Barry’s 37-mile trip on sea kayak
Epic ride took 11 hours 22 minutes
A thrill-seeking Stirling paddleboarder has raised cash for charity by paddling from the city all the way to Edinburgh.
Barry McGowan hopped on to his paddle board and took on the River Forth to raise funds for Strathcarron Hospice recently.
The Old Bridge Wynd resident set off from the new pontoon in Riverside for the 37-mile challenge, He left at 5am on October 2, two hours before high tide.
Daredevil Barry took a half hour break at Port Edgar and stopped again on a small island just off of Cramond, Edinburgh, to swap his headphones. He then continued on his way, stopping at the beach at Newhaven, completing the epic journey in a time of 11 hours and 22 minutes.
He first dreamt up the daring bid after a day of paddling round Cumbrae, an island in the Firth of Clyde, in his sea kayak.
Barry said: “I really enjoy having my headphones in with a melodic techno beat bouncing away and then paddling, caught in my own thoughts and repetitive paddling strokes as the weather and environmental conditions adjusts the view and how you move the paddle. You just get in a zone, a mental safe place.”
Barry, an experienced paddleboarder who can regularly be seen in the waterways around Stirling, says his longest paddle until then was a 20-kilometre trip to Alloa on an outgoing tide.
For his latest trip, he set off, equipped with a radio, warm clothing, food, three litres of coconut water mixed with three litres of water, a whistle and a knife.
On his 5am departure, he added: “The worry of the lack of street lights round the first corner increased. I wondered how was I going to see big logs drifting towards my board?
“It didn’t help that I had to switch off my head torch because every time my upper paddle hand caught the beam of light, my hand lit up. It was blinding and ruining any ability to see along the river with night-adjusted eyesight.
“I don’t know if my nerves or the water were more turbulent passing under the main section of the Kincardine Bridge. I had often sat in cars on the bridge and witnessed massive whirlpools and eddies below and was anxious to see if the new Aquaplay board was going to be stable.
“There wasn’t time to relax after passing under the bridge without incident.
“The shipping lane had to be crossed maybe checking what channel the port was on and confirming ship movements would have created less stress. I was glad there was no tankers leaving Grangemouth.
“Just before Bo’ness I took my first real rest kneeling down after over four hours standing.”
He says that the stretch between the Kincardine and the Queensferry bridges proved ‘hard work’ but that didn’t stop him reaching Port Edgar for a break.
“The last section from the island at Cramond towards Newhaven was the worst bit of the whole journey. The waves couldn’t decide on a constant direction and it was hard to put any real effort into paddling with most of the effort spent concentrating on not falling off the board.
“Energy levels fell off and after 10 hours on the board my head and body were struggling to keep balanced. I just wanted to lie down and see where the tide would beach me.”