Feb 2011 Update

The paddle sport discipline of the RWSABC has again had a very successful year. Last year, more than 50 people were introduced on Monday and Tuesday nights through the Club’s temporary membership facility:

• 26 adults
• 1 student
• 25 juniors

In total through the 2010-11 season, paddle sports attracted:

• 9 new ordinary members
• 2 country members
• 1 family membership
• 18 junior members

There were 1086 recordings of kayak excursions logged in the signing-out book.

Coaches

This is all down to the hard work and dedication of the Club’s highly qualified Coaches as well as its active paddlers.

At present, the Club has 8 active instructors:

• 1 BCU Level 3 Sea coach, with 5 Star Leader’s Award 1
• 1 BCU Senior Instructor with Advanced Sea Proficiency
• 1 BCU Senior Instruction with Advanced Inland Proficiency
• 4 BCU Instructors
• 1 UKCC Level One Coach
• 8 Club Coaches and members hold the Canoe Safety and Rescue Award
• All active Club coaches hold current First Aid qualifications ranging through WEMT, FAW and Wilderness/Remote First Responder

Two Club Coaches qualified as UKCC Level 1 Coaches last season. Unfortunately, one has since moved out of the area.

One Coach passed his BCU Level 3 Sea Coach award as well as the BCU 5 Star Leader’s Award.

A number of Coaches received support from Inverclyde Council and the SCA towards Club Coach development.

A group of Coaches participated in the SCA Club Coach Development weekend at Glenmore Lodge.

This coming season, 4-5 further Club members are intending to train as UKCC/BCU Level 1 in April 2011.

The Fleet

A grant from Awards for All allowed us to renew 9 of our fleet of sea kayaks for the start of 2011. This will be of great benefit to new and existing members of all ages, as well as members of the public who participate in our regularly offered “come and try” taster sessions.

In 2010, we invested in a range of equipment for smaller paddlers, including children’s paddles, buoyancy aids and helmets, enabling us to grow the junior membership to around 20. The adult active membership has also swelled to nearly 50 kayakers.

We also purchased a Canadian canoe to enable the Club Coaches to practice and acquire open canoe skills which will benefit those Club members undertaking the SCA/UKCC Coaching Award where such skills are now required. £300 towards this purchase came from the income generated by the paddle sport discipline from temporary membership plus donations from George McCallum, Julia Darby and Dave Marquis.

We also disposed of one of the Club’s older and less popular GRP sea kayaks and received a donation of £500. This enabled the Club to purchase 11 new nylon spray decks for the new sea kayaks and 7 neoprene decks for expedition use, with a balance of £425 towards more new kayaks.

It is our intention to replace all the existing Club GRP sea kayaks with modern roto-moulded craft to facilitate maintenance and repairs and to allow modern techniques to be introduced for rescues.

It is intended to have a Club fleet of 20 expedition sea kayaks and to sell a maximum of 7 of the older GRP sea kayaks in order to purchase further new sea kayaks plus a double sea kayak and another Canadian canoe in 2011-12.

From the Club fund, we have purchased 2 expedition sea kayaks to add to the 9 sea kayaks purchased from the AWA grant of £5750.

Dave Marquis