2.5 hours on the Avon.
Guided from first stroke to last.
The SUP Safari is a 2.5-hour guided paddle along one of the most secluded stretches of the River Avon in Worcestershire. You launch from Arden Sailing Club at Defford, glide under Eckington Bridge, and make your way to The Swan's Neck near Birlingham. A quiet bend where the river opens up and the world goes still.
This is not a race. It is not a workout. The Safari is designed around the idea that time on moving water does something measurable to the mind. We call it soft fascination: the effortless attention the brain gives to nature, which allows it to recover from the kind of directed focus that work depletes. The river does most of the work.
Beginners are completely welcome. The extra time on the water is about settling, finding your balance, and arriving somewhere you did not expect to reach. Most people are standing within fifteen minutes and have stopped thinking about it shortly after.
No experience needed.
The best-reviewed paddleboard experience
in Worcestershire.
These reviews mean more to us than we can easily say. We read them on the hard days, and they remind us why we do this.
"The whole experience was so relaxing I had not felt so peaceful for a long time."
Whatever brought you
to the river today
£60 per person. Six places per Safari. Choose a date and book →
Most people are nervous
before they get on the board.
Being nervous is completely normal. Most people are. What you will find on the water is that the River Avon is calm and wide, the boards are stable, and within a few minutes the thinking tends to stop and the doing takes over.
The Safari gives you 2.5 hours to find your feet. There is no pressure to keep up. You go at your own pace. James coaches you throughout the Safari, on the water, from first stroke to last.
If you have a disability, neurodiversity, or anything that might affect how the session works for you, get in touch before you book. We always find a way to make it work.
What the 2.5 hours
actually looks like
The Swan's Neck,
near Birlingham
About halfway through the Safari, the river bends into a quiet reach known as The Swan's Neck. We stop here. There is no agenda.
Most people lie back on their boards and float. The reeds susurrate around you. Cuckoos call from the willows. The only sound is the river. It is the kind of silence that takes a few minutes to arrive properly, and then stays.
This is the reason the Safari exists. The return paddle back with the current tends to feel different to the journey out: quieter, slower, easier. Most people are not in a rush to get back.
A guided paddle.
Properly led from start to finish.
Sounds like your kind of afternoon? Choose a date and book →
In their own words
SUP Yoga Instructor · Open Water Swimming Coach
James has guided this stretch of the River Avon since 2019. He knows where the kingfishers nest, which bend the otters favour, and the exact moment at The Swan's Neck when the group goes quiet for the right reasons.
As an ASI Technical Coach and certified Blue Health Facilitator, the Safari is both a guided wildlife experience and a quietly therapeutic one. James weaves nervous system awareness and blue health practice into the journey without making a performance of it. Most people notice the effect before they have named what it is.
Alex joins as a second instructor on busier sessions, bringing her background in yoga, SUP yoga, and open water swimming to the water.
The river is doing something
the whole time you are on it.
Blue health is the science of what proximity to water does to the mind. Lower cortisol. Restored attention. Improved mood. These are measurable effects, consistently replicated across populations.
The Safari route is chosen and paced with this in mind. The stops, the silences, the moment at The Swan's Neck: none of it is accidental. James is a certified Blue Health Facilitator and designs the experience around what the research says restores attention most effectively.
You do not need to know any of this for it to work. But understanding it tends to change how you experience the river afterwards, and how often you come back.
The practical details
10% off at Revill's Farm Shop. For Safari paddlers.
Hot drinks, cakes, and a proper lunch after your session. Show your booking confirmation at the till. Worth staying for. Most people do.
Ready when
you are.
Choose a date below and book your place. Six spaces per Safari. Any questions before you book, give us a call or send an email.
Solo bookings are always welcome. The Safari works just as well with one paddler as with six. Some of the best ones have been solo.
Want to give this as a gift? Our experience vouchers never expire and work for any session.