The Biblins weekend was a trip down memory lane for me personally, as I last visited the place as a Scout in 1975, but the 2 star kayak team saw the Wye from angles that I never contemplated as a young lad way back then. It was a fantastic weekend but a hectic one too.

Don't be in any doubt; those of you have not yet joined the biggest weekend in the NACC calendar; it is a heck of a lot of fun but equally there's a huge syllabus to get through especially with the new 2 star format and that's before you have to push the hoover and/or the mop round on Sunday evening.

For most of us, Saturday morning was our first introduction to open canoes and remarkably we all stayed dry. Although we'll probably have to give most of the credit to John Handyside's expert tuition, it could also have been due to Ralph's enormous breakfast which helped ballast us down very well. John was fantastic and I suppose the only query we have now is whether any of us have made the Olympic team which he's coaching; perhaps the letters are in the post? Great guy, lots of tips and tricks to pass on to us which he did fantastically well especially later on Saturday evening, allowing those that wanted to the opportunity to exhaust themselves still further on the ergo trainer. It certainly kept the kids quiet. Key points for forward paddling were drilled into us and they're certainly worth one more repetition here: Connectivity; Transfer of Power; Posture and Feel. If you don't know what they mean speak to those that went on the weekend and ask them to explain the terms to you; if they're good enough for an Olympic paddler they must be good enough for us.

As I said, there's a huge syllabus to get through and therefore a massive amount of work for the coaches and we are all grateful to both Anna Wedgwood and Dave Perkin for their persistence and good humour, not to mention the huge number of capsizes they managed to engineer for us. Whether you consider it fortunate or not, being a former submariner had some advantages as once upon a time I was used to being underwater. Funny that, I thought I'd left all that behind me! Sunday was assessment day and putting into practise the theory sessions from Friday and Saturday as well as the practical "skills" (and I use the term very loosely in my case) that we had developed on Saturday on the water. Whilst only one of our team passed the assessment, we're all well on the way to completing this course and becoming some of the first new 2 star kayakers.

One more word of thanks and that's to Nigel and Steph for the food and all of the other coaches who were there to offer advice whenever we asked.

If you haven't done a Biblins weekend yet - you're missing out. The coaching is fantastic, Ralph's breakfast memorable, and if the weather's as good as we enjoyed you will have a ball. One point to remember is to look up and around and delight in the scenery: it's so easy to focus on the training and fail to gaze on some of the most stunning riverside scenery England has to offer.

Will Worsley