Can I Paddle during this new Lockdown?

I’ve certainly done a lot of paddling during the Lockdown’s

A tough one to write about and discuss.. Paddling during Lockdown 3.0.. With many outlets including the Canal and River Trust and British Canoeing saying it’s OK to paddle.. Is it? Let’s take a look..

The government guidance states that:

• Outdoor exercise is still permitted, but should be limited to once per day
• Outdoor exercise should be done locally wherever possible, but you can travel a short distance within your area if necessary to find an open space to exercise (such as a publicly accessible place to launch)
• Organised and structured outdoor sporting activity must not take place
• All indoor and outdoor sports clubs, centres, venues and facilities will need to close

Solo paddles or with your household, in local areas only..

Paddling for exercise is permitted within the government measures, so long as you are:

• Solo 
• Paddling with people you live with 
• With your support bubble (if you’re legally permitted to form one) 
• When on your own, with one person from another household while following social distancing and I would advise no sharing of equipment

Personal equipment – It has been confirmed that collecting personal equipment belonging to an individual, from a facility such as a boathouse, to enable individual exercise is permitted.

Canal and River Trust’s website stating the navigations are open for paddle sports..

Main Guidance Notes:

Social distancing – Stay 2 metres apart from anyone not in your household. It sounds daft but I would take a face covering out on the board, some people may be isolating on a boat or barge – you just never know..

Outdoor exercise limits – Exercise should be limited to once per day. It is clearly stated on the Gov.uk site under Exercising.

Travel – Outdoor exercise should be done locally wherever possible, but you can travel a short distance within your area if necessary to find an open space to exercise (such as a publicly accessible place to launch).

Waterways licence – Paddlers are reminded that a waterways licence is required to paddle on licensed waterways. This is paramount as always, regardless of the license provider.

British Canoeing website and their Guidance

“If you break the rules…”

“The police can take action against you if you meet in larger groups. This includes breaking up illegal gatherings and issuing fines (fixed penalty notices)”.

“You can be given a Fixed Penalty Notice of £200 for the first offence, doubling for further offences up to a maximum of £6,400. If you hold, or are involved in holding, an illegal gathering of over 30 people, the police can issue fines of £10,000” – This is a direct extract from the Government website.

Probably the most Solo paddle I can show you!

Be sensible, those paddles will wait. There is absolutely no need to go exploring right now. Much like the first Lockdown – we are advising Stay at Home and to follow government guidance. You should not be attending waterways you do not know, which in turn could cause further, unnecessary stress on the NHS… Be sensible.

In my opinion and this isn’t guidance..

We are in a National Lockdown so you must follow the Government rules whether you agree or not – not Facebook, not some chaps on Instagram – the Police will simple say you aren’t following the rules and fine you as explained above. Some people will have to accept they cannot paddle right now – harsh reality, but true. Many people that paddle are land locked and cannot get to the waterways – there are other forms of exercise. Looking at the guidance of ‘local’, I would say in your village, or within walking distance.. Driving 15-20+ minutes for water isn’t local, a couple of miles within the same town would seem acceptable but I’ll try to get clarification on this..

When we get more updates through @StandUpPaddleUK we will share them and I will update this post!

Ciao, Darren

It’s Here.. the GoPro Hero 9

Every year for us adventurers September is a time when you’re considering selling your old GoPro to upgrade to the newest model, this year was no different..

New Case, New Packaging, New GoPro

Enter the GoPro Hero 9

I’ve had the Hero 9 since it was released and it is evident that this camera is the most powerful offering GoPro have ever done. The biggest sensor yet and new front display are huge upgrades. However, overall the camera isn’t a massive upgrade from the Hero 8 Black and I do think a lot of people will stick with their Hero 8 as GoPro really did iron out a lot of the kinks with that camera and to be honest, I had got my Hero 8 working in a way that suited me to a perfectly!

I’ve opted for the upgrade to the new Hero 9 for a couple of reasons:
5K video (which looks unbelievable by the way)
Hugely improved battery (I’d say you’re probably getting about 20-25% more battery)
The front display: I’m a massive fan of this one as I’ve got more into recording content for brands and manufacturers
New modes and software upgrades (improved Hypersmooth stability and Hindsight mode make sure you aren’t missing shots)

Not much bigger than the Hero 8, but feels better in the hand with the additional weight

A quick few things I’m not so pleased about before the praise starts:
The camera gets quite hot during heavy use and data transfer
The touchscreen does seem to be a little bit unresponsive at times (but the Hero 8 was the same when it first came out, after a couple of updates it was seamless)
4K/120p doesn’t exist oddly – why GoPro?
SuperPhoto mode really needs improving (again.. the Hero 8 had the same issue, images appeared overly contrasted but a couple of updates later super photo was actually a great feature on the Hero 8)

SuperPhoto shot along Striding Edge, Helvellyn – it feels overly contrasted..

As I said, this is the most powerful offering from GoPro yet. It’s so bloody versatile it is unreal – but all GoPro cameras are. The sensor upgrade to a 23.6 megapixel shoots immense 5K video and is definitely improved upon when compared to its predecessor. In the right conditions the footage on the Hero 9 rivals that of a DSLR camera, no not a joke.

GoPro is perfect for a good hike, especially when the backdrop is this good

The Hero 9’s electronic stabilisation with its new Hypersmooth 3.0 boost is something close to incredible – I recently climbed Helvellyn Mountain and ran up and down several peaks, the footage was seamless and Smooth AF.

GoPro as ever retains all the modes from the 8, while adding more. Video, Photo (inc Night Mode), Timelapse (inc Timewarp, Nightlapse) – mainstays of the GoPro camera range. SuperPhoto is back again, as I’ve already said – a few kinks to fix it yet. Timewarp has been improved with a x30 mode, which is great. Feels much smoother when you watch back also. Hindsight mode is a cool feature when in Burst mode – to quote GoPro “it is a bit of a combo between looping recording and a video version of Live Burst. You have the option to select 15 or 30 seconds of HindSight. When you have this enabled, the camera continuously records audio and video, but only saves 15 or 30 seconds to the SD card when you hit the shutter button. This feature ensures you won’t miss a moment of action that you want to capture, while also saving valuable SD card space”. I won’t go too in-depth with the Video modes as they are pretty much similar to the 8 barring the 5k video. As I said, HyperSmooth 3.0 is improved on last year, aka the Gimbal killer.

Hindsight mode.. Could be a game changer, but a battery drainer..

The little front display is good but the quality of it is actually quite low. I’ve only really used it as a viewfinder for setting up my shoots.

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A post shared by Darren | GoPro 🇬🇧 (@darrens_visuals)

As I said previously the camera can get bloody hot. It seems to be more when the camera tries to process large amounts of data i.e. recording 5K and oddly when transferring data on the app to my phone, it’s definitely overheating more than the Hero 8 was, but again that was a fix they provided on the Hero 8.

In comparison to the Hero 8, I believe it is a step up in certain areas but those looking to get a bargain camera will now be able to pick up a Hero 8 quite cheaply on eBay (probably around £200 for just the camera) which really is a great price for such a good camera. If the Hero 9 is out of your budget then I would be opting for this.

The Testing

I tested the Hero 9 pretty hard during a trip away to the Lake District, Paddleboarding and Hiking – here are a few shots, with the settings I used;

Taken with SuperPhoto @ Ullswater Lake

Shot in Timelapse mode – 1sec – No Protune settings altered and Cropped in App

SuperPhoto, Shot Portrait – you can see the difference between Timelapse and the higher Contrast of SuperPhoto

Shot in Timelapse mode, Portrait – 1 sec, no settings altered

Grabbed in App from TimeWarp footage – No settings altered, straight from the camera

Things to be Excited About…

Things I am quite excited about with the Hero 9 would be the detachable lens. Having the ability to remove the lens to install the New Max Mod looks quite exciting and it also means the ability to have Lens Filters is back ie Polar Pro.

How cool does that look? Reintroducing the removable Lens Cap was welcomed by the GoPro community

The New Max Lens Mod will be released in October/November at a cost of £89.99. This ultrawide lens accessory will bring Max Hypersmooth (seen on the GoPro Max) and have the ability to lock horizon even if it’s rotated, this is pretty cool. I’ve got a GoPro Max and can safely say that is the smoothest and best stabilised video I’ve ever seen – so this to gain that feat is immense.

This camera is the biggest redesign ever done, the camera is bigger than the Hero 8 and has a larger 2.27 inch rear touchscreen. It’s definitely better in feel – I think it will take more of a beating on the mountain with its increased size and weight. I can’t wait to get it out snowboarding, COVID dependent!

5k Video – need I say more on the subject? Crispy, clean and rivalling cameras double the price.

The 1.4 inch colour front display is very handy like I said if you are a blogger/vlogger – As you can frame up really easily but the quality of that front screen isn’t amazing but it isn’t there for quality I suppose.

GoPro has retained the handy and simplified menu for those who need the assistance of settings

The battery has had to improve with all of these new improvements of the main camera, the overall battery size is 40% larger (1720MAH battery). This does mean the older GoPro batteries will no longer work in the camera as the overall size has increased of its body. On testing, I would say my batteries are lasting 20-25% longer.

Gripes…

• The Touchscreen – it currently isn’t good enough for responsiveness. As with a lot of outlets reviewing this camera I too am disappointed with the touchscreen display out the box. It’s quite unresponsive and sometimes it feels like you have to press very hard on the camera for it to respond to touch as I said previously it feels like an update is needed to get this right. I am told by GoPro that there is a firmware fix coming in November, which is great but you’ve also spent several hundred pounds on a camera which needs an update immediately, not ideal.
• The camera gets quite hot in data transfer and when shooting non stop / 5k ie big file creation
• No 4K/120p
• SuperPhoto mode really needs improving
• Again having to do firmware fixes on a camera so new, not great

Gripes aside, my package came with the Handler, Magnetic Clip and the Case

Pricing

Hero 9 is RRP £429.99 in most outlets outside of GoPro.com.
Buying via GoPro and their GoPro Subscription (was GoPro Plus) you’ll get a large discount (the GoPro Sub is great – It auto uploads content to the GoPro server, has protection of your camera which means you get a replacement if your camera is damaged – 2 per year. The cost £5 per month) opting for this you’ll get a Hero 9 for £329.99 – a bargain for the tech you are getting, and protection.

Overview

• Avid GoPro users will be upgrading no doubt. Rumour is they’ve increased their GoPro Sub service to +500,000, with that extending to over 700,000 by Christmas.. The dropped price with the Sub service is a clear driver for this.
• It’s the best GoPro yet by far
• Simplified Hero 8 settings and Menu is retained – a good shout for those newer users
• Better battery by about 20-25% compared to the Hero 8
• New Sensor is a huge step up from the Hero 8, 23.6MP from a camera this size is excellent
• 5k Video is dreamy and HyperSmooth 3.0 is brilliant
• Webcam mode is actually quite useful – this no longer ‘just an action camera’
• Those happy using the current Hero 8 settings do not need to upgrade
• Fixes needed to several ‘Gripes’ with the camera
• Hero 9 comes in a nice packaged case, a cool change from the old plastic box – kudos on that one

Overall, I’m quite happy with the Upgrade

LifeJacket Skin Protection #GotYourBack

Sun Protection and Skin Care is absolutely paramount, especially when your out on a bike, hiking or paddleboarding. It’s never been more important to protect yourself from the sun. Today I wanted to bring this brand to everyone’s attention. Say hello to LifeJacket. Skin Protection designed for Men.

Introducing LifeJacketSkin

These guys are focused on helping to prevent cancer in Men. Did you know almost twice as many men died from skin cancer versus women all over the world? In the past 20 years skin cancer in men has certainly become a more regular thing, with the forecast over the next 20 years estimating that it will double. That is a crazy statistic, especially against something that is preventable if you protect yourself correctly..

As a very outdoor orientated person I’m forever out on my bike, paddleboard, even walking and hiking, sunscreen is something you almost forget about, even take for granted that your skin is not protected. Billy at LifeJacket contacted me after seeing that I was an outdoor person on Instagram. We had a good chat about the products, the brand and most importantly what I took most of the conversation was how much he cared about getting people protected.

Now before I get into the chit chat about the products and the brand. For those that are interested in the science behind the product click here. LifeJacket have gone into depth about skin protection in this article. These guys are backed up by science and medical professionals, the link is really worth a read..

Sunscreen generally is expensive. It’s expensive because it’s tested and formulated in a lab, cheaper alternatives do not provide you with the same protection and it is a product you shouldn’t cheap out on when purchasing! The products I’ve been testing over the past few weeks have really been great. LifeJacket sent me over the daily protection moisturiser, the daily repair Moisturiser and the 50+ Sun Gel – the Weekender Pack. Sachets were also sent, these are great to put in your bike bag for when you’re out and about.

Generally I don’t suffer with sunburn very often. Lucky in some ways however having dark hair and relatively tanned skin does often mean that you forgot to apply – I’m at fault for that. As I say I’ve been using the products for a few weeks now, it was the ideal time as we have had some very hot weather, over +30° for several days.

Satchets are really handy for when you’re out and about

I went to the lake local to where I live and the weather was 34°, the perfect test for this kit. I used the 50+ Sun Gel before I went out on my paddleboard. Usually even when I apply a factor 30 and I go out paddle boarding, often I get redness on the shoulders and collarbone. After using LifeJacket by didn’t experience any form of redness, soreness or skin irritation. This was really surprising as pretty much every suncream/sunscreen I’ve used doesn’t fully protect me or irritates my skin.

Second test was while out on my road bike. I used the 50+ Sun Gel. Again, quite a warm day it was between 32 and 34°, there was a slight wind also. I cycled approx. 40 miles so I was out for just over 2hrs. I had the Sun Gel applied. I always find after I’ve been out in the sun my quads and upper arms usually get a little bit burnt. Not on this occasion. The Sun Gel protected me very well – which is great as the ‘cyclist’s tan’ often is a burn line rather than a healthy tan line..

Third test was during a weekend away in Kent. I was out paddle boarding with my mate at Joss Bay, well over 30° with a coastal breeze. We were out on the water for about an hour and a half. I was more than expected to have a little bit of burnt skin, especially with the coastal breeze but I woke up the following day with absolutely no irritation or burnt skin. The 50 Sun Gel is brilliant – who knew I would be saying that about suncream..

I’m not a Doctor, not a medical expert or a specialist in skin but what I can say is these products are working for me and I feel obligated to share this and the brand with the community. StandUpPaddleUK are in discussions with LifeJacket about giving our community a discount on their products at checkout, and we will be giving away some of their products in the near future! Stay tuned to our Instagram for this..

Fourth test was the most important one yet, a trip to Sardinia with my girlfriend. Projected 30+ degrees for a week.. LifeJacket’s products were about to get tested!

As you can imagine I’m off paddleboarding for hours on end, hiking and generally putting my skin through its paces but LifeJacket really had me covered. First day was 34 degree, obviously opted for the 50 SunGel. Probably through my own mis-care I had slightly burnt legs but applying the Daily Moisturiser really helped. I woke up the next day feeling pretty good and not really burnt.

I spent most of my day in and out of the sea water.. You should be reapplying sun screen every 2 hours and after getting out of water…

This is not really a review. This is me saying that I absolutely approve and agree with what this company is trying to do. Never has it been more important to apply sunscreen and I genuinely hope the people that read this agree. Myself and Dale (StandUpPaddleUK) have been using the products are really hope to help educate paddleboarders about protecting their Skin.

LifeJacket have been kind enough to provide the following for StandUpPaddleUK Followers;

1. The discount code is now LIVE: standuppaddleuk10 gives 10% off the entire shop and, Unlimited use.

2. LJ have set-up a survey for our followers. First 500 people to complete it get our welcome pack sent out to them for free. It contains x3 sachets plus a card with a message from LifeJacket, and a 15% one-off discount code. CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY. It is really quick and simple to complete.

LifeJacketSkin sell various products other than sunscreen and they have a shed load of info about effective skin care and sun protection. You can find them below, and don’t forget to use our discount code !

Ranging in various sizes for Hold Bags and Carry On…

Find out more on their site. That’s enough from me, the products work and speak for themselves. I’m happy to be working with these guys to really combat the issue of Skin Cancer!! Ciao, Darren.