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MEET YOUR (MATCH)MAKER. PHOTO: GLENN CHARLES
PEOPLE BY JUSTINE CURGENVEN
LONDON CALLING
SPEED DATING, SING-ALONGS AND THREE-MILE SURFS: WILD TIMES ON THE THAMES WITH HARRY WHELAN
“In the economic downturn we need to be creative to get business,” Harry Whelan smiles, “Anything quirky sells.” Whelan, 43, manages a youth and community center in Central
London on the tidal Thames, taking nine- to 19-year-olds out on the water for just £10 a year, and providing family therapy programs through kayaking. But it’s the commercial arm of the center to which Whelan is refer-
ring. The money raised from his off-the-wall guided trips helps run the affordable community programs, or as Harry puts it, “The mad shit raises money for young people. It creates employment and helps buy equipment.” Alongside predictable Discover London sightseeing tours, Whelan
has dreamed up unusual crowd pleasers including a paddle to Putney for pizza, and speed dating in double kayaks where the paddlers swap seats every few miles. You can join a Valentine’s Day love float or don a Guinness hat, grab a green kayak and belt out raucous Irish songs during the St. Patrick’s Day “Paddle for Paddies.” On a Rave River trip, paddlers are joined by DJ Splash, who dresses
like Darth Vader and plays trance music from the front of a double kayak. “It’s the ultimate pre-club club,” says Whelan. The most recent offering is “kayak-aoke,” where Michael Jackson fans sing along to Jacko classics while paddling speaker-equipped boats to a statue of the King of Pop.
34 ADVENTURE KAYAK | SPRING 2013
DIGITAL EXTRA: To watch a preview of Harry Whelan featuring in This is the Sea 5, go to
Adventurekayakmag.com/0072 or download the Adventure Kayak app.
With a seven-meter tidal range, four-knot currents and busy boat
traffic, the tidal Thames can be a challenging place to paddle. But Whelan knows it like the back of his hand, which allows him to take out complete beginners. “There is so much history here,” he enthuses. “If this is all I could
ever do, paddle five miles upstream and back, that would be fantastic.” Whelan is rarely serious, but on this point he is consistent. He is start-
ing his third circumnavigation of his native Ireland this May. He’s also been around Britain and plans to go round again sometime in the future. “You don’t need to go far away and waste jet fuel. All headlands
are the same, a cliff is a cliff, a seagull is a seagull”, he quips. “Kayaking is very repetitive, you’re repeating what you do with every forward stroke. The variety comes from the different sea conditions—it’s never the same twice.” Whelan also finds variety at home on the Thames. Before work, he
often launches the Rockpool Taran that he raced around Ireland in 2011 in a record 25 days. In the dark, he seeks out powerboats whose owners let him surf their wakes. He started off carving the wave be- hind the boat but has progressed to surfing parallel—his longest ride is about three miles. Churning propellers inches from his kayak—or daunting funding
challenges—don’t faze Whelan. “If you look at things in a different way,” he advises, “you will see opportunity.” Justine Curgenven just released the fifth film in her hit kayaking series,
This is the Sea.
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