Where’s Brendon? The Long Paddle 2021 continues

Almost two months on and the Long Paddle team have made it to the West coast of the UK. In the next few days Brendon and his crew will be crossing into Scotland but today the conditions are a little too wild and windy to continue further. As safety is his primary concern Brendon’s update comes camp side, settled in for the morning by the Irish Sea between mainland Britain and the Isle of Man while the weather calms down. It’s looking cosy at camp, where our hero appears to be eating a sandwich for breakfast, woollen hat and warm coat wrapped around him like a toasty burrito.

His team on the other hand – who Brendon has nicknamed Harry the Goat and Warthog Willy – haven’t been in the water quite as often as he has or had access to his ‘bucket shower’. Apparently, they’re causing quite a stink.

“If we can raise £100 of sponsorship via the website in the next hour Harry, or goat boy, is going to run into the sea,” Brendon tells us through a live Facebook video, scrunching up his nose in disgust and gesturing at his smelly teammates as Harry and Will laugh off-camera.

Within a few hours, Brendon is back on social media thanking the supporters of the campaign who’ve donated enough money to get the two smelly lads in the sea. Brendon talks to us live through Facebook and Instagram, as his support team go dashing into the water for a much-needed wash. A quick search on Google shows the current temperature of the Irish sea at a mere 13 degrees celsius.

“The boot is very much on the other foot,” he laughs as the Long Paddle support team frolic behind him. “If only they knew just how many jellyfish are in there.”

Brendon Prince’s cheery smile and the wildly adventurous exploits of the Long Paddle team continue to be broadcast daily in the Priority Pixels office. From Brendon’s tips on staying safe in the water to the wild and rugged beachside scenery of Britain’s coastline, the team at Priority Pixels love keeping up to date with the campaign through Brendon’s live videos – even when the stream is as grainy as the sandy coastal towns the Long Paddle crew have been camping in each night.

Checking up on Brendon and his team has become a daily tradition at Priority Pixels HQ. Keeping up-to-date through the geo tracker on the website we are very proud to have built as well as Brendon’s daily live videos, the Priority team has been tuning into the Long Paddle’s videos every day since we first watched the Welshman paddle swiftly out of Torquay harbour back in April.

When Brendon first set off, the sea was calm and the sky was a clear blue with barely a cloud overhead. A large crowd had gathered on the damp sand to wave him off, and they cheered and whooped as our hero disappeared into the horizon. On an adventure we can only liken to a very damp long haul flight, Brendon planned to be back after roughly three months having circumnavigated mainland Britain on his standup paddleboard – the first person to do so (ever) – and as he’s already days away from crossing the border into Scotland it looks like he just might do it.

It may all seem like a bit of fun but the reasons behind Brendon’s venture and The Long Paddle 2021 is a little more serious. A few days into his mission in early May, Beau Dixon from SUPboarder magazine managed to catch up with Brendon who has just crossed from Devon into Cornwall. Paddling alongside each other, writer and fellow waterman Beau asked the long paddler why he’d decided to set forth around the UK.

Brendon said as a lifeguard he’d been regularly mentoring young people in schools on water safety for years, when very recently one 10-year-old boy asked him “why should I listen to you? What have you done?”

“I thought, you know what, he has a point,” Brendon laughed as he paddled along, the gloriously lush Cornish coast streaming along behind him. “I’m telling him about being safe in the water and what have I done?”

“So here I am.”

If you’ve been keeping track of The Long Paddle Campaign you’re probably already aware that one mouthy 10-year-old isn’t the only reason Brendon made the decision to paddle around mainland Britain. In October 2014 he was surfing at Mawgan Porth beach when three fellow ocean-goers got caught in a rip. Brendon was one of the first on the scene but tragically there was nothing anyone could do and all three lives were lost. An off-duty lifeguard at the time, the incident drastically changed the trajectory of Brendon’s journey. He set up the Above Water Charity and has dedicated his life to water safety ever since.

By becoming the first person to circumnavigate Britain, Brendon and The Long Paddle crew hope to fundraise enough money to develop a water safety app. The venture is also raising money for Surfers Against Sewerage, Surf Life Saving Great Britain, and several other ocean charities.

From our office in Newton Abbot to the glorious coasts of our island nation, the team at Priority Pixels are proud supporters of The Long Paddle campaign and will continue to tune in. By 2:30 pm today Brendon is off again although, from the photos posted to The Long Paddle Facebook account by Will the ‘warthog’, the water is looking a little choppy. Priority Pixels are immensely proud to be sponsoring The Long Paddle 2021 campaign, and wish the team all the best as they circumnavigate Great Britain. We look forward to welcoming Brendon, Will, and Harry, back to Torquay in (hopefully) early July.