SUP Racer and Paddle Logger Ambassador Holly Pye and her journey back from injury to the World Championships

Holly Pye is one of the top female SUP racers in the UK and an ambassador for Paddle Logger, after a break from paddling due to injury she’s back on the start line. Fresh from a successful European championships she sat down with one of her old club mates to talk SUP and her road back from injury.

Holly Pye – SUP Racer

Hi Holly! Did you know you were one of the last paddlers I paddled with before I left the UK?

Hi Chris, no way! That was ages ago…. didn’t I beat you in your last race at Waterborn? 

Racing to the podium at the World SUP Festival – Image Georgia Schofield

Yeah, and we don’t need to talk about that… since then you got even faster. I saw you on the podium at a EuroTour technical race in 2022 then you vanished 

2022 was my favourite race season yet but it did have a bad ending.

I’ve been racing in the UK since around 2017 but really wanted to get some international experience under my belt and 2022 was the first season where I managed to get to the start line of international races. I had a great time in Europe doing a few of the EuroTour events and the ICF World Championships in Poland, but it all changed in November when a very slight niggle that I thought just needed to be stretched, turned into so much pain I could hardly walk, let alone train, almost overnight.

That sounds serious, what happened?

Honestly, I’m not too sure. It all happened very quickly but luckily I had a great physio Elaine Farquharson on call to ask for support. She immediately suspected a stress fracture and advised me to take a few weeks off and to seek some further investigations. 

Over the next couple of months, I went through a series of tests which found a series of stress fractures in my spine, luckily (I guess!) the specialists decided that I needed rest and then rehab to aid recovery, nothing more. It’s hard to know exactly what caused the injury, but we think I have been hyperextending my back whilst paddling and just putting too much pressure on the facet joints with every paddle stroke. When you do thousands of paddle strokes in one session, and several sessions in a week, they all add up…

Ok, that must have been frustrating but also good to catch it

Yes, the fix was almost so simple it was frustrating, but it took a lot of time for the pain to go, for the rehab exercises to strengthen my muscles, and then for me to relearn how to paddle without using my lower back in the same way. I lost a lot of fitness coming into the start of the 2023 season and for some time I thought it might be better to take the whole year off from racing, but things started to improve around May and I could finally do some short, easy paddle sessions again. Staying away from the SUP racing scene is hard!!

In July, I qualified to represent Team England again this year which was a surprise for me after taking the whole winter and spring off training to recover from my injury. Now fully healed and taking training seriously again ready for the ISA World Championships in France, EuroSUP in Portugal and the ICF World Championships in Thailand. I won’t be as fit as I’d like with just a couple of months of serious training under my belt, but these events are a really great opportunity for me to gain more experience and see friends again.

Holly, second from the right

We will get back to your racing in a moment. First, let’s talk about Paddle Logger. What’s your connection to David and the team there?

I have been using Paddle Logger to track my paddling sessions for several years now. David asked me to be a Paddle Logger ambassador back around 2019 and I jumped at the chance! It’s been a great opportunity to test out new features with the app, give my feedback and be involved with a company that has such a positive impact on the world, especially within the SUP industry.

For those that don’t know, Paddle Logger is a GPS tracking app for iPhone and Apple Watch. Within the app, the data analysis from each session is really detailed and you see your distance, speed, pace, heart rate etc. I like that you can set distance and time on-the-water goals for the entire year which I was using a few months to ensure I wasn’t paddling too much too soon whilst my back was still recovering.

I’ve been using Paddle Logger on my phone this season too, it’s a great app.

Yes, and it’s even better on the Apple Watch!

Now that my back has healed, I’m using the same features to ensure I’m spending enough time paddling each week, progressing and building on my training, and making the most of each session using my heart rate zones, speed, pace, etc. 

Each week, I complete a variety of on-the-water training sessions including intervals, sprints, skills & technique sessions and longer distances. Paddle Logger helps me to keep track of all of these and I can type notes under the trip details from each training session, a bit like a training diary. It’s great to keep  all of the info in one place so that I can look back and reflect, which helps me work out what I’m doing well and what skills I need to improve over time.

So the Paddle Logger app helps you with structured training? What else do you like about Paddle Logger?

Yes, it’s been so useful in keeping me on track when paddling. 

Another other feature I love is PaddleLIVE® – Paddle Logger’s safety system. I live in South Devon, and we don’t really get flat water. A lot of my sessions are on the open sea, either in choppy water or waves, and I love a good downwinder when the conditions line up. I always use PaddleLIVE® to stay safe whilst I’m out – sometimes we can be a few kilometres out to sea in 30-40 knots of wind when we’re downwinding and it’s important someone knows where I am and what time I’m expecting to get back to the beach. PaddleLIVE® alerts my emergency contacts to keep them updated with my paddling status and my location whilst I’m on the water. If anything were to ever go wrong or kit was to fail, I know I can rely on PaddleLIVE® to help keep me safe.

PaddleLIVE® is certainly the feature my family appreciate most.

And PaddleLIVE® is really easy to set up; I select a few contacts and they are sent an SMS with a link to my live location when I start paddling and when I finish my session too. It all happens automatically!

If anything were to ever go wrong, I could use PaddleLIVE® to fire an electronic flare and those same contacts would receive a notification telling them I had got into trouble, with my current location (or last known location if my battery has died) which can then be used in case I ever needed the coastguard. It’s a really useful feature for anyone wanting to keep safe on the water, but it’s absolutely crucial for anyone who goes out in sketchy conditions or downwinders.

An electronic flare, what an excellent way to describe that feature

Thanks. I also use Paddle Logger during normal training sessions, there are lots of different uses for the app including the Race Distance feature which I set up for intervals or time trials – I can pre-set a distance and it will notify me when I’m halfway there, and when I complete the distance so that I don’t have to keep checking my watch to see how long I have left. It also gives you really detailed graphs so that you can check out your heart rate, speed, pace and splits if you want feedback from each session. 

And Paddle Logger also has a colourful trace to show you where you’ve paddled. The green sections are where you’ve paddled faster and the red are where you’ve paddled slower, this is what made me realise I had an imbalance and was paddling much faster on one side than the other, so I’ve been working on bringing up my weaknesses. It’s also helpful to be able to see how my turns are getting quicker each session.

I hadn’t thought of using Paddle Logger to check my turn speed, maybe I should! 

Your turns are still a weakness??? I’m still working on getting my fitness and skills back to where I was at, but this has forced me to train smarter rather than harder and I’ve been working on bringing up my weaknesses. I’m hoping to do well in the races where it’s not a case of who’s-the-fittest as I know some of my skills in ocean conditions are up there, but I still have some catching up to do with my speed. I’m definitely noticing the benefits of my skills training now and am excited to get back on a start line again and learn as much as I can.

Sticking with Paddle Logger, you are the co-host of a new project from them

That’s right, this year, Paddle Logger released a podcast called Rise & Glide, hosted by Maddi Leblanc and myself. Throughout season one we got to chat to some really inspiring paddlers and all-round awesome people.

For those that have not yet found that podcast I have reviewed the first half of season one for TotalSUP, I really enjoyed it.

That’s great! We are looking for inspirational paddlers for season two now.

You can find out more about Rise and Glide here on TotalSUP.

Holly in action at the European Championships, Peniche.

Back to racing, we started this chat before the European Championships in Peniche, how did that go for you?

It was a great event and I really enjoyed it. Being part of Team England was so much fun and I’d love to do it all again! I made some mistakes in the sprint racing where there is no time for error but I was happy with my performance in the technical race. I surprised myself with 3rd in my semifinal and then 6th overall in some choppy conditions with big waves and strong rips. I have learned from this already and know what to improve on for next time. This is my kind of racing! 

I also went to France for the ISA World Championships. Again, it was so inspiring to be part of a team and I loved cheering the others on for their races. I only took part in the sprint race and sadly didn’t make it through my quarter-final – there were four in a heat with the fastest two going through. The two that went through were Tarryn King and Mariecarmen Rivera, both went on to podium and the other paddler to get knocked out was Duna Gordillo, one of the best in the world and went on to podium at the Europeans, so it was a super tough heat draw and I was disappointed, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. It’s the World Championships, it’s supposed to be hard!

Team England at the European Championships, Peniche. Image SUPJunkie

And you were part of the England Team in the relay…

And we came away with the copper medal in fourth place! That was great fun. 

Congratulations! Next stop is the ICF World Championships in Thailand?

That’s right – I leave for Thailand next week and I’m looking forward to some warmth now that winter has definitely hit in the UK. I’m struggling to find gaps in the weather to get out on the water so keen to start racing now. I’m taking part in all three disciplines in at the ICF World Championships so I think it’ll be tiring but I can’t wait. It looks like it’ll be a really well-attended event, and what a great location too!

After Thailand, I’ll be taking a break from structured training for a short while to reassess where I’m at with my injury (and do lots of foiling), but I hope to have a solid winter season of working hard running into 2024 which will be bigger and better than ever! 

Thank you, Holly for taking the time to share your story. I know that I will be shouting at my laptop cheering you on when you take to the start line in Thailand and I’m sure everyone reading this hopes that your injury issues are behind you.

Paddle Logger is an award-winning iPhone and Apple Watch app used by a huge number of paddlers around the world and is available free to use or with a subscription to access more Paddle Logger features.

It offers me a lot and is a great tool to help me stay safe on the water and get more feedback from my training – I wouldn’t be without it now! – Holly Pye

You can find out more about Paddle Logger on their website, Facebook Page and Instagram channel. The Paddle Logger app is available from your local Apple App Store for the iPhone and Apple Watch.

You can keep up with Holly on her Instagram channel, Holly currently has a fundraiser to help her get to Thailand, if you want to support her then even a little bit would help her.

Images from Georgia Schofield, SUPJunkie, SUP North Dean, georgie.sup, Holly Pye and Paddle Logger