October, and some members of new committees from uni canoe clubs accross the country make a pilgrimage to Plas Y Brenin, for the 11th annual Student Safety Symposium. University canoe clubs are traditionally gung ho, disorganised, and some might say have a reputation for being a bit dangerous! The aim of the weekend (dubbed Octoberfest by some) is to try and address some of the issues commonly affecting canoe clubs across the county.
Chris Eastabrook - Llugwy.
Friday night is an opportunity for the staff to get together and have a catch up on old tales, tell new extravagant lies (For example; “I just cycled here from Manchester”) and try in desperation to drink the bar dry.
Me, Swallow Falls - Pic Chris Eastabrook
Saturday morning dawns far too early, and after a slap up breakfast and a quick intro the students are treated to a couple of hours of lectures on minibuses, blagging from the AU and playing safe in general. Meanwhile the staff slope off to nurse hangovers, paddle if it’s rained, or go for a climb. This year it was dry and we went to the RAC boulders.
Milling about - RAC Boulders
The afternoon plays host to a number of local based workshops, from CSTs and steep ropework to open boating for those who don’t. Ably accompanied by Pat Clissold and Rich Brookes I took a group of people for a potter round the lakes in open boats, and introduced them to the idea that paddling doesn’t have to be uber gnar to be fun.
Safely back to the centre, tea and cake is provided, followed by a selection of Q + A sessions with people well versed in various fields. I very much enjoyed chatting with people about the French alps alongside Fran, Dave and Adam D.
Carelessly, some idiot had booked England to loose at rugby that evening, meaning not as many people as hoped made the excellent talk from the 4 borders expedition, safely back from Siberia. Amazing Dave followed this up with a short (and great) video from his jaunt down the Thule Beri at Easter. The bar is then drunk dry, and then anything else that looks like drink is drunk.
Team Tea - Llugwy
Breakfast stomached again, and the meat of the day begins. The whole of Sunday is spent on the water, or by the water working generally on skills and techniques to help lead in a club environment, from intorducing people to the water, all the way up to managing a group on a steep section of river. This year, myself, Pat, Lowri, and Dave joined Adam and Pete from the Brenin in taking a group into the heart of Welsh tourism and paddling Swallow Falls.
You’ll notice this post is pretty general, if you want to find out more, there is a safety camp at Easter in Scotland, and this another Welsh one next year, get in touch with Tom Parker at www.tomparkercoaching.co.uk
There is a lot of video footage to be edited, expect a video sometime soon….
