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Every year we get a few enquires from people who want to SUP through London. It’s a great experience to do but its not for everyone. The tidal current through central London is always strong and there’s almost constant traffic with wash from boats. The river has embankments along its entire central London stretch with very few places to egress easily and safely. The wash bounces back from the embankments and comes back at paddlers from several angles. This combined with the wind can be very dangerous and difficult to handle on a stand up paddleboard.
There are many moorings and pontoons which can be deadly if the tide pushes you into them – or underneath them. We call this pinning. Being pinned on the tidal Thames can often resemble whitewater-like type pinning where the volume of water is so great that it makes it difficult to escape from and has a strong potential to lead to drowning.
Ten years ago the Port of London Authority banned all SUP downriver of Putney Pier. We challenged this and after a long negotiation and risk assessment process agreed a training programme (Thames Skills and Knowledge) which opened up possibilities to paddle through London down to Tower Bridge. This training was in two parts with TSK1 being very accessible to anyone with basic SUP experience allowing them to slowly and safely build their confidence on tidal rivers. We started off delivering these at our main base at Kew Bridge and when Covid started we developed the course to deliver the theory modules online.
TSK2 is much more complex as it requires an extensive Tidal Thames experience below Putney Bridge with thorough understanding of risks and river hazards. We piloted a TSK2 course with a group of mainly our SUP coaches and ran it in 2016. We quickly realised that demand from people with sufficient Tidal Thames paddling experience to even take the course and benefit from it was limited. Most people who want to paddle the Thames – source to sea, for example plan to do it as a one off experience, live out of London and are not willing or able to spend many hours building up experience on the Tideway. Generally the best way forward for one off or occasional trips through town is to complete your TSK1 and go through central London with a PLA recognised guide – a safety kayaker river guide with Local Knowledge Endorsement (LKE) training. There are a few good LKE guides whom we have worked with on numerous trips through town and who have helped others to achieve their ambition with a little training from us to get them prepared. Some find this requirement less than ideal as it makes their trip more expensive and adds another dimension to trip organisation. The benefits of this should be considered – it enables SUP paddlers to go through central London with a lot less training and practice and still be safe in a hazardous environment. The cost of a guide is spread between the participants who are all responsible for safety of each other.
We have run very successful trips through central london with TSK1 paddlers with an LKE guide. These were always highly rated giving many a memorable and enjoyable experience, but one they were not looking to repeat often.
Active360 paused running developing TSK2 as this has not been a priority – relatively few people have the sufficient experience to do it and the time and resources to do it thoroughly are considerable and would make the training a lot more expensive in comparison with TSK1. This has now been paused indefinitely with the new revisions to the tideway code after the launch of the new Paddle UK Tideway course.
The new TSK2 syllabus is focussed on Passage Planning and hazard identification and avoidance and will include a substantial number of hours on water. It will only suit people with very good prior experience and understanding of the Tideway. The course is run in modules and the first module covers passage planning so that paddlers can develop their understanding of the river and site specific knowledge. Some paddlers may disagree with the requirement of commercial LKE river guides and will want to paddle through town unguided.
The situation may be unnacceptable to some. However, it’s important to remember that it took a lot of work to get SUP allowed on the Tideway in the first place. Having restrictions put in place again because of dangerous incidents or irresponsible paddling would ruin the enjoyment of the Tidal Thames for many SUP paddlers.
The PLA may choose to relax the rules in future, but with a series of well publicised SUP drownings in recent years major changes in restrictions seems unlikely.
Many people have taken up SUP activity on the Thames with no training or prior watersports experience. Many of these own all round shorter SUPS some of which are unsuitable for the Tideway conditions. Relaxing rules may encourage more inexperienced paddlers with a limited understanding of risk and risk avoidance/reduction to put themselves in danger. This may lead to more incidents and potential for drownings.
The rules as they stand may seem to you to be onerous and unfair as the rules back 2013 did to us before our campaign to change them. In a democracy there’s always scope to campaign and lobby and try to change things as they stand and if you have the time and energy, the drive and tenacity to see it through and the connections to help you along the way, you may prevail one day. Always worth a try if you have solid arguments and reasons for change.
There is a level of unfairness to the current rules as kayakers and canoeists can paddle through London without any special training. However there are some good reasons why kayaks (not the cheap inflatable ones) but stable and fast touring style or sea kayaks are generally a safer craft on this stretch of river. Consider this scenario: you are drifting along in a strong current, the wind has picked up and is a strong westerly wind (nothing unusual as that’s our prevailing wind). You are approaching a Thames Clipper stopped at a jetty infront to pick up passengers. Do you have the experience to work out if you have long enough to pass by before the clipper pilot pulls out? Do you have the paddling ability to hold position on a SUP against wind and tide? It is much easier to hold position in a sea or touring kayak as they are generally faster and more stable in choppy water. An experienced SUP paddler can do this but it takes skill, strength and practice. This will only come from practicing in similar conditions which is hard to replicate without experience on the tidal Thames and coastal waters in a range of more challenging weather conditions.
My main point is don’t take the Thames in Central London lightly. If you want to SUP there – set it out as a longer term challenge, build up your experience and your skills, grow your competence with in depth understanding of the river and how changing weather and tidal conditions affect paddling, really master the site specific understanding by learning permanent ‘markers’ on the river, landmarks to orientate yourself, exits points which you can study from the shore (bikes and scooters are good for this). Work out the hazards. Plan a route through with options and contingencies. And put the hours into paddling on the more demanding (than upriver) stretch between Putney and Chelsea Bridges in different conditions. Once you’ve done that, consider getting training so you are ready to paddle safely with other strong experienced paddlers you can rely on and don’t need to look after.
If you do hire a river guide with LKE training you will appreciate the many hours of river time they have clocked up to be able to pick the best lines, assess the changing risks dynamically, develop skills and look after their group. They are taking a great responsibility and it’s well worth paying their fee so you can enjoy your day and relax a bit in safe hands.
The door is open for anyone wanting to develop their own version of the TSK course to seek PLA approval. They will need lots of Tideway paddling experience, appropriate training and confidence to lead groups in London backed up by thorough understanding of the terrain and the risks of each section of river. Active360 has no monopoly on this training and the PLA always assumed other organisations would eventually jump through the hoops to take the training on. This has recently been taken on by Paddle UK (The goverining body for Stand UP Paddleboarding in the UK) who have launched their own tideway training course now referred to in the latest Tideway code.
