Isiqalo's 'Waves for Change'(W4C) project is a pioneering HIV education and Lifeskills programme. W4C is designed to be implemented by coaches from developing communities who are trained and up-skilled appropriately to use surfing as a tool through which to engage hard to reach young adults in South Africa's poorest and most dangerous communities. Phil Stapleton and Ed Poynter (both teachers at Ardingly College in West Sussex) are going to partake in the Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race over Easter weekend 2013 to raise money for this project. Our intention is to complete the 125 mile course non-stop in 24 hours in a two man racing kayak. We have been training hard, with many early winter mornings spent breaking the ice in the dark in order to get our boat into the water for practice sessions. Neither of us were experienced kayakers before we agreed to give this challenge a go and we have had to learn the hard way that a racing kayak does not naturally stay upright with two novices in it... Thus, many of our early training sessions were largely taken up with swimming rather than paddling! We have, at last, reached the point where we can focus on the important business of actually going forward and building up the endurance and fitness needed for what is looking to be a monumental paddle! Please help us to make a difference to some of the most under-privileged people in South Africa, whilst putting ourselves through an unnecessarily painful experience!