Our Story

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Josh and Tom started Rapid Skills in 2018, as a way of getting more time paddling, and sharing the joy of expeditions and whitewater with others.
 
Having met in 2011 while doing work experience at South Cerney Outdoor Education Centre, they started kayaking and travelling extensively together.
 
After Josh had finished college, and worked for a couple of seasons for PGL (including becoming the youngest team member ever to join their Senior Paddler Development Scheme), Tom invited Josh to help him set up the Lake 86 in the Cotswold Water Park – a venture to help make paddle sports more easily accessible to all.
 
Soon the lake was thriving and due to the seasonal nature of the work at the lake it left them much of the winter to paddle when it rained, their local was Dartmoor and the pair were soon being asked for whitewater guiding and starting to run Paddle UK whitewater courses.
 
Keen whitewater expedition paddlers and left unsupervised with their own wages, they were also spending time on kayaking trips worldwide. They quickly realised there was a real opportunity to streamline the experience, building the connections and logistics to create more easily accessible trips in conjunction with local experts, condensing the best of paddle travel to make it more achievable and enjoyable in a holiday timeframe.As the scope to help customers develop their paddling journeys beyond the waterpark crystalised, Rapid Skills was born.

 

Josh now owns and runs Rapid Skills, with Tom responsible for and running Lake 86 - while also leading and coaching on many of our Rapid Skills adventures. Josh and Tom still share the love of paddling whenever they can, and between them support many paddlers throughout their journeys.