Dear Paddler
Now that the clocks have sprung forwards and we have lighter evenings on the pond we are looking forwards to resuming our Thursday night paddling sessions.
This year we hope to offer a series of mixed sessions on a Thursday night with different opportunities during the year.
By popular request we will be hosting sessions on:
- Skills improvement
- Rescue techniques
- Moving your roll from pool to pond
- Paddle fitness – a series of paddle sessions up the Trent to push your fitness levels
Look out for these sessions being advertised in due course once dates have been sorted out.
However, to start us off the first few weeks will be general paddling with a chance to come down and work on your skills. Sessions will be advertised on the club booking portal page shortly.
Trips
There was a great trip over Easter on the River Trent and this will be followed up with a trip on the 8th of May on the Ashby Canal, which is about 16km, but without the benefit of the current. If you are interested in this trip please book via the booking portal on the club website. If you are interested but worried about whether the distance will be too much please contact Dave on Touring@hppcc.co.uk and if there are enough people interested then he may be able to arrange a shorter out and back trip on the same day. Bookings for the full 16km trip are now open on the website portal.
There appeared to be a bit of confusion over whether people needed to book for the last trip and about equipment so hopefully the information below will help explain how club trips are organised.
For each trip the organiser will set a maximum number of paddlers. This will be based on a variety of factors such as how much space there is to park cars at the start and end points, how many people need to be accommodated for the car shuttle, the type of water, the size of group that can move together safely and the number of qualified trip leaders available.
Because of this it isn’t possible for people to join at the last minute, even if they have their own kit.
Club kit can always be borrowed for club trips, but you are responsible for getting it to the trip. Kit can always be collected on the Saturday before a trip, and often on the Thursday before the trip in the summer months. It should be returned to the next possible club session and all kit will be logged out to you. It is your responsibility for ensuring that kit is kept secure, this includes locking it to car roof racks or to solid objects when it is not in use. Please be aware that boats are highly desirable objects currently with a high second hand value, and a number of boat thefts have been reported, so please do ensure that boats are secured, a number of paddlers have left cars in car parks and come back and found that their boats have gone.
Please book your trip through the booking portal and please do let the organiser know if you are going to need to cancel, as there is often a waiting list for trips.
More trips will be following and it is fantastic to see so many paddlers interested in getting out and about.
We look forward to seeing you on the water.
Kind regards
Dawn