Every member of the Girl Paddlers community has a unique tale to tell. By sharing those ideas and experiences, your stories can help enrich the group as a whole by providing words of encouragement, hope, strength, and joy.
As a kinship, we have a deep desire to showcase the thoughts of individuals who wish to express their narratives to others—to demonstrate how our bonds run deeper than one common interest. Many of you answered the call by sending us your ideas. You’ve inspired us to create this series to highlight those personal stories.
Girl Paddlers recently sent out an inquiry to our community to see if anyone was interested in being included in our Girl Paddlers Stories. We hoped to find fascinating individuals willing to share their stories so others could benefit from their experiences and knowledge. We’ve been thrilled with the feedback we have received!
Meet Julz
Being an international community, we thought we’d start by introducing you to a kindred spirit from Down Under—Julianne “Julz” Davies. Julz wanted to express her journey of beginning her foray into paddling in, as she describes, midlife.
But what’s the definition of “midlife?”
According to Julz, in her late 30s, she responded to a “come try” day with a local outrigger (canoes with outriggers) club and fell in love with the sport. She competed for two years on a six-woman team affectionately called the Chardy Girls (short for Chardonnay because they brought the party to every competition). Then “life changed” and she didn’t wish to continue racing, but still wanted to outrig socially. Sadly, her local club didn’t offer social paddling at that time. She went on a hunt to find other options. What she found was stand-up paddleboarding (SUP).
Jumping in with both feet, so to speak, she bought a beautiful hardboard that looked amazing but was too big and heavy for her to efficiently transport. It ended up sitting in her garage for years, accumulating a thick layer of dust.
“I was frustrated with this situation, especially given I lived across the street from the water at Manly in Queensland, which has some of the most beautiful places to paddle to see turtles, dugongs, and dolphins,” says Julz. “So I decided it was time to get a more suitable board.”
In 2019, she went to Hawaii to celebrate her Hawaii 5-0 birthday and saw people SUPing. It instantly renewed her passion for the sport. When she returned to Australia, she bought an inflatable SUP (new to the Australian market then) and found some paddling friends doing local jaunts.
“At that point, my passion to explore other places exploded,” says Julz. “And now we’ve gone from a small paddle at Wynnum Manly to paddling the Noosa Everglades, Brunswick Heads, little rapids in the Brisbane River, and hosting paddling and camping adventures.”
Her next planned adventure is to paddle the glittering Sunshine Coast in 2025 with a group of about 25 women over 40. Julz even created a regional group with more than 500 members called the Mermaid Paddlers.
As for getting into the sport later in life, Julz admits that she was a bit apprehensive about starting at an older age.
“I absolutely thought it was going to be difficult for me because I really didn’t think I was fit enough and I certainly did not have the Jennifer Lopez green bikini body,” she says with a laugh. “My first experience was slow—very slow. I think I did two kilometers and needed to lie down afterward. My muscles hurt, I was tired, and generally was totally unfit. But I knew the more I did the better I would get. I’m not sure it was an age thing or more of a fitness issue for me AND the fact I knew nothing about how to plan a paddle. That was a huge learning curve for me, and to be honest, in Australia there were no real standouts of women in the sport, so most of my inspiration came from the U.S. and U.K.”
Nonetheless, she knew it was something she wanted to continue because it felt so great to be out on the water. She started seeing and experiencing nature and the total freedom of being able to explore. Julz just knew she needed to keep going, get herself out there, and really learn how to do it well. She also knew it was going to be great for her mental and physical health.
And she highly encourages other “older” women to give the sport a try.
“I think midlife women just need to do it, get out there and try it, especially if you love nature,” she says. “It’s so good for the soul and I encourage women who might even be slightly curious about the sport to find a group of people to paddle with, go on adventures, and get into it. As we age, it’s so important to rediscover the things that create joy in life, which includes being part of a like-minded community and living life well.”
Share Your Story✨
People like Julz are a wonderful inspiration to anyone interested in getting into paddling—no matter what age. If you have a similar experience you’d like to share with the Girl Paddlers community, or if you’d like to talk with us about a different aspect of your paddling journey, get started here: Girl Paddlers Interview Request.