Our Canoeing Programme
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22 April, 2008
New trip information - see Blog
20th March 2008
Tuesday evening schedule
|
Date\Group |
Group 1 (Martin) |
Group 2 (David?) |
Officer of Day
& Helper |
|
Tuesday 01/04/08 |
Get everyone together and see what
we’ve got! |
|
|
|
Tuesday 08/04/08 |
Kayak |
Open Canoe |
|
|
Tuesday 15/04/08 |
Kayak |
Open Canoe |
|
|
Tuesday 22/04/08 |
Kayak |
Open Canoe |
|
|
Tuesday 29/04/08 |
Open Canoe |
Kayak/Bank Activity |
|
|
Tuesday 06/05/08 |
Open Canoe |
Kayak/Bank Activity |
|
|
Tuesday 13/05/08 |
Open Canoe |
Kayak/Bank Activity |
|
|
Tuesday 20/05/08 |
Kayak/Bank Activity |
Kayak |
|
|
Tuesday 27/05/08 |
Kayak/Bank Activity |
Kayak |
|
|
Tuesday 03/06/08 |
Kayak/Bank Activity |
Kayak |
|
|
Tuesday 10/06/08 |
Games/Race evening. |
||
|
Tuesday 17/06/08 |
Kayak |
Open Canoe |
|
|
Tuesday 24/06/08 |
Kayak |
Open Canoe |
|
|
Tuesday 01/07/08 |
Kayak |
Open Canoe |
|
|
Tuesday 08/07/08 |
Games/Race evening and/or catch-up
session. |
||
|
Tuesday 15/07/08 |
Open Canoe |
Kayak/Bank Activity |
|
|
Tuesday 22/07/08 |
Open Canoe |
Kayak/Bank Activity |
|
|
Tuesday 29/07/08 |
Open Canoe |
Kayak/Bank Activity |
|
|
Tuesday 05/08/08 |
Games/Race evening and/or catch-up
session. |
||
|
Tuesday 12/08/08 |
Kayak/Bank Activity |
Kayak |
|
|
Tuesday 19/08/08 |
Kayak/Bank Activity |
Kayak |
|
|
Tuesday 26/08/08 |
Kayak/Bank Activity |
Kayak |
|
|
Tuesday 02/09/08 |
Games/Race evening and/or catch-up
session. |
||
|
Tuesday 09/09/08 |
Short trip with assessments |
||
|
Tuesday 16/09/08 |
Short trip with assessments |
||
Notes:
Group 1 coach: Martin
Group 2 coach: David?
We could switch groups between coaches mid year too?
Assistants: Darren, Ross, Simon, Tim, Tony?, more?
Suggest we rotate assistants between coaches for their experience.
Rota needed for Officer of Day and helper. Helper to provide
safety/starter session.
Games and race evenings to add an element of competition, fun,
socialisation.
Additional opportunities for competition will be in events program
The summer holidays will mean people missing stuff hence catch-up sessions.
Program of events
(Revised 9th April, 2008)
|
Date |
Event |
|
Saturday 19/04/08 |
River Clearing Day: River Marden,
Ropes and Saws. |
|
Wednesday 23/04/08 |
Evening: Visit by BCU South West LCO
fundamentals of paddling & LCO election |
|
Saturday 26/04/08 |
Trip: River Barle or Marden or
Kellaways - Beginner |
|
Sunday 27/04/08 |
Coaches training morning - 2 Star
Open Canadian and/or coaching basics |
|
Monday 05/05/08 |
Trip: Symmonds Yat – Beginner |
|
Sat/Sun 10&11/05/08 |
Trip: River Wye 3-star coaching &
Assessment – Beginners
welcome |
|
Sunday 11/05/08 |
Canoe Safety Test (Tristan) |
|
Saturday 17/05/08 |
Trip: JJs – Beginner to
Intermediate. |
|
Saturday 24/05/08 |
Morning session at Bradford on Avon
using racing boats. |
|
Sunday 25/05/08 |
Trip: River Wye including Symmonds
Yat. |
|
Friday 06/06/08 |
Evening Trip: Club
to Laycock |
|
Sat/Sun 7&8/06/08 |
Level 1 Course part 1 Melksham |
|
Saturday 07/06/08 |
Regatta: Open Canadian Giant Slalom |
|
Sunday 15/06/08 |
Club swap day, Melksham to Chippenham Open boats (provisional) |
|
Sat/Sun 21&22/06/08 |
Level 1 Course part 2 Chippenham |
|
Sat/Sun 21&22/06/08 |
Cardiff Outdoor Action Show. |
|
Sunday 29/06/08 |
Trip: JJs – Beginner to
Intermediate. |
|
Friday 11/07/08 |
Evening Trip: Marden or Kellaways |
|
Sunday 13/07/08 |
Club swap day, Chippenham to Melksham race boats (provisional) |
|
Sat/Sun 19-20/07/08 |
Trip: JJs & Tryweryn –
Intermediate/Advanced |
|
Friday 08/08/08 |
Evening Trip: Club to Laycock |
|
Sunday 10/08/08 |
Trip: Symmonds Yat rapid. |
|
Sunday 07/09/08 |
Club swap day, Chippenham to Melksham race boats (provisional) |
|
Sunday 21/09/08 |
Langham Farm White-water race (Frome) |
|
Sunday 28/09/08 |
Chippenham White-water race |
|
Sat or Sun 4or5/10/08 |
Trip: River Dart – Loop – Intermediate. |
|
Saturday 11/10/08 |
Club swap day, Melksham to Chippenham Open boats (provisional) |
Notes:
I was thinking of adding some lecture evenings, but I don’t want to do
all lectures!
Some dates (particularly the later ones) are provisional.
Still waiting for dates for WWR from Kellaways to club or Marden descent.
Still waiting for a date for the proposed Langham farm slalom/WWR day.
Bradford on Avon emailed and asked about a race boat day.
Home Grown Bragging rights – The Lyn
Darren Sutton Martin Harrall
(Chippenham Sailing and Canoeing Club)
We think it’s about time the paddling world heard from two middle age blokes who paddle in the UK in freezing conditions! None of this Californian, Africa, or Nile type nonsense. No 60 foot mega water falls or 60 million cumec rivers, just two normal blokes, running a UK classic. Be honest that’s what we readers want to read about, things that are within the grasp of us normal people, albeit with a bit of practice, fuel and sizable lunch box (big balls at least).
That’s us, two normal paddlers Darren ‘Kitmonster’ Sutton and Martin ‘Hobbit’ Harrall (short with hairy toes), were two normal paddlers fed up of hearing about mega trips that are out of our grasp, fed up of sponsored paddlers, free flights and posh 4x4’s.
Making things worse was closer to home it was happening! Simon ‘Bevis’, Ross ‘Butthead’ and Michael the Horse (don’t ask) were banging on about their forthcoming trip to Scotland, over and over, the Etive this, right angle falls that blah di blah!.
It was after another cold winter’s night packing up after the pool session, we decided we needed a plan, one that did not involve flights, 4x4’s, porters and most importantly those difficult conversations at home about paddling again!
Thing is we only had one day and that was Sunday, we knew the lads would still be away giving us the opportunity of a couple of honour badges, but we needed a river that was at the right level, technical, pretty steep and very cool.
A plan emerged, the mighty River Lyn – Watersmeet to the Sea, This river is one of two channels which drops steeply from Exmoor into the Bristol Channel at Lynmouth. This is a grade 4 normally, 5 in higher levels. Grade 6 in really high levels! (Experts that are mad only).
In two miles it drops over 100 metres, passing between and over some pretty impressive boulders and natural drops. Not a river for the faint-hearted. This river has many opportunities for serious problems through pinning, stoppers and frequent tree obstacles.
That was all we needed, oh and we knew it would wind the lads up big time. Sunday came we met at 8am greeted by a barmy -7 degrees!!! What were we doing? We knew the river would be low and the only back up was the Barle, a great river but not one that would win us any honour badges. We needed it to be running.
Two hours later we pulled into the parking area on river left in Lymouth to check the level. It’s fair to say it was a slight scrape either side of the island and according to all the guide books that meant that it would be grade 4ish in the gorge. Whilst this river does not have a very high flow its technical difficulty and gradient make up for it and make it a formidable river, not one to be underestimated. The levels are crucial in determining what you shoot and what you portage. This river is 'flashy' and getting the level right is not easy.
The view from the car park river left, should be a Grade 4 in the Gorge
As this stretch is only 2 miles long and we had one car we drove up to the get in and locked up the boats next to a tree. We then drove back to the car park and got kitted up. You could smell the nerves; Martin had run this before but not for a while and I had only read about it.
After kitting up we walked the two miles to the get in, this was a great opportunity to inspect. This was a bizarre situation the normally steely nerved Martin was nervous and I was fine? It concerned me slightly; I thought there must have been something wrong with me? It was my job to be the nervous one? No problem though as soon as we entered the Gorge my nerves cut in, it looked crazy, the lines were left, right, left again boof etc, what lines? I returned to my old self asking ‘Why am I here’, ‘can we do the Barle’, ‘my back hurts’, ‘I forgot a ticket on the car’ etc etc. Even after allowing for ‘shrinkavision
™’ I wanted my mum!We put on at Watersmeet and paddled down to the first real rapid a drop of about 4 feet, this rapid is a nice drop but where a strong cross-current pushes most of the water, boats, people etc into a rock face on the right. No issues here.
Darren on the first rapid
We carried on as the river carries on fairly innocently under a large arched bridge and turns to the left where you run a small drop no worries, 300 yards further is a house on the left with around a 3 foot drop which we ran on the right this is followed by a fast, narrow stretch. This was great fun.
We carried on to a small gravely 'beach' on the left which is a great point to inspect the very technical section from here to the next bridge. There is a 4 foot vertical drop about