Youth White Water Development Programme

Click here for Training Programme Course updates via Facebook First training date - Sat Sept 10th - at the docks	CONTACT Alan Brenton

What’s it all about?

White water kayaking is one of the great adventure sports, but it’s much more than that. Once you’ve got the skills to look after yourself, you become part of an international network of great people doing great things - all connected by their love of the sport. I’ve got friends and ‘friends of friends’ in virtually every country in the world - just through kayaking!

The Duddon WW programme is designed to give you the skills you need to become independent as a skilled, safe paddler, to get you to the point where you can decide what you want to do - coach, potter round with your mates or even become a world class expedition paddler. (why shouldn’t it be you? Everyone started somewhere.)

Who’s it for?

If you’re a member of the club, age 13-16 and already have some reasonable basic kayak skills, you’re good enough to start. We don’t care what sex or shape you are, but we do ask you to be honest about your level of commitment. We’ll put a lot into helping you be the best you can be, in return, we expect you to turn up to the sessions whenever possible and to get stuck in when you’re there.

When does it run?

We’ll start in September and run through to the spring of 2012 - so if your skills are a bit shaky, you can get up to speed by turning up at the pool and docks regularly over the summer. We’ll be doing regular day trips, weekend residentials and, if you work hard enough, we can run a trip to paddle in the Pyrenees (Spain) at Easter!

Who will be running it?

The programme will be designed and managed by me; I’m a BCU Level 5 kayak coach with paddling and coaching experience throughout Europe, Turkey, USA and Canada. But we’ll also be using support from other club members and asking some friends to come and help us with specialist skills.

What will we be doing?

The programme will cover a range of areas, most of which, we’ll cover on the water, as we go along, but we’ll also do some special sessions at the docks or at other venues, some examples will be:

• Skills, starting from the foundations and building solid paddling skills that will see you through a lifetime of kayaking.
• Knowledge - about rivers, leadership, weather, boats and equipment.
• Staying safe, assessing risks and making decisions, rescuing yourself and your friends and basic first aid.
• Developing yourself; thinking about what you want and how hard you’ll work for it; looking at your attitude to risk and how you make safe decisions.
• Sports psychology; how you practice rapids without getting wet, how you can manage anxiety and setting your own goals.

Is it safe?

It’s as safe as it can be but we won’t be wrapping you up in cotton wool! We will follow current safety guidance and the programme will be well lead and controlled, but we can’t guarantee that you won’t get the odd bump or injury - it all comes with the sport! We will give you a letter to take to your parents and ask them to sign giving you permission - if they have any concerns, we’ll be happy to talk to them.

What will it cost?

As little as possible, all staffing on the programme will be voluntary but there will be things like fuel costs and campsite fees. If we want to go to Spain at Easter, we’ll probably have to do some fund raising.

Interested, what next?

I have set up a site on Facebook which will be our main board for communication; in the meantime, you can ask questions on the email given at the top of the page or talk to John at the club. Get to the pool sessions and work on your recovery strokes and roll, if you want a ‘bible’ get a copy of Kayak by William Nealy. C’mon!