Advanced White Water Safety & Rescue Programmes

Over the past few weeks, the diary has been busy running BCU/UKCC Level 2 assessments, some sea kayak paddle training and mentoring aspriant Level 5 coaches. It is so nice to see and be involved in the development of these talented coaches.

This last week I have been delivering a variety of white water safety & rescue courses. Although we are experiencing low water levels at the moment, there are still some great locations to run these BCU WWSR and AWWSR courses. Its really nice to see paddlers taking a positive approach to their paddling and attending these courses to either learn new skills or brush up on existing experience.

Sea Kayaking at Pembrokeshire

With strong winds, and a prominant swell from the west we headed up to Pembrokeshire for some sea kayaking along the beautiful coastline and playing on the Bitches. 

Sea Kayaking, coaching and playing

Since returning from the French Alps time has flown past and life again has been busy.  Over the past three weeks I have found myself either sea kayaking, coaching or playing.

I have been invloved with some quality assurance for Canoe England on the coach education programmes, delivered a UKCC Level 2 programme with Darren Joy (Fluid Skills) and carried out staff training days for Duchy College Staff ready for their new intake this year.

This week, in between some technical advisors visits, myself and very good friend Nick Arding have been in our sea boats most the time, night paddling around the southcoast, being thrown around like rag dolls at Start Point in springs and coaching along the way.

Fontainebleau and the French Alps

Had a great two weeks with my daughter and friends climbing at Font and then moved down to the Alps for the second week were I ran several development programmes for a canoe club.  The weather throughout the two weeks was very good considering the confused climate in France this year.


In Font we climbed at Bas Cuvier, L'Elephant, and 95.2, the climbing was fantastic and amazing how strong you became after a few days.  The swimming pool in the evenings although cold was a welcoming sight.

In the Alps whilst I delivered the development programmes on white water including WWSR, BCU 4 Star Inland Training, personal coaching and advanced skills, my daughter, Jo and Mandi enjoyed the via ferrata, some kayaking and walked up to Glacier Blanc.

North Wales - Boat Trial

This week was spent in Anglesey putting the new Rockpool sea kayak to test. Travelling up with good friend Dave Adams, we put the Rockpool GT through its paces, paddling in strong tidal flows, tight rock hopping and journeying.  For a 5.43m boat I was amazed by its manoeuvrability, it had exceptional cruising speed and it surfed well.  An order has now been placed I just need to decide the colour. This also gave Mike Webb and his team at Rockpool the time to fix my Alaw Bach as it recently took a few knocks, as always the workmanship was 1st class.

Performance Coaching

The last few weeks have been busy ones, either delivering coach education programmes, sea kayaking at Salcombe with friends in rather big conditions and getting some time to do some training, getting use to wing blades again.

I was asked to provide a performance coaching workshop for the Warehouse Climbing Centre. The climbing staff attended this programme where we investigated the coaching process, uses and concepts of performer profiling, observation and analysis, use of demonstrations and the power of feedback.


All coaches showed great skill in this area, applying the concepts well in the indoor climbing environment.

Soca - Slovenia

Over the past seven days we have been in Slovenia, running our annual trip, guiding and coaching on the Soca.  Throughout the week we paddled many sections ranging from the mellow class two sections to the more challenging class 4 section from Otona.  The weather was kind to us, with sun on all days and water levels perfect for the boating we wanted to do. 
Many thanks must go out to the clients, Buck, Chris, Jack, Richy, Dave & Chris for making the trip fun, continually entertaining and great to see your paddling inmprove throughout the week.

Next years trips:

Pyrenees - 24th - 31st March 2012

Slovenia - 6th - 13th June 2012