Just a reminder that the club boats and trailer will not be available on Wednesday 8th September which is also the last Wednesday session of the season.
The NACC white water training weekend will be Friday 5th Nov to Sunday 7th Nov in Brecon. The total cost for weekend is £60. This includes 2 night accommodation, food and all white water coaching*.
Some say freestyle is dieing, but only those who have not paid a visit to the Youth Freestyle Series. The series is growing in popularity each year and at some events attracts over 100 young freestylers. This year there are 5 events; Llangollen, The Mighty Nene, Boulters Weir, River Washburn and Nottingham White Watre Centre. Josh Wedgwood reports from the latest event at the Nene.
The sun was shining and the pumps were pumping. The scene was set for the second event of the youth freestyle series 2009 at the Nene White Water Cource. With 50 youth kayakers taking place it was busy on the course but everyone took terns and everyone had a great time in the morning practice. There was coaching on hand for everyone who wanted it as there were lots of expert volunteer coaches on hand.
It was a dull grey Sunday morning when I left Richard with our sea kayaks and gear at Conham River Park. I then drove to Portishead to meet Wayne and leave my car there. Now time to whizz back to Bristol to find Richard lurking in his drysuit. We are a strange lot at times.
We all loaded our boats and were afloat by 10.30. There was no rush as high tide was around 11.30. The plan was to get to Netham Weir at high water to make it easier to shoot. As the river level was fairly high it wasn't going to take long. We cruised the 1 ½ miles to the weir in next to no time. There was still a small drop at the weir but plenty of water going over the ledge. I was first over, a short burst of speed and in a flash it is all over. We are now into the tidal section of the Avon.
At NACC we have a core of sea kayaking nuts who are slowly but surely infiltrating the club...you know who you are! They are great paddlers and on the face of it seem like very normal people. I now know better. These sea kayakers spend hours pouring over charts and shipping forecasts. They have compasses on their boats and carry strange equipment such as flares and caramel chocolate bars.
We were given our joining instructions by Ralph, our esteemed leader. Be ready to paddle by 7:00am..... meet at Beachley under the (old) Severn Bridge. Time and tide wait for none.
When we arrived at the first event of the youth freestyle series 2009 we found the car park already 3/4 full so we headed up to the cafe for a bacon butty before the queues got any bigger. The YFS is a number of one-day events aimed at under 18 paddlers who want to take part in a freestyle competition. The events are always a laugh and a great chance to hang out with mates and enter a fun freestyle competition. For this event Sam, George, Ed, Stuart, Jonathon, Luke and I entered. In the morning there was coaching for those who wanted it. I chose to hang out at the bottom wave with Sam and George. The levels were low (about 1.5 on the gauge... much lower than last year's 11!) so it was quite hard to throw ends as everybody kept hitting the bottom. After an hour for lunch it was competition time. I decided to get my runs out of the way with quickly. I did the middle stopper run first... I managed to get most of the moves in I wanted and even had time for an attempt at a ninja wheel (spinning your paddle while cartwheeling)...I hit myself in the face with my paddle and floped on my head. More practice on that move needed! The second and final run was in a little drop in the river right channel next to the island. My run went excellently I got all my moves that were possible... cartwheel, splitwheel, clean cartwheel, tail squirt and even a Luna Orbit!
The time had come... the opening of the new HPP. As the car stopped in the car park we all rushed out to have a look at the new course. It looked great with about 5 new features (any suggestions for new names?). One of the ideas behind the paddlefest was not to paddle your own boat but demo others, I could not wait to try the new biscuit (it is definitely a wave boat) and Big Dog Kayaks. The National Student Rodeo was also running which meant lots of students (all majorly hung-over by the looks of them) were also at the course. A few of the young burners were already on the course so we joined them and cartwheeled, splitwheeled and looped our way down the course (trying avoid all the swimmers from the duo final of the NSR)! After lunch we found that you could try a sprint C2 (queue scary music). It is a lot harder than they make it look at the Olympics. We decided it was definitly a summer sport. Sam and I managed to get about 20 meters before falling in for the first time and about 50m the second time (that was your fault Sam).
I thought it was a great day and I will definitely be going next year!
Feed Entries 
Some say freestyle is dieing, but only those who have not paid a visit to the Youth Freestyle Series. The series is growing in popularity each year and at some events attracts over 100 young freestylers. This year there are 5 events; Llangollen, The Mighty Nene, Boulters Weir, River Washburn and Nottingham White Watre Centre. Josh Wedgwood reports from the latest event at the Nene.
When we arrived at the first event of the youth freestyle series 2009 we found the car park already 3/4 full so we headed up to the cafe for a bacon butty before the queues got any bigger. The YFS is a number of one-day events aimed at under 18 paddlers who want to take part in a freestyle competition. The events are always a laugh and a great chance to hang out with mates and enter a fun freestyle competition. For this event Sam, George, Ed, Stuart, Jonathon, Luke and I entered. In the morning there was coaching for those who wanted it. I chose to hang out at the bottom wave with Sam and George. The levels were low (about 1.5 on the gauge... much lower than last year's 11!) so it was quite hard to throw ends as everybody kept hitting the bottom. 
The time had come... the opening of the new HPP. As the car stopped in the car park we all rushed out to have a look at the new course. It looked great with about 5 new features (any suggestions for new names?). One of the ideas behind the paddlefest was not to paddle your own boat but demo others, I could not wait to try the new biscuit (it is definitely a wave boat) and Big Dog Kayaks. The National Student Rodeo was also running which meant lots of students (all majorly hung-over by the looks of them) were also at the course. A few of the young burners were already on the course so we joined them and cartwheeled, splitwheeled and looped our way down the course (trying avoid all the swimmers from the duo final of the NSR)! After lunch we found that you could try a sprint C2 (queue scary music). It is a lot harder than they make it look at the Olympics. We decided it was definitly a summer sport. Sam and I managed to get about 20 meters before falling in for the first time and about 50m the second time (that was your fault Sam).