Covid Update from Frangipani SUP

Hi and thanks for checking out this blog post.

After much deliberating last week we announced the tough decisions that we have taken regarding Frangipani SUP’s 2020 season.

We decided to:

- cancel all of our Frangipani SUP Riders Explores around East Anglia and the related BSUPA Ready to Tour theory courses in Maldon and Mersea, between now and the end of August.

-postpone Scott Warren’s awesome SUP clinics scheduled for May 23rd and June 16th, until later in season.

-cancel our popular Frangipani F-SUPFest gathering at Chigborough on July 17th & 18th.

We are now eagerly reading and absorbing the Government’s advice as set out in their document published yesterday, “Our Plan to Rebuild: The UK Government’s Covid-19 Recovery Strategy.” We are also talking to the owners and managers of our beloved teaching lakes at Trifarm, Hadleigh Park and Chigborough. We will endeavour to use these lakes as planned for Beginners tuition, Progression tuition, ‘Pay & Play’ type access, Race Team training, BSUPA Instructor Courses, SUP Clinics and private sessions - so long as:

• Government rules on group water sports instruction and activities permit them plus we will also heed the advice of relevant organisations and stakeholders, such as BSUPA, the RNLI etc.
• the lake owners and managers support it - as do all the associated risk assessments, • our Instructors are willing and able to work, and consumer demand exists for what we do.

As you can imagine this is quite a complicated process which will take us some time to navigate, so we don’t have dates yet for when these activities will start. In the meantime, we really do appreciate your understanding and kindness as we work through all of these issues.

From September 1st we will endeavour to run ALL activities as planned in our schedule, including our annual ‘City to the Sea’ 22km paddle on September 13th along the beautiful Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. This river is managed by Essex Waterways Limited on behalf of the Inland Waterways Association, of which we are corporate members and whose ongoing advice will respect. So please do check out our September and October events in the events section of our Facebook Page. Please like us, follow us and keep in touch.

As you can imagine, as a seasonal business we are gutted to have lost so many of our planned summer events but we are truly safety conscious and also can’t live with the “will we won’t we, can we can’t we” stress that this Coronavirus crisis has brought to small businesses such as ours. We needed to create some certainty, even if it’s about what’s NOT happening and we felt it was the right thing to do to refund people’s money now, which we have done.

And finally please, please don’t ask us if it is OK for you to go paddling tomorrow! That’s a very personal decision which is entirely based upon your own unique set of circumstances, it’s certainly not for us to tell you what to do or not to do. One thing is for sure, we won’t judge you and we won’t condemn you, whatever you decide to. What we will say is this; when Frangipani SUP’s Big Mike got Covid-19 symptoms, he was OK one day and the next day he wasn’t - and he needed emergency paramedic assistance. So that experience is now part of our family’s personal Covid-19 ‘story’ and has and will continue to affect our attitudes.

Thanks to all the fabulous key workers out there and thanks everyone for all your ongoing love and support; we couldn’t do it without you and we look forward to doing it with you again soon.

Mahalo! Anni & Mike and the whole Frangipani SUP team.