Day two dawned very hot and with another group choosing kayaks for 15 inexperienced paddlers with a higher average age than our group. I hung fiercely onto my Dagger Stratos 14.5 but the others were given to the recreational paddlers but the others all went for P&Hs today – the high volume Scorpio for the … More Paddlesport Leader training day 2
I don’t usually write about things as they’re happening but boat club two weeks ago got cancelled and that threw my blog schedule out, so I’m writing about my Paddlesport Leader training course halfway through it, on Wednesday evening. I emailed Paul, the instructor, several months back to ask if this was suitable for my … More Paddlesport Leader training day 1
And at last we come to the end of my paddling story! I don’t know what date this will end up being published because I’m writing it before we reopen the boat club for the season, so there might be stuff about boat club and my 2024 paddling and this might not end up where … More I did my Paddlesport Safety & Rescue training
With the knowledge that I’m now on my way towards some kind of leadership or coaching qualification, I became acutely aware that I can’t roll a kayak. Wouldn’t know where to start. But actually, this came about because I was looking at doing my PRS training, which was still called FSRT when I started looking … More A roll-practice pool session
It only seemed five minutes since I was looking at the three levels of Sea Kayak Awards and deciding that was way beyond me when I found myself down at Studland on a miserable grey April day. Apparently I was going to spend two days doing my Sea Kayak Award. Why did I do this? … More Sea Kayak Award training
By this point, I was starting to consider my paddling future. I’d run an archery session in a named storm for our local Inspire group – that’s Girlguiding’s newish 18-30 not-a-section – and one of them had mentioned having access to 24 kayaks and wondered out loud what qualifications someone would need to take Inspire … More Learning to capsize
By this point, I’d got into a bit of a habit of hiring a canoe and paddling up the river on nice Sunday mornings. Up the river? Yes, I think so. Up river to the road bridge, which is a little way before the weir. If you go down the river, you have to get … More A canoeing lesson
I had a plan for October and to do that, I needed some experience in paddling a sea kayak. I think at this point, I didn’t really know what a sea kayak was. But I knew it would involve wearing a spraydeck. The sea kayak in question was seventeen feet long – half the length … More Learning to paddle a sea kayak
In the time since I first tried to do my 1 Star and the second time, the entire awards system was overhauled the 1 Star ceased to exist. As far as I could tell, the Star awards were replaced with, among other things, the Personal Performance Awards and the closest equivalent to 1 Star was … More I did my Discover and Explore Awards
Bumblebee Paddles 