River Ure, Mickley to Slenningford

I arranged this trip with a couple of friends, I was to lead them down this classic stretch of the Ure. River levels where quite low but we had fun regardless. A really rewarding day for us all..

Paddle Home from Work aboard the Silverbirch Broadland 15

We have just rigged this boat out and having paddled the 16 I was very keen to try this, the Broadland 15.

It certainly didn't disappoint, a lovely boat and just a little more responsive than the 16

Canoes into Lincoln

A lovely Sunday paddling into Lincoln with Roger and friends

Back up to the Tees

On a very cold Sunday in February Fiona and myself ventured back up to Barnard Castle, this time to be lead by some aspirant coaches completing Moderate Water Endorsement training. Snow and sleet was falling as we parked up by the bridge.

A couple of excellent hours being put to work on a shoot of water just below the town and we where done. The coaches did really well and I think all of us students benefited from the time on the water - all undertaken under the watchful eye of Ken Hughes. Worth the long drive up and battling with the weather? Absolutely, yes...

Canoes on the Humber

Along with many friends, I've paddled the Humber quite frequently in the past but always in sea kayaks. The Estuary does require some forward planning, tides need to be correct and wind speed / direction needs to be within limits. Sunday proved to be one of those days although visibility was fairly limited at our time to launch - approximately two and a half hours prior to high tide.

With this in mind we decided to put the open boats in near the bridge and stick to the north bank, leaving the crossing of busy shipping lanes to another day. Non the less we had a pleasant day using both the wind and tides to our advantage.  A couple of hours up towards Brough and beyond, a quick lunch stop and then a return journey on the building ebb... well there's no need to work too hard...

Canoe Leadership Training with Ken Hughes - Part 2

With two days of being lead by a group of lovely people under my belt I was quite ready to get stuck into some training. So at 8.30am on a Monday morning we all met at a convenient garden centre on the A66 where we sat around a large table and introduced ourselves. It was lovely to catch up with a couple of old paddling friends and just as nice to meet some new faces, it soon became apparent that the next few days where going to be very pleasant with everyone focused on the task ahead - excellent fun learning..

Ken took plenty of time to take on board all of our needs and wants while also explaining the course syllabus, this was definitely going to be a very full and busy four days.

So down to Barnard Castle and we launched at the 'The Sills' just east of the road bridge and on river right. Without organising a shuttle I wasn't so sure on how we where going to fill our day on this short stretch of water - how wrong I could be..

Lots of time was spent on fundamental paddling skills, skills I thought I knew, breaking these skills down to component level and then re-building them into technical linked strokes. Ken delivered the sessions in many, many styles, I personally seemed to gain the most information from the silent demonstrations but the group discussions revealed much information that we just either overlooked or took for granted.. My power pry is a completely different stroke to what it was - and yes, a lot more efficient and powerful...

Everyone's technical templates for working with the water where fast becoming just so much more efficient....  I think we all went home that evening just a little exhausted, elated and completely buzzing.... Apologies, no photographs, just too busy to get the camera out.

Day two saw us back on the same stretch of river but this time we would be taking on a slight journey so a small shuttle was organised. First of course the previous days learning was discussed in depth. Then onto more learning, a great deal of the morning was taken up with the understanding of trim and edge and how this effects a boat in the context of flow. Again I thought I knew lots of this - it was soon obvious i had very much more to learn and I think all of the students thought much the same too. Everyone of us was like a sponge taking in more and more information, we where all so very keen to learn...

I certainly do not wish to give too much away about the course content but be assured Ken had us working hard, having fun, thinking for ourselves, everyone was involved in discovering solutions to problems. We moved on to other practical skills too such as tracking and lining...