I am in East Lothian for a week or so.
A nice paddle here is Bellhaven Bay and Tyningham.

I got it on a strong south westerly. Quite hard going along to the west to begin with, I had to
work into the shore as my board was pushed away from it.
but paddling back small wind swell pushed the paddleboard on well sometimes riding the small
swell like a carpet. There did not seem to be any tidal drift.
Before I leave here I will do both Bellhaven and Tyningham beach and back,
roughly 1/2 a mile of rocky headland divides these two stretches of yellow sand beaches, which will
need to know the tides and swell at the time of going past the headland.

In July, I visited the Isle of Lewis in late July for surfing and paddling.
The spectacular colours over there are particularly stunning as the 'machair' (the beach moorland flower) is in bloom and the evenings are long in the mid summer months.

Good beaches for enjoyable paddling without too many tidal and rip currents include -

Luskintyre -

and Uig Sands -

There are infinite other less obvious spots out there too mostly
with more currents and dangers of sudden building groundswell or windswell waves.
I have the ..... map for Lewis and some of the tidal streams can get really strong,
for example ..... near the Shiant islands. Any epic paddles would have to be tackled with careful planning.

I will return to Lewis and also the Uists to do some longer routes in August/September.

I have a particular love for this wild/bleak island chain, please if you go there please repsect the
place and the locals, particularly the surfers.

I am currently busy finishing off a design deadline.

However, I am going to change the paddleboardingscotland site soon when I have more time. I will make it more of a personal blog style site but at the same time with useful links to other paddleboarding sites. I also just purchased a Fujifilm Finepix Z33fd Digital Camera, this is an affordable waterproof lightweight camera.

I will be getting some nice photos to go on the site over the summer, as you can see the attached shots give an 'ok' quality. The one underwater had film grain, I am trying to solve this, some of the reviews on amazon said it is due to a setting.

All in all, the camera is a good lightweight solution for sports. I also recently invested in a D60 Nikon SLR camera, this is for my sculptural works and also drawing work to get good quality shots for my art site.

 Weighing in at 2.3 KG and costing around 377 pound notes, I dont want to take it with me in the water. Even with a special waterproof case to protect it, it would be too heavy for paddling. I guess if one was a pro photographer you could justify taking something that heavy while paddling, but I just want to take fairly nice photos to document my paddling.

In March I went on a trip to Spain. Firstly, I went to the Canary Islands, La Palma first, then a ferry to Oporto in Portugal. Up through Portugal, stopped in Lisbon then to Galicia. Drove over the Asturias, then a ferry to Portsmouth then drove overnight to Inverness. I supplemented this trip by wwoof volunteer work. In La Palma I stayed on a tropical organic farm owned by a potter/jewellery maker it was quite an amazing setting to have an 'artelier' workshop and house. In Galicia I stayed at a rustic renovated old Galician house in Monforte. I didnt paddle or surf, but I enjoyed swimming in La Palma and lots of hiking/nordic walking. I took time to teach myself the swimming techniques from 'Total Immersion' which is a great technique and I feel helps my paddling. La Palma is a stunning island with lots of restored old 'guanche'(inidigenous) hiking routes around the island. La Palma would require careful planning for any paddleboarding, it is way out in the Atlantic, with steep cliffs and little access/escape points, all sides are battered by swells and the currents can be extreme too.

If you need to get away on a budget, I would recommend wwoof farming 'willing workers on organic farms'. You help to work in a garden or other tasks such as construction in return for board and food. The farms I have worked on my experiences have all been positive. You should really only do this if you have an interest in growing organic produce though and not a way for cheap travel! It would have been paradise except I didnt have my paddleboards there!