‘i Lost My Balance In Excitement!’: A Paddleboarding Adventure Along The Welsh Coast

Stand-up paddleboarding is among the most popular water sports in the UK. Navigating idyllic beaches from Llandudno to Cardiff, the author of a new guide to paddling in Wales discovers routes to suit all levels

I arrived in Llandudno, north Wales, to blue skies, warm sunshine and a gentle breeze. A surge of optimism washed over me. The castellated bulk of Great Orme headland loomed to my left, the gentler outline of Little Orme to my right. Over the next six months, I would explore most of the 1,680 miles of Wales’s coastline for a new book charting the best places in the country to paddleboard (or canoe or kayak). I was hoping to spot some of the dolphins and porpoises that inhabit these waters on the way.

I hadn’t paddled in Wales since 2011, when I was battered by storms and sea sickness. With sturdier sea legs, an array of navigational gear and a van set up for some comfortable night-time stops, I completed my warm-up around the Great Orme before heading straight to Anglesey (Ynys Môn), the island whose waters had bested me before. This time, paddleboarding from the Britannia Bridge to Beaumaris, past beautiful islets and the romantic turrets of Château Rhianfa, ended not in a cold swim but with a visit to the excellent Central Bakery. (If you’re not sure about going it alone, try local guide Sian, based by the Menai Strait.)