Channel 4 Fat Fighters Episode One....

You have to laugh! No sooner had went sent out our last blog saying how much fun sit on kayaks cans be and what a great way to keep fit when CHANNEL 4 broadcast the first episode FAT FIGHTERS last night.

This hour long programme featured local Torquay girl Sharon and the day she came kayaking at Harbour Sports with personal trainer Dan 'Action Man' Corbett!

Great shots of our shop and excellent on the water stuff which really shows how much fun it all is. Harbour Sports kayaker Ali Glenning provided safety cover although we don't get to see him because Channel 4 kept him out of camera! Moment of glory lost for Ali!

One thing that is very clear in the programme is how easy it is to put on weight by simply stuffing junk food and taking too little exercise.

Come on, get out there and paddle!

You can watch the episode on 4oD........

2012...get up and do something for goodness sake

Well here we are in 2012 scratching and sucking after the Christmas and New Year festivities! As the world bumps from wall to wall you have to wonder what the future holds for all of us. But pointlessly staring into space isn't the answer at all.

Our little Harbour Sports strap line is LIVE THE LIFE! Like so many these days that isn't quite so easy as it used to be, but we can all make a difference. It really is simply a question as to whether we really want to make the effort or just sit in a hopeless heap letting image after image pass before us as we surf the web in a sort of voyeuristic stupor.

How about starting the year on a kayak? Take the little Bic Ouassou for example. This fun boat will let you drift around the coast, ride waves on the beach or keep you company as you belt down river white water. 2012 and a super way to keep fit. If you can walk in a straight line then you can use one of these fun kayaks. Our prices are good and the Harbour Sports folk will help you to get the very best out for your craft with a mass of local knowledge. Yes that's right local knowledge! Free local delivery also! How good is that? If you are worried about whether this is the kayak for you then come to Paignton and try one. But you will need your wetsuit at this time of year.

By the way, talking about wetuits we now have a stack of really cheap Gul sample suits in all three shops (Plymouth, Paignton and Exeter). Come on, make the effort and LIVE THE LIFE WITH HARBOUR SPORTS IN 2012!!f

£10 for free!!!

Less than two weeks till Christmas... time to get shopping! Spend £50 on one present and get a free £10 voucher to put towards another!!

Get your skates on and visit the harbour sports Christmas grotto.

All you need to do is pass through the seven levels of the Candy Cane Forest... Then go past the sea of twirly, swirly gumdrops (Paignton Harbour) and then whats that shining beacon of light? Yes Harbour Sports at last...

written by elf (AKA Al)

Has Santa Clause visited Harbour Sports early this Year...

With Brand New Blazer and Saltrock scooters, accessories, DC clothes, shoes and ski wear arriving at Harbour Sports you would be asking 'has Santa Clause visited us early this year?' Well YES! With Christmas only a few weeks away Santa's little helpers at the Harbour sports shops have been busy making sure all Santa's gifts are hear for you to pick up and wrap this Christmas.

We have everything you need from them little stocking fillers to that special gift! Winter 2011 needn't be so chilly with a whole load of DC clothing and shoes for Youth and Adults.

Save the endless searching for that perfect gift when everything you need for gift ideas are right here. We think you would be hard pressed to find more variety in scooters and accessories anywhere this Christmas time. Not to mention with all this ice and snow on the way ensure you have your bum sled and all your protective gear to save any tears this Christmas.

So why not come down and visit us here at the Harbour Sports christmas groto and turn dreaded Christmas shopping into a magical sleigh ride!


Written by Ali G aka Santa's Little Helper....

Torbay - taste the sea air....

Too often, in our increasingly virtual world, we simply miss the taste of adventure. Oh yes, there is a thrill in twiddling both thumbs rapidly and apparently jumping and pumping from a Black Hawk helicopter whilst unfriendly natives narrowly miss your camouflaged head with an assortment of nasty missiles! But in reality you are still slumped in the chair in a darkened room all alone covered in sweat.

The other evening if you happened to be looking out over Torbay from the lounge at the Redcliffe hotel as darkness started to spread across the water, you will have noticed two Harbour Sports paddlers quietly making their way along the shore in a bright yellow Bic Tobago kayak! Through an open window you would have been able to hear the gentle splash of water as they cut through the silky sea.

What you will not have known is that one of the two had been part of a Channel 4 filming session the day before and was still living the life.

But stand back you harbingers of doom already crying out “Kayaking in the dark! Are they mad?”, or “Goodness me that sounds very dangerous! What happens if they get into trouble?”

Well there you have it. It is the taste for adventure that too often is missing these days and we try to make everything super safe. Oh yes, care must be taken but the joy of paddling along a beautiful as dusk falls, the sparkling strings of light burst into life and the glorious smell of freshly cooked food drifts out across the sea.

Live the life.

GERMAN CHOCOLATE....YUMMY

Story published recently online in "thisissouthdevon"..... (Tuesday, September 06, 2011 Harbour Sports Ltd).

Florian Bippus (21) from Ninzen in Germany is joining Harbour Sports Paignton for a month as a business intern. Ninzen is a town near Freiburg and, according to Florian, is famous for its delicious chocolate. Florian's first job was to present shop manager Kerrie (aka Sister Agnes) Waller (26) with a bumper bucket of chocolate! Florian is studying in Germany to become an industrial salesman and says that his main interest is football.

Harbour Sports work with the Training Partnership in Torquay in providing work placements for foreign students. "Having these students here is so good for the business and they really lift the spirit!", says Kerrie. Harbour Sports have shops in Paignton, Plymouth and Exeter. The Training Partnership is based at the Torquay Innovation Centre in the Torquay.

Requiem for a holiday resort: Torbay 2011.

Well there you have it, another dismal summer weather-wise and a body blow for our battered tourist industry. Do you know, although doubtless some dysfunctional statistician will find the exception, the last really hot month was April 2007. Now I mean hot rather than warm, the sort of heat that has you horizontal in no time at all and not the occasion warm day.

Of course poor weather makes any holiday location dismal and as singer song writer Chris de Burgh wisely said, “There is nothing quite so sad as a holiday resort in the rain.”

But it is more than that. Getting back to the basics is essential and that has to start with whether we here in Torbay really want a tourist industry! Notice the word Torbay. At one time it was simply a case of three towns; Torquay, Paignton and Brixham (soon to become Tesco-By-The-Sea!). That morphed into Torbay and was marketed under the English Riviera banner.

That lasted for a while before being re-branded as simple the English Riviera. Even the English Riviera Centre became the RICC (I’ll leave you to add the words). During that time we had the traditional running battle between assorted hoteliers, attraction owners and others, which really wasn’t helpful. That’s the trouble with clutching at straws.

This year the re-branding boys and girls have been at it again! Yes, we’re back on track with the name English Riviera / Agatha’s Riviera with a newly commissioned (commissioning is seen by some as a little like the proverbial washing of hands) tourist company. That got off to a publicity hungry start but soon bumped into the new mayor and talk of amalgamation between the board and the conference centre (RICC).

Now whilst we are crashing about the questioned has to be asked about the welcome for visitors. Take Paignton harbour as an example. We seem to have an increasing proliferation of prohibition notices, parking restrictions and now the possible idiotic advent of parking meters. I guess what I am getting at is the curious landscape of one sector of the council saying come and have a good time other departments work against that.

For many local businesses this winter will really be a time of seeing darkness at the end of the tunnel and if we are really to make a difference that there is a real and urgent need to get the whole town on board as to what Torbay/ the English Riviera/ Agatha’s Riviera is all about. That requires something more than unhelpful rhetoric and political infighting.

The thing is that unless we wake up and decide whether we want a tourist economy, in these hard economic times, then it is going to slip away whilst we sleepwalk into terminal decline. Let’s stop the dreaming and get on with the here and now. We need to celebrate what we have and either use it or lose it.

The photograph was taken on August Ban Holiday Monday 2011

frank sobey