Life’s a beach

I’ll start by saying I love the seaside. I love the oceans. I love spending as much time as possible at the beach. This probably explains lot about my life choices in recent years - namely my decision to train as a stand up paddleboard (SUP) instructor, and my decision to make Dorset my home again after the best part of ten years away from the south-west of England.

So, I’m a freelance copywriter and a SUP instructor. Obviously the latter isn’t so great in the winter, but in the summer it’s the most wonderful job. That means I currently have two very different professions. One that involves sitting at a computer moving little more than my fingers, and the other that sees me away from everything electronic and connected, using every part of my body.

One of the driving forces behind my decision to go freelance as a writer was to have more flexibility and freedom. I wanted to bring more balance to my life and to combat the detrimental effects of a desk job on my physical health.

That’s where the SUP comes in. It’s a sport I fell in love with very quickly and a great way for me to get out and spend more time in, on and near the ocean, which is most definitely my happy place.

Why I love the balance

Being a SUP instructor and being a freelance copywriter are completely different jobs. That’s one of the things I love. Teaching SUP gives me a chance to get out of my flat, spend more time outdoors and interact with people on a daily basis. When I’m working over the summer I’m predominantly based at one centre and I’m not ashamed to admit that I feel very smug when ‘going to work’ basically means spending a day at the beach.

It’s good for me to take time away from my computer and to be in the fresh air. Not to mention the fact that being on a SUP is a good physical workout that helps keep me in shape.

That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the writing though. I love this too, but for very different reasons. It allows me to exercise my mind and gives me different problems to tackle. I feel as though I always have the opportunity to learn with this job, because I work with such a variety of clients across different industries.

And sometimes it’s nice to have a day where you’re not racing around and can just sit and concentrate on one project. As two professions, they’re quite complementary.

Paddling around Portland

Where the challenge comes

Even though I wouldn’t change things at the moment, that’s not to say that there aren’t challenges with having two very different jobs.

In the winter, I don’t teach SUP and focus on my writing work. But come the summertime I’m still trying to keep all my writing clients happy, while also fitting in at least four days a week of teaching SUP. This proved to be a big challenge for me last year.

The hardest thing was finding time for a day off. Because I was out on the water so much, I felt like I needed to use my three days off to keep up with my writing, but that didn’t really leave me with a full day off each week. I know that I didn’t take enough time out last summer, and it’s something I plan to work on for this year.

Aside from everything else, it’s because I got tired. SUP is physically tiring, and because I have to keep an eye on people out on the water all day when I’m at work, I find it can be quite mentally exhausting too. Before the summer started I had grand plans of working days at the watersports centre and doing some writing in the evenings, but more often than not that didn’t happen.

The other challenge with working these two very different jobs was having a social life over the summer months. Fitting in time to see my friends was particularly challenging with the SUP because I work weekends, and the majority of my friends have normal Monday to Friday jobs.

But last summer was a learning curve for me, given that it’s the first one where I’ve been fully freelance for the whole time.

Would I change things?

While there are some things I need to do better, I wouldn’t change my two jobs for anything at the moment. That might be different in a few years’ time, but right now I’m happy with the balance I have between the two.

I strongly believe that you need to be happy in what you do from a work perspective, because retirement doesn’t work in the same way that it used to. Gone are the days of cashing in your pension at 55 and ‘getting round’ to all the things you’d meant to do in your younger years.

I want to have a job (or jobs) and lifestyle that I enjoy now, and that allows me to do the things I love. That’s what I have with the SUP instructing and the writing. Of course things might change in the future, but that’s all part of the fun. Recognising that you’re not going to be in the same job for the next 40 years is really empowering and what the past year has taught me is that you should never be afraid to try something new.

My summer office