A week before leaving for the Round Ireland challenge I broke my favourite paddle in a silly surf accident that shouldn’t have happened but hey ho that’s sea kayaking. This paddle had been with me through thick and thin for 4 years and the last 4600km of paddling. A replacement was kindly made by Lance at Mitchell Blades but the shaft turned out to be much heavier than my originals. Three days into the Round Ireland challenge we had a hard day into a Force 5 wind most of the day with rising seas and I knew at the end of the day that the weight of the paddle was an issue. Something needed to change fast as shoulder aches had begun that had been the original reason 4 year ago for switching to a lighter cranked paddle.
Sarah had just three weeks earlier taken possession of a Lendal Cadence as a reserve split to her 15 year old Lendal Touring paddle both of which were a similar weigh to the paddle I broke. She suggested we phoned Jeff and Cathy at Lendal paddles in the US to see if they could help, this was on Thursday 15th May. Jeff knew about the Round Ireland Challenge we were doing for Ukraine war refugees and as soon as we explained my predicament he said “this is something we will help with”. He promised a new Cadence and a Storm paddle marked in Ukraine colours as soon as the factory could turn them around.
Just 6 days from that call we collected the paddles from Dave Pringle the owner of Paddlesports Ireland the National Agent for Lendal. We arrived at Dave’s parents house and had the pleasure of meeting the family, mum and dad, sister and two great kids. Daves dad Ian is an Olympian K1 Kayaker and he kindly showed us the wooden paddles he used in the 1976 Montreal Olympics. The paddles were beautifully made in what looked like ash inlaid with another wood, they had been branded with the Montreal Olympics emblem.
It was a lovely moment to receive our new paddles in such a friendly way against a backstory of amazing manufacture, dispatch and delivery by Lendals.
As soon as I picked them up I knew the weight was right and things were looking up, we wasted no time and the next day they got wet as we paddled across Rosslare - Wexford Bay.
The Storm is a beautiful paddle and I was delighted with the way it handled and crank felt in the hand, I sensed a worry being lifted from my mind. As soon as we got ashore I messaged Jeff to let him know how we have got on and thank them again for the remarkable service. I also sent him a photo from that day when an almighty storm presented the perfect opportunity to photograph the Storm Paddles
Jeff later emailed to say Lendals would manufacture the Storm Paddle in Ukraine colours and offer them to the market, 20% of all sales would go to our KayakRoundIreland Ukraine Fund and attached some mock-up images.
Sometimes in life you are left speechless with the kindness shown by people and this was one of those times. We are genuinely humbled by the action of Jeff, Cathy and Duffy at the factory in the USA and by Dave Pringle in Ireland.
AN AMAZING CHRONOLOGY
DAY 1 : Phone call to Lendal US to explain our problem
DAY 2 : The paddles are manufactured
DAY 3 : The paddles are shipped
DAY 6 : They arrive in Ireland for collection in Dublin an hour away from our location.
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