoe).
Due to some Carnage at Grahams turn around point, he cut his 10K down to 9 rather than getting tangled up in it and finished with a 71.36 over 9K.
Winney had a respectable 39.09.
Susan Had a 52.19.
Samantha had a 58.07.
Dave was Disqualified, and Julia wasn’t interested in a time or distance but more practice on the water.
We cleaned, dried and packed away kit before retiring into the sunshine in the pub garden.
We debriefed and chatted before departing to enjoy the rest of our Sunday doing various things.
Write up by Dave.
Great morning, thank you Dave and all.