Personal Development
Learning is an integral part of personal development in Paddlesports, and club coaches and experienced paddlers are always happy to help with skills development or recommend options to continue to support individual personal development goals.
Your introductory starter session gives you the basics to get you out on the water safely and start paddling around, a fun and practical session which allows you to have a go.
There are many different disciplines of paddlesport for you to explore and enjoy.
The club predominantly concentrates on skills for operating on moving water, as we are based on the riverside, although not exclusively as we have many lakes to explore close by.
You can look through the different disciplines on the Paddles up training personal performance awards
The club has a variety of crafts in inventory for your use. If you have a desire to try out different craft speak to one of the coaches and then try them with support in a safe environment. This is certainly recommended before purchasing your first boat as you may find that you enjoy a completely different type of craft/paddling discipline than you initially intended.
If there is enough interest in a specific subject the club can help facilitate courses either within the club or with external providers.
Resources and Support
Formal club sessions will include the opportunity to improve your personal skills by progressing through the personal skill awards Paddle Discover and Paddle Explore all the way to white water award and canoe award.
Talk to the experienced members of the club who can also help demonstrate or talk you through various skills and what they have learned and applied from courses they have attended.
Maximum benefit can be realised by fully engaging with the process; coaches will be patient and will allow you to take things at your own pace.
There is no formal assessment to these awards, it’s now a progressive development route that allows you to work through the content of the award with a coach in the best way that suits you.
Once you have started your paddlesport journey there are a number of safety courses that you can do to keep you safe on the water and build up your confidence in knowing what to do if things don’t go to plan.
The paddle safer course is the basic safety course that goes through what to do if you fall out of your boat in your first few outings with your boat.
The paddlesport safety and rescue course goes into more detail from the paddle safer course on how to rescue other people in different craft that you might be out on flat water with.
The Introduction to white water safety goes through what happens when you fall out of your boat on the river and how to keep yourself safe while swimming around.
The White water safety course goes into more detail from the introduction course and shows you how to become an effective part of a river paddling team and how to help others in the river.
More details on the Safety and Rescue Courses are here
As you gain experience it is then worth researching the types of structured courses for building skills, coaching, leadership and safety for the craft and Paddlesport discipline of your choice on the Paddles up Training site; where several links used so far in this brief are to be found.
Look at local providers which may offer paddler progression courses or bespoke coaching. Two proactive local providers are: Border Kayaks and Wild River , but there are others.
Use the club Spond App to check for organised club events or paddling opportunities
Useful Tools
Although not exhaustive, listed below are a few tools that may help you to keep safe: