I've noticed, over the years, that kayakers are often associated with other 'pit yourself against nature' sports, such as rock climbing and mountain biking (MTBing). So it was a joy to introduce Johnny B (limited off-road experience) and Janet H (haven't ridden a bike in years) not only to MTBing, but inspiring to see how they were tearing up the difficult trails by the end of the day. Janet squeezed three bikes, three sets of kit, and us three into her…

This report is a little late, but better late than never.  I thought it would be fun to paddle somewhere new so after looking through the UK rivers guide, I decided upon the lower Dee.  The trip starts at Llangollen just below Town Falls and finishes at Newbridge.

 When we arrived at Llangollen, we all peered over the bridge and had a look at the grade 4 rapid.  Brian was keen to run it and was trying to persuade a few people to have a go. At first there didn’t seem many takers but…

Congratulations to RLSCC paddlers.

William came second out of eleven in his first division 5 race.

James came first out of a field of 18 in the lightning race.

Ryan had to pull out out the division 5 race because he hit his paddle on the bottom of the shallow lake and ended up pulling a muscle.

A week after Easter, the Olympic canoe slalom venue at Lee Valley White Water Centre hosted the slalom trials for the Great Britain Olympic team. Reigning national student champion Rob Neave from RLSCC had come through an arduous pre-selection process with races in Cardiff and Nottingham, to claim one of only 11 slots at the slalom trials. Rob, who is a medical student at Warwick University, raced well against a field of full-time athletes, but unfortunately was unable to break into the top…

The 125 mile Devizes to Westminster Canoe Marathon is traditionally run over the Easter weekend. Shuna Braithwaite with partner Kat Burbeck from Nottingham CC won the women's kayak double nonstop class in just outside 20 hours, more than an hour faster than the second fastest women's crew and in sixth position overall. This win made it two out of two for Shuna and Kat as they had already won last years DW marathon.

The Devizes to Westminster Canoe Marathon, commonly known as "The DW",…

Whilst slalom trials were taking place in London, Great Britain's finest sprint paddlers met at Holme Pierrepont National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham for the National Championships and Olympic Selection. RLSCC sent 8 canoeists to compete over 200m, 500m, and 1000m. Coach Tom Love and Malcolm Lane lead by example and won the men’s canoe doubles over 200m, which is easily the fastest canoe discipline. In the same race, Adam Stannard with partner Marko Csokazi (Richmond CC) claimed 2nd…

Please go to the Forum, trips, can you help... page, to work out if you can help on the Doggy Paddle event.

Everyone welcome!!!

Brian

Sorry for not writing this sooner, I just havent got round to it!

Last Sunday Brian, Janet, Mark and myself spent the day at Nottingham's National Watersports Centre, aka Holme Peirrepont (HPP). I took a little persuading to come along, as I'd never been before and had heard a range of stories about it's difficulty and water quality (or lack of). But after being assured it would be easier than the brutal Cardiff course, and stocking up on coke, we set…

It's Good Friday, and a family day out at Warwick Castle. A chance conversation with the guy who maintains the water wheel at the castle revealed that the recent weather has raised the level of the Avon by almost a foot since Wednesday. If it can come up that quickly, it can surely go back down again just as fast. Better get to Rock Mill fast!

The short notice, and only having the ability to advertise on Facebook while out and about meant it was just me and Stuart at the club. The…

Got a message from Brian the night before saying he was taking his bath tub, sorry canoe and would like to paddle at his own pace so would go on his own. And another one from Mark McGillicuddy saying he had gone down with man flu so Jackie and himself wouldn’t make it.

Woke up to rain on the sky light so though we could be the only ones turning up so after struggling to get Jo up (as usual) we turned up at the club with Mat, Dawn, Neil, Rene + Ben, Simon, Steve, Stuart, Dave…

We have just had confirmation that the Junior Racing Team have won the Severn Plate in the Midlands Duathlon Series 2010-11. The presentation will be made at the Gailey Race. WELL DONE team! You have all trained hard to achieve this deserved success.

Another successful duathlon race for the RLSCC racing team.

The race was held at Barrow upon Soar which was a stand in event following the cancellation at Burton.  The location was great for the race and the course was enjoyed by all.  Hopefully they will hold a marathon there in the summer.

It was a lovely day when the paddlers arrived, but as soon as the first boat was on the water the heavens opened and it rained solidly until the last boat was off the…

I thought the event timing went quite well. I'm probably alone in thinking these thoughts. I suspect everyone else is thinking “Never again. Curse that dam sadist of an event organiser”. Let me explain...

We all met at 7-30am, loaded up, had a wonderful drive up along an ever twisting scenic route, event free except for one minor detour and a run-in with a dumper truck. We got changed, shuttled, paddled the river, drove home along a bloody dangerous ever twisting dark…

Owing to a hefty dose of snow and travel chaos our casual Sunday morning paddle didn't go entirely according to plan. With the help of serendipity it went much better than that :)

Plan A was to drive over to Saxon Mill for a park and play. Before we started we'd already decided that we'd probably abandon that due to the road conditions and the additional driving involved: a paddle from the club sounded like a much more sensible option. However, on the morning Janet and Stuart (both…

For those interested in what the Builth Wells trip (Move to the 3rd March 2012) is going to be like, here's a 2000 trip report, when I was a wee nipper...

SUMMARY

This describes our first ever white water trip, down the river Wye, Wales, from Builth Wells to Llyswen. It describes where we got in, some hazards we encountered, and where we got out. It also tries to capture our feeling during our first ever white water run, especially our…

OK, I know this was only a short ‘recreational paddle’ but it was quite fun and warrants a short note to mark the occasion.

Paddlers; Stuart, Dawn and Mark.

First thing was a short safety brief. There were only 3 of us and we all pretty much knew our capabilities, or lack of and it was a peer supported trip so we were looking after ourselves. We were going to Rock Mill, shooting the weirs and having  a play on the eddies. When we got to RM we identified the…

It started off as a most auspicious day - a 7-30am start and Janet was early. The omens were good. All eight of us, Ed (our glorious leader), Rene, Neil, Janet, Jon, Dave, Gareth and myself were soon packed up and off to Wales for some proper paddling. The weather forecast was good: warm and a slight chance of rain. Needless to say it was tipping it down most of the way, especially on poor Shrewsbury. But the good old BBC got it right, and hardly a drop was seen all day at the river...…

I have been paddling for far too many years so I agreed it was about time I organised and ran a trip.  The Usk in past years had always been a good trip for the start of the year and a nice easy white water trip.  The day before the trip I was beginning to feel a little anxious and horrible ‘what if’s’ began to run through my head.   It was too late, to back out now.

The plan was to meet at the club at 7.15am and yes I was on time, I was not the last to arrive. (Please note this for…

It was a particularly early start on this fine Sunday morning, with the moonlight still streaming through the window while the alarm clock nags me to get up. It doesn't seem to matter what time I set my alarm for, I always want "just five more minutes". This means that once I do get up I have to rush to make sure I'm not late, this is also not helped by the fact that I'd decided not to take the opportunity to put the roof bars on the car the day before.

Thinking that my…

If you were to compare the character of a river to a film then our last trip on the River Avon would be a Tarantino film: the setting and our surroundings were beautiful, the characters were quirky but the action was brutal, uncompromising and just that little bit too long. This week’s trip was more of a Spielberg adventure: it started fast, it was unexpectedly good and we went home feeling that we had definitely got our moneys worth.

As all good things do it started with a…