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- - - West Cornwall Sea Kayak Experience 2008 - - -
for info and application form click here

Hi everyone,

I hope you all managed to enjoy Easter without getting too frostbitten!!  There were a few of us who braved it onto the water but I’ve got to say, it was d...mned chilly!!

Some of you will be aware we brought forward the AGM this year due to the increasing demands on our instructors being brought about by a change in the British Canoe Union coaching structure.  I am pleased to announce the committee have agreed a way forward which will not restrict the club in any way more than the restraints that were upon It previously. I congratulate the committee in the approach they have adopted, which will allow the club to maintain their coaching syllabus with minimal disruption.

As a result, we shall still be offering the equivalent of the (old) BCU one and two star syllabi, but offered as an ‘introduction to kayaking’ course, and then an ‘improvers’ course. These two courses will fill the void between the old one star course, and the new 2 star course, which is in effect a 2½ star course if comparing it to the old system.  After that, we are in to the realms of the old 4 star syllabi which is more discipline specific, be it sea kayaking, surf, whitewater, etc: As we speak we are trying hard to ensure we have top notch coaches in all these areas. It’s not a question of experience with our current coaches, just the paperwork to get over….

We have enclosed a timetable which we hope will have something for all in it. At the time of going to press we are uncertain of exactly what courses we will be running this year for beginners.  As a result, Wednesday nights at present are an ‘open book’.   Hopefully by the end of April we will know what we can offer, whether it be 2 or 3 beginners courses, 1 or two improvers.  As with out 3 star group last year, the best experience from there on is to get ‘stuck in.’ Those paddlers who have already completed their 2 star course should therefore be encouraged to take part in the Friday and Sunday activities, where you get a more realistic approach to kayaking: In the surf, whitewater etc. (As apposed to sitting on flat water just practising different strokes).

Traditionally, Friday night was ‘the’ club night, with everyone unwinding from a week’s work and going for a paddle. Lately, Friday nights have not been the best attended. To address this, we are introducing a varied Friday night programme involving a series of short paddles, surf or whatever, but which can be followed with a sociable meet in a pub afterwards: We all know the benefit the ‘bacon-butty’ bar was for the club in relation to the social side, but now let’s continue this through the rest of the club…

New Forum

Although our website has been running successfully for nearly three years now we felt there was a need for a more informal method of communication where people can post messages about when they are going paddling outside of the usual club calendar.  We have now set-up a new sports group on Yahoo! titled, you guessed it, Hayle Canoe Club.  There is a link at the top of our webpage, www.haylecanoeclub.co.uk. Once there, you will need to set up a Yahoo! account (which is free) and then request to be a member of the group. 

We did send emails inviting all club members to join the group but it appears quite a few did not receive the invite.

At present we have not set-up the club’s calendar but will do over the next couple of weeks.  I’m sure over time this forum, linked with the website, will prove an invaluable resource, and my thanks go out to Uwe for all his efforts.

Additional Pool Session

Following a successful ‘end’ to the pool sessions we have had a substantial number of people wanting another.  As a result we are trying to book another session at the end of April – check your emails and the website for details

Stop Press: Additional Pool Session Booked for 26th April: Juniors 6 – 7.30pm, Adults 7.30 – 9.00pm

 

Cornwall Canoes Trip

The club has arranged for Cornwall Canoes at Indian Queens to be open from 6.30pm on Friday 18th April exclusively to Hayle Canoe Club (and guests).

Cornwall Canoes have kindly offered for any items bought that evening to have a 20% discount.

If anyone wants a specific boat, cag or other item to look at that evening please phone or e-mail Gavin at Cornwall Canoes on 01726 862798 and they will try to get it into the shop for you.

Following this, for those who want to, we will be going just up the road to the Brewers Fayre (next to MacDonalds) for socialising, drinking and/or meal. This will be a good opportunity to catch up with other members and find out what activities the club has planned for the summer.

Can anyone interested please contact Mark King on 01637 877218 as soon as possible so he can advise Cornwall Canoes and Brewers Fayre of likely numbers attending.

Directions to Cornwall canoes can be obtained from their website

www.cornwall-canoes.co.uk

West Cornwall Sea Kayak Experience

As we go to press we are in the throws of having the WCSKE resurrected.  The race has not run for the past couple of years, but we hope to re-instate it again on 4^th May this year. 

The day consists of a series of races of varying distances between 100m for nippers and 12miles for the main adult sea kayak race.  In addition, we shall be running the second leg of the Surf Lifesaving Association National Long Distance Ski Race series, which will culminate in the offering of a National title for the winners.  This promises to be a busy and exciting day and the more help available the better.  Drop me a line if you can help in any way whatsoever.  Full details of the event will be published shortly.

Stop Press: The race is on: If you can help, please get in touch!

Triathlons

Not only do they provide a fantastic spectator sport, the triathlons run by the Hayle Triathlon Club provide the canoe club with its best fundraising opportunity: We provide ‘safety’ cover for the swim leg, with one kayak per 20 swimmers; in return for a donation of £200 – generally this means we need to supply around 10 kayakers per event.  There is sometimes a requirement to marshall a section of the run or cycle leg, but if we can get away with it, we try not to!!

Generally the donation is made with the club only having provided paddlers for about half an hour of water time. It’s really that simple!!  Afterwards you are free to watch the rest of the race, which can include Olympic standard competitors. 

In return for marshalling, each individual will receive a T shirt and ‘goody bag.’ At the first event there is normally a roast dinner thrown in too!!

Events this year will take place on 18^th May, 6^th July, and 3^rd August.  If you can help, either on or off the water please contact us.

Family Days

We are introducing a series of ‘Family days’.  These will be Sunday afternoons down at the club where kids (and their parents) can just muck about in canoes.  There will be no formal training as such but the sessions will be overseen by instructors etc. Those who show an interest will be encouraged to do the introductory course.  These have been planned for when there are neap tides, so minimal water movement, and can of course be accompanied by a bar-b-q etc if the weather permits. The calendar at present caters for around ten of these sessions.

Wednesday Nights

As mentioned previously, we are moving away from Wednesday night being the main ‘club night.’ We shall still be running our introductory and ‘improvers’ courses, (‘old’ 1 and 2 star), but we are then limited with our number of instructors, so our new train of thought is for anyone who has already completed their two star to ‘get stuck in’ with the rest of the calendar, particularly Fridays and Sundays, on which there are a great deal of opportunities provided for all.  That said, if you are willing to help out on a Wednesday your assistance will be very much appreciated.

If you previously always used to come on a Wednesday, please, please, please, don’t look at the calendar and think ‘I can’t do that!!!’ – We are not going to throw anyone in at the deep-end, but introduce you gradually to the ever differing conditions we experience out there.  If you feel at all unsure, please just ask one of the instructors, or give me a call on 07966 030975.  We want you all to succeed.  We want you all to achieve your goals, whatever they may be.

Stop Press: We shall be holding two ‘assessment’ days for everyone wishing to do courses this year, which will be on 7th & 14th May. If you completed the one or two star with us last year (or previous) and now wish to progress you must attend one of these two nights, so we can assess where to put you for your best enjoyment and learning.

Introductory courses (old 1 star) will begin on 21st May and 9th July, with an Improvers course from 21st May to 16th July. Additional courses will be provided dependent on demand.

If you know anyone who wishes to do the introduction or improvers course, please get in touch with Mark King on 01637 877218.
 

Sea Kayaking

Moving to more specific aspects of the club:  On the sea kayaking side we are hoping shortly to have a level 5 coach amongst our ranks.  The person involved has recently moved to Hayle and is keen to pass on their skills to club members.  With that in mind, their first offering is to run a navigation course for members, which is a pre-requisite to the new 3, 4 and 5 star syllabus.  Anyone interested in pursuing this should drop me, or Paul Bashforth a line without delay: we are hoping to have this completed by the end of May.  The addition of a level 5 coach to any staff is a tremendous asset, and I’m sure this will prove a fantastic addition to the club in both this and years to come.  I shall keep you posted.

Scillies Trip

The campsite has now been booked for our visit Thurs 14^th Aug – Tue 19^th Aug.  We have 9 adults and 5 children going on this trip.  We are taking the general purpose boats on the club trailer as we do not envisage travelling huge distances but see ourselves island hopping and generally having a bit of fun in the rocks.  If anybody still wants to go then contact Ann or David Pascoe a.s.a.p. on 01326 561455.  The trip will cost about £170 each.

Surf Coaching

In the Surf, yours truly is currently looking to qualify as a level 3 coach. In pursuit of that I need to teach 30 hours of coaching for beginners in the surf.  I would like therefore to open up the possibility of specific surf coaching on either a Monday, Tuesday or Thursday night during the summer (there may be some weekends thrown in too!) which will be of (new) 3 star standard plus (Basically old 4 star ‘plus’).  In addition, we have been offered the services of Simon Hammond, former World Surfkayak Champion, who has offered to come down and coach for a day in either July or August.  Anyone interested please let me know ASAP.

Polo

Although our team have been performing well on the local front lately, we have done this with little or no actual polo training. Next winter, as well as the local league, we intend to enter the South West league as well.  In order to be competitive we will need to add a little polo practice to our programme.  Paul Bashforth will be in charge of this, so anyone interested please give him a call on 07976 901510.

Racing Kayaks

The club owns a number of racing kayaks, both singles and doubles which are in desperate need of use! Although the general consensus is that these are the ‘wobbly’ boats we do have stable versions for both adults and juniors.  Although we don’t paddle these boats much from Hayle, Truro Canoe Club, with whom we are linked, paddle from Malpas every Saturday and Sunday at 9am.  Paddlers of all ability are welcome – you don’t necessarily have to be a ‘racing paddler’ to enjoy cruising along in a nice fast smooth boat – nothing better on a beautiful still morning!  Anyone interested in paddling at Truro would best contact Chris Pease on 01209 217114.  Alternatively, there are a number of dates in the calendar where we can take the boats from Hayle and simply have a go.  The club has now invested in some specialist paddles which also need to be used!

Whitewater

Many of you will be aware of the whitewater sluice, which the club uses to gain whitewater experience, and within the calendar the calendar there are several dates to accommodate this.

Some of you may have heard of the sluice’s ‘fearsome’ reputation, but this needn’t be so. Most of the organised trips are set on days when there are smaller tides running.  The small tides lead to less water pouring through and therefore more manageable conditions.  Also, the location, set within Carnsew pool, means that you need only go as far up into the rapid as you feel comfortable – there is no danger of you being pulled into the more ferocious parts if you don’t wish.  All in all, it provides an extremely safe coaching environment for you all, so please don’t be put off.

For the adrenaline junkies amongst you however, the stopper or hole, which appears on the bigger tides, can provide quite a test, even if for only short periods each time.  If interested in whitewater, lookout for the ‘Sluice’ dates on the calendar.  When considering tide heights and flow, a tide of below 6.4metres can be regarded as small, therefore suitable for beginners; between 6.4 – 6.9m can be considered medium, and anything of 7.0metres and above can be regarded as big tides, giving the most flow and rougher conditions.  The sluice runs for about an hour, three hours before high tide, so if you’re half an hour late you’re likely to miss it!!

Tryweryn Trip

Leigh Hooper is currently trying to organise a trip to the River Tryweryn in North Wales, site of the 1981 Slalom and Whitewater Racing World Championships.  The trip is likely to be over the course of a long weekend and will probably be at the end of May.

Accommodation will be at a local bed and breakfast which has been used by Leigh on previous occasions.  If you’re interested in going please contact Leigh on 01736 753510, or leigh.hooper@virgin.net

Membership

Hopefully you will be aware the membership year runs from 1^st April to 31^st March, so as we speak the renewal date is fast approaching. 

Fees this year are the same as last year for individual memberships:  £25 for Adult, £15 for Junior; but we have reduced the price of the family membership back to £40.  As with last year, for those not renewing their membership within April first month there will be a £5 surcharge.  This is to help Ruth trying to get the job ‘wrapped up’ as quickly as possible, and also because we have to pay our rent to the harbour company.

On the harbour company front, we are required this year to wear some form of identification on the water which will say we are members of the canoe club.  We are currently working on illuminous stickers for boats, and credit card sized ID tags to carry.  We don’t know exactly where this is going, but I dare say that eventually if you are paddling on the water without your club ID they will try and charge you the £12 launch fee they charge everyone else.  Please don’t forget either to display your Membership cards in the windscreen of your parked vehicles when you paddle from the club, to avoid the possibility of being wheel-clamped.

Training Opportunities

We are always trying to improve the opportunities we can offer our members, which puts a lot of dependence on our instructors. As such, the more people we have qualified the better the club will be in the long run.

We have a policy of supporting all those who are willing to give up their time instructing, by paying for their courses and providing as much backup as we can.  Also on the table at the moment we have an option to give free membership to those who are qualified and willing to help with instruction. 

If you think this is an avenue you could help with in the future we would love to hear from you – we aren’t necessarily talking about being a top paddler, more about knowing the basics and being able to convey those to others.

Following this, we regularly run First Aid Courses and the Canoe Safety Test  (CST), which not only give an individual confidence in being able to deal with basic accidents but are also the pre-requisites for any coaching qualifications. 

We have recently put 6 individuals through the CST, and have a first Aid Course running on 26^th April (Saturday) from 10am to 3pm, hopefully at the Passmore Edwards Institute, but to be confirmed.  For instructors this course will be provided, but for others the cost will be £20.  If you are interested in either please contact our Training Officer, Paul Bashforth, on 07976 901 510

Stop Press (Again!) Two more places left on the first aid course. Please contact Paul if interested!
 

We also need Lifeguards to monitor our sessions at the pool.  If you are interested in getting this qualification the club are again happy to pay for the course (which could also help get our youngsters to a job at a pool!!).

Alternatively, if you know someone who is already qualified and would be willing to help the club every now and again (which would be paid), please contact Paul.

Finally, as your new Chairman I’d just like to say a big thank you to Chris & Wes, and the outgoing committee for all their efforts over the past year(s) – Their roles are always onerous, tedious, and thankless, so thank you very much. 

Richard Sims