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Lowri Davies - Kayaker, European Freestyle Champion & adventurer who has paddled in remote locations



Capt. Sophie Hollingsworth - Former Ballerina turned award winning explorer - New Explorer of the Year 2017. Fulbright Scholar. Fellow of The Explorers Club & PostGrad Fellow of RGS.

Lowri has been around kayaking all her life, but didn’t get into paddling properly until she was 14, when kayaks and kit started to fit. She became hooked, nagging anyone she could to take her paddling – whether it was to a local beck, cold winter surf or a man-made white water course.

All of her hard work paid off and Lowri earned a place on the GB freestyle team for the 2001 World Championships and aged just 16 it was a life changing experience. She has continued to compete at the highest levels on the International freestyle scene ever since, earning a few medals along the way – including European Freestyle Champion 2006-08.

Lowri has also been on many expeditions and adventures, paddling in incredibly remote, big volume rivers in Siberia as part of the Four Borders Expedition; she has also claimed first descents in Mongolia and Georgia; and bagged big waterfalls in Chile as well as getting lost in the jungles of Colombia! Her adventures with kayaking have taken her to over 30 countries on 6 different continents… so far…

Lowri is a BC Level 5 Coach & European Freestyle Champion, she is the owner of FlowFree Kayak Coaching.

 

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Show notes

  • Growing up in York and moving to North Wales

  • Who is Lowri, what she does and what she loves

  • How she first got into kayaking and why she struggled at first.

  • Getting hooked at 14

  • Going to her first world championships at 16

  • Getting to meet her heroes

  • What makes a good kayaker

  • How it changed her life and thinking about the future

  • Her plan B

  • Her first big expedition with Four Borders to Siberia and Mongolia, from section to planning and preparing for the trip

  • Being the only women

  • Crossing the border, and getting between a 32km no man’s land when crossing from Russia to Mongolia

  • What it was like in Mongolia and why the conditions were not the best for kayaking!

  • Team roles

  • Her expedition to Georgia

  • Helping clients with confidence issues

  • Learning to distinguish between fear and excitement

  • The challenges of going solo when kayaking

  • The challenges faced in the Colombia expedition and why a river which should have taken 3 hours to kayak took 3 days!

  • Why it’s important not to panic when it comes to handling the unknown

  • Advice and tips for women who want to get involved in kayaking but don’t know where to start

  • Advice and tips for women who want to take the next step in their kayaking journey and start going on expeditions

  • Next challenge for Lowri

 

Social Media

Instagram - @flowfree_lowri

 

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