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Volume 34 Issue 4 ~ April 2010

Frome Canoe Club is affiliated to the British Canoe Union and is a Registered Charity (Number 1104728)

Lily’s ride in a big stopper!

Read all about it on 4 in the Exe Trip Report.

What Is Happening to Our River? For the latest developments see Page 12

The mighty Frome catches out our Honourable Chairman again! Twice.

It was a great trip. If you would like to join in an easy trip we have another one on 11th April. (see Page 6)

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FCC ‘THROWLINE ’ CLUB MAGAZINE

COPY DATE FOR THE NEXT ISSUE

30th April Please send items for next Newsletter by email to [email protected]

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

President

Graham Warnecke

Vice Presidents

Richard and Jane Arney

Jim and Catharine Croft

Chairman

Andy Bell

Vice Chairman

Rich Carter

Treasurer

John Kent

Secretary

Pam Dixon

16 Blagdon Walk, Frome, BA11 2YH

Committee Members

Andy Avery

Howard Charlesworth

Hazel Cottle

Alun Jones

Gareth McGiveron

Julie Middleton

Alex Nicol

Martin Spurling

Sara Withall

CONTENTS

Page

2 Committee details/Contents

3 Calendar

4/5 Calendar in detail - Wednesdays

6 Calendar in detail - Trips/courses

7 Calendar in detail - Other events

8/9 2010 Slalom Courses

10 Slalom unravelled

11 Biblins

12/13 What is happening to our river?

14/15 Reports - The Exe Trip

16 Reports - The Frome Trip

17 Reports - The Work Party

18 Reports - Shepperton Slalom

19 Caption Corner

20 What’s New in Kit?

21 Prizes Go To ...

22 Bits and Pieces

23 Bits and Pieces

Back Coppernose Clip Points

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Calendar 2010


Date Event Standard Contact

April

11 Local River Trip Passport/1 Star Jphn K

14 RIVER SESSIONS START All Pam D

17 Site Specific Training Coaches Rich

18 Sunday Slalom Training All John K

21 ‘Intro to Slalom’ (1)* starts Beginners Andy A

24 Welsh Canoe and Kayak Show All -

24/25 Four Star Assessment Participants Pam D

25 Sunday Slalom Training All John K

28 Passport (1) Start Date Beginners Pam D

30 Friday sessions start at L Farm Adults John K

May

2/3 Loddon Slalom All John K

8/9 Two Star (Day 1 and Day2) Participants Pam D

12 ‘Intermediate Slalom’ * starts All Andy A

15/16 WWSR course Participants Pam D

22 Winchester Slalom All John K

23 Two Star (Day 3) Participants Pam D

29/30 Biblins Weekend All Pam D

June

2 ‘Intro to Slalom’ (2)* starts Beginners Andy A

9 Discover (course) starts Passport paddlers Pam D

13 Set up Langham Farm Slalom All Andy B

* These are new-this-year courses, running on Wednesdays - see P 8 for more information

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Calendar in detail - Wednesday River Sessions


Wednesday sessions - start on April 14th At the Clubhouse in Market Yard, Frome. Cost £2

Sessions provide opportunities for training and for having fun!

How are the sessions are organised?

7pm till 8pm - for younger members and less experienced paddlers 8pm till 9pm - for more experienced paddlers and adults. See next page for the choices of activities you have!

What do I do?

On the door, when you pay, you sign up for the group you are going to join. See next page for all the groups.

You get a coloured bib. Get changed in the changing rooms and then go and collect all the kit

you need. Someone will help you if you are not sure what to choose. Put the bib on top of your buoyancy aid. This helps the instructor for

your group find you. When your instructor is ready, carry your boat carefully down to the

jetty and get in. Remember the steps are steep and sometimes slippery so take great care. Get someone to help with your boat so that you share the load.

What do I need to bring?

£2 entry fee. A change of clothes for the water. You will need warm clothes for the

first few weeks. Some trainers or wetsuit boots. A towel to dry yourself after your shower. If you have a wet suit, bring that. Bring any other canoeing kit that you may have.

Remember you can borrow paddles, spray decks, buoyancy aids etc, etc from the club.

The first few weeks may run to slightly different times because the evenings are shorter. We just have to manage.

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Wednesday River Sessions continued


Wednesday sessions - start on April 14th At the Clubhouse in Market Yard, Frome. Cost £2

There will be some small changes from last year! But lots stays the same!

Passport (7-8pm)

Same

Passport is a course for young beginners to learn the skills of canoeing. Start dates for courses are 28th April and 16th June. Cost £30

Yellow Group (7-8pm)

Same This is for young paddlers who are just starting or those who want to play games. Starting on 14th April and running all through the season.

Discover (7-8pm)

NEW This is for our young paddlers who have achieved Passport and wish to progress to a level of paddling, equivalent to the BCU Two Star. Starting on June 9th, it is a 15 week course and runs for the rest of the season. Cost £45.

Slalom Same Slalom training: groups for young paddlers at 7-8pm and for adults and experienced paddlers at 8-9pm.

Slalom Courses (7-8pm)

NEW In addition to the normal groups (above) we are introducing some discrete coaching courses for beginners, intermediate and advanced paddlers. For more information see P8.

Fun/Polo (8-9pm)

Change This session is changing to have more of a games focus. So lots of games, some chilling and maybe some polo! And we are offering this activity only in the 8-9pm slot.

Adults (8-9pm)

Same A group for adults to learn skills or improve them, without any young people getting in the way.

Taster 7.30-8.30

Same For first-timers to the sport and those wanting to play games.

The ‘old Polo’ now called ’Fun’ group starts on April 28th and runs in the 8-9pm slot only. If you join this group, watch out for some innovative games which Howard will be introducing.

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Calendar in detail


Passport Course Starts Wednesday, 28th April At Market Yard, Wednesdays. Cost £30

Perfect for young beginners, this six-week course teaches you some basic skills, and you have fun at the same time! Equivalent to the One Star it allows you to join some club trips.

You need to sign up for this course which runs on Wednesdays 7-8pm from April 28th.

Discover Course 9th June New this year! For our young paddlers, this course is equivalent to Two Star, and is perfect for you if you have just got your Passport.

It starts on June 9th and runs for 15 weeks at our Wednesday sessions, from 7-8pm. You need to sign up with Pam to get on the course.

Local River Trip 11th April Organiser - John Kent Meet at the Clubhouse, 9am Cost £3

Which river do you fancy? The Frome or the Avon? If it’s the Frome then which section would you like to do? We are open to suggestions and will respond to requests!

We meet at the clubhouse and if we’re doing the Frome, we get changed into canoeing gear, hop into cars and drive to the get-on.

You will need to bring warm clothes, some lunch and any ca-noeing gear you have, or borrow from the club on the morning.

Friday sessions at Langham Farm Start on 30th April 7pm till 9pm Cost £2

The sessions are for adults, but young people can take part as long as there is an instructor on site to take responsibility on the water.

We do not carry great stocks of spare kit there, so if you do want to paddle, and need to borrow club kit ask John in advance (by the Wednesday be-fore) and he will arrange for some kit to be there if possible.

On Fridays, people usually ‘do their own thing’ either slalom training or a gentle paddle down the river. It is an ideal opportunity to just take it easy!

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Calendar in detail - Other events


Loddon Slalom

Two separate races over this bank holiday weekend. Loddon is near Reading and we go for both days camping overnight in a rather basic campsite. The loos are not up to our standard but don’t be put off by that!

You can enter the slalom race on one day only but if you do, you will have to be responsible for your own transport there and back.

Loddon is an easy slalom, just right for beginners and if you have done the first ‘Intro’ course with Andy A (see P8) then you will be ready for this competition. It won’t matter if you haven’t done the course, we will help you to fill in the entry cards, help you choose the best route through the poles in the practice runs and so on.

We leave on Sunday morning and return on Monday afternoon. Pam can do cooking for the Sunday evening meal and Monday breakfast. If you would like to join into that then let her know. Alternatively you can be self sufficient and look after yourself. You will need to bring a tent and other camping stuff.

Site Specific Training - for Club

Coaches and Volunteers Saturday 17th April, 2.30pm. Clubhouse This is to be a short session, 2 hours maximum, for the new Level One Coach-es in the club, but all volunteers are wel-come. It will cover Risk Management, Oper-ating procedures and Safety, for both the Market Yard site and Langham Farm. This training will allow L1 coaches to be able to work independently, but all vol-unteers will benefit! Do come. Everyone is welcome! It’s one of those ‘dry’ cours-es, with no paddling involved!

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2010 SLALOM - Some courses for you !

The tenth biggest slalom club in the country.... and hoping to improve on that in 2010!

We have two ranking slaloms this year, lots of coaching, and a series of mini fun slaloms through the summer to fire up the enthusiasm for our Olympic sport. Here’s what we’re doing! Over the spring and summer paddling season we are going to run three different sorts of courses: Introduction to Slalom, Intermedi-ate Slalom Skills and Advanced Slalom Techniques. Choose the course(s) that are right for you, sign up and get paddling!

A fun introduction to this exciting Olympic sport. This three evening course is designed give you every-thing you need so you can enter your first slalom with confidence. Aimed at 1 star or Passport standard paddlers who have not entered a slalom be-fore, the three sessions will cover everything from paddling slalom gates, the rules, equipment, how to enter an event, and what to expect on the day of your first sla-lom. Largely based on the water this course needs no special equipment, and we'll be paddling a wide variety of boats.

Wednesdays, 7pm-8pm Start dates for courses 21st April 2nd June 30th June

This six week course aims to get you down a slalom course faster, WITHOUT paddling any hard-er. Both water and land based, we'll cover efficient paddling, sla-lom strokes, gate technique and sequences. This course is for paddlers who:

have been on the introduction to slalom course or

are experienced paddlers who have not done any slalom technique before.

The objective is to move you to-wards becoming a ranked Slalom paddler and elusive promotion into the Slalom Divisions.

Wednesdays, 7.30-8.30pm Start date for this 6 week course: 12th May

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2010 SLALOM - continued

So you've already proved you can paddle a slalom course fast, you've got promoted! Now the challenge of this 6 week course is to shave those fractions of the second off your time, while keeping it clean. Aimed at all ranked slalom pad-dlers this course will look at ad-vanced paddling techniques, and concentrate on the wide variety of ways to run a gate sequence, and how to pick the fastest. Alongside paddling we will also cover mental preparation, visualisation, training and course reading tech-niques. Everything you need to prepare for success at the upper levels of competition.

Wednesdays, 7.30-8.30 Start date for this six week course 28th July Pease note: 1. Every session will start on dry

land, with video, skills, theory and simulations. So all parents, family and carers are really encouraged to come along to watch, have a cup of tea, and maybe learn too!

2. All courses are primarily kayak, but canoe paddlers are also re-ally welcome.

Other slalom opportunities Friday evenings at Langham Farm £2 From 30th April, 7-9pm

Come for a relaxing evening paddle, meet up with friends, or beat your mates in informal training sessions round the slalom poles.

Friday sessions are held through May till the beginning of September. They provide an ideal opportunity to train on a different stretch of water. Both John and Andy A will be on tap to give guidance and pointers to improve technique!

These are going to be arranged on Fridays during the season and will good fun, but more important, they will give you an opportunity to have a go in a ‘real’ situation. At Langham Farm, 7pm - 9pm. 11th June 9th July 13th August 10th September

More about these mini competitions later!

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More about SLALOM


The aim of canoe slalom is to run a rapid river course, going through "gates" fast, and without touching. A "gate" is two poles, suspended over the water. You paddle through the green and white gates in a downstream direction, and you paddle through the red and white gates upstream, all going as fast as you can.

Newcomers start in Division 4. When you do well, you get promoted. You build up your skill, and work your way up to bigger water and tougher compe-tition. In Division 4 it won't be too hard - a rush of water from a weir, or mov-ing water in a stream. When you get to Division 1 it will be big and tricky!

This year there are three Division 4 slaloms during the first half of the season in sensible travelling distance: Winchester, Loddon (Reading) and Langham Farm (our own slalom). Starting on the first free Sunday after Easter there will be training sessions to prepare for these races. (See Page 19)

The full early season programme is: Sunday 2nd May River Loddon Race 1. Divisions 3 and 4. Monday 3rd May River Loddon Race 2. Divisions 3 and 4. The Loddon is near Reading. We stay for the two days

and camp in the field next to the course. Saturday 22nd May North Walls Winchester Division 4

and Open. Sunday 13th June Course preparation for Langham

Farm slalom. Saturday 19th June Langham Farm Div 3 and 4. Race 1. Sunday 20th June Langham Farm Div3 and 4. Race 2.

All of these races are particularly suitable for juniors but anyone can take part. If you would like to take part in the training or racing please write your name on the sheets in the clubhouse.

Have you read about the courses on Wednesday evenings at Market Yard on Pages 8 and 9 and the Friday evenings at Langham Farm on Page 6? There will also be some Sunday morning training, 10am till noon: at Market Yard on 8th and 25th April at Langham Farm on 6th June

We’re sorry

about the error in last month’s newsletter

concerning the dates for

Langham Farm Slalom.

These dates are

RIGHT.

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Calendar in detail—BIBLINS


A weekend in the wonderful Forest Of Dean. We camp over Saturday night and we paddle the River Wye on two days. It’s a good trip to join.

This trip is ideal for open boaters and kayakers. We do a longish paddle on Saturday fitting in the seal launch rock with slides and jumps and other mad frolics. And then we spend all Sunday playing on the mighty rapids at the Yat, not to mention swimming with ‘bums-up’ technique, lazing, and generally messing about.

The camp site, in the mid-dle of the Forest of Dean, is called Biblins. It has the river Wye on one side and a wooded hill on the other side

You need to bring a tent or share one with a friend (no mixed sexes though), sleeping bag, and over-night things. There are toilets and showers close by. We pitch the big club marquee so that we can all eat together and if it is raining, at least we can shelter together. Pam sorts out all the food and everyone mucks in together to prepare it and

then do the clearing up afterwards.

We have a campfire on Saturday night and tell

ghost stories to each other in the spooky gloom

of the forest.

This trip is ideal for youth mem-bers. The cost of the weekend is £31 which includes food, transport, campsite fees and paddling on two days.

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Reports - What is happening to our river?


View from the Westway Centre looking across to the

car park and downstream towards the clubhouse.

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The new slalom course continued


SW Slalom Course

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Reports - The Exe


The Exe Trip 28th February

Everyone thought the Exe would be high-to-overflowing because the Frome was running fast and full with all the rain we had had. Images of that Tiverton weekend two years ago, when only the big boys could paddle on the Sunday, were con-jured up in people’s imaginations. But they were all wrong! It was a perfect level and it was going to be exciting today.

The fun started with getting into groups. How do you organise a mass of 28 eager canoeists into three groups? All the ad-vance planning came to nought. So we were on the water and paddling around before the groups were selected. And like a party game it worked!

No one played in Bolham Weir today – we just worried about ferry-gliding across below it, and then getting in the right place for the rapid which was lovely today. However, it did trick Vicky into giving away her pad-dle, ensuring that she went for a swim. So the first points were clocked. Rescue of the paddle seemed an impossibility, but eager-

eyed-John was not going to be beat-en and so he scouted from the bank hoping to locate it, which he did. Then Rich and Arthur did some teamwork, with Rich choosing the easy option of sitting as anchor man and holding Arthur, now tied onto the throw line as he live-baited into the river. He was chest deep and stumbling in the flow when he was able to get a good grip on the pad-dle. Yes it came out, leaving a vital

part, one of the blades, behind. The aluminium shaft had sheared. Ar-thur did manage to pull out the offending blade but it was little use. So Vicky paddled on with Arthur’s splits. We like a prepared instructor don’t we?

On to Worth House Bridge where Kate did some interesting turning strokes and with the assistance of the moving water, ended up going backwards through the left arch. Sur-prise and relief that she had survived were written all over her face!

Salmon Ponds Weir was running to-day and so there was a choice be-tween the long sloping weir face or the salmon steps. However which ever you did, you ended up colliding with 24 other kayaks hanging on for

The hole at Salmon steps was big

today. Sam C didn’t want to play, but his little sister, Lily did! She went for a big ride and then escaped using

the commonly used ‘pull the deck’ technique.

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Reports - The Exe


dear life at the bottom of the steps, hoping that the next boat that came along didn’t push you out into the flow. Which is exactly what hap-pened when the open boats arrived, and then what followed was ‘The Hole’.

It was big today and even Sam didn’t want to play, but his little sister, Lily did. She was well and truly munched! It was impressive and Lily needs congratulating for pulling the deck and escaping very fast! Rich also did a spot of playing here as he was helping Amanda get through. He was munched too and after the second attempt, his roll righted him nicely. Then we had the section be-low which was a pleasure today be-cause there was NO walking here.

Town Weir was lovely and gave op-portunities to some for playing. Oth-ers chose to swim. Louise safely ne-gotiated the big waves, avoided be-ing thrown against the wall and when she thought it was all over... the eddy line caught her unawares.

Walronds was rather washed out and it was here that some cold members left the party, to get dry and warm in Howard’s car, which was waiting halfway through the trip for just this eventuality. The rest had the lovely run on down to Bickleigh,

about three miles of gentle pad-dling because the water was mov-ing nicely. The herons, the kingfish-er and the warm sun shine

Broken Weir didn’t catch anyone today - we all took that little fish run with its defined edges, pre-venting anyone from calamity, ex-cept perhaps the open canoes. Karl’s big open boat couldn’t find the groove and managed to perch sideways across it, on the top of the weir till Karl stepped out and sorted it. Stuart in the Ocoee did slightly better but the look on his face was one of sheer surprise that he had actually managed it!

played here, but not for long. It was time to get out.

Participants and points

Girls: Lily (3) and Vicky (3)

Ladies: Amanda (6), Kate (6), Louise (3) and Pam

Boys: Ben N (3), Jack, Max, Michael, Oscar, Richard N (3), Rowan and Sam (1)

Men: Andy A, Andy B, Arthur, Howard, James H (8), Jon-athan, John, Karl (3), Mark, Matt N, Rich C (1) Richard H, Stuart and Tim.

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Reports - The Frome Trip


Participants and points

Girls: Ellie (2), Isi, and Lia

Ladies: Emma, Julie (3), Sam N

Boys: Alex, Ben M, Ben N, James E, Kieran, Rowan and William E

Men: Alun, Andy A, Andy B (6), Andrew L, James H, James S, Jonathan, John, Julian, Justin, Neil E, Peter (3), Rich C, Richard H, Steve, and Stuart (3)

Also paddling today were Ranulph, Ed and Hugo, three from Emma’s school.

To create a river trip... Take the following ingredients: 32 paddlers Four open boats A jumble of kayaks A mix of young people And a few sensible adults (do we have any of those?)

Mix as follows:

Add the water to the river till the weirs are an interesting level.

Ensure that you have prepared the obstructions across the river to catch out the unsuspecting.

Get the paddlers to the river and ex-pose to bitter winds while the shuttle is under-way. Ignore advice about warm ups.

As soon as you get to the first weir disembark and climb down the weir face.

From time to time, check the pad-dlers are all together and at the right temperature.

Encourage swimming: Andy and Julie at Beckington Weir, Andy at Rode Weir, Peter also at Rode, and Stuart at Shawford Weir.

Remember that front end pins are not pleasant and Ellie needs help at Woolverton.

When the time is up, arrive at Langham Farm and remove all pad-dlers from the water.

Finally decorate the finished prod-uct with smiles and happy faces!

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Reports - The Work Party


and George set to with the back breaking task of clearing the jetty. George then went on to wield the

drill in the boat store.... Not sure what he was doing? And shown below, is Rowan using the pressure hose to remove the graffiti from the bricks. He did a good job, and this

was after he had also done a serious bout of sanding the store door. And we had three hard workers checking hel-mets: Bee, Philippa and India. And so

the work party progressed. But what were the grown ups doing? Well they drunk tea and ...

No they helped too!

See page 21 for more about today.

Who’s doing all the work? It was a beautiful day with lots of will-ing helpers. Sam got stuck in as soon as he arrived, sanding the store door in preparation for varnishing. Alex and

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Reports - Shepperton Slalom


Shepperton: a Div 2 slalom.

After arriving in Guildford at about 6pm Friday evening Lorraine, Lia and Julie were dropped off at the pub round the corner from the B&B. Jack and I wanted to view Shepperton weir and eventually got there at 7 pm when it was fully dark because the sat nav battery was flat. So it was my fault that we could see very little, but we did see that the weir had two gates open and looked rather challenging. We left feeling quite excited and slightly apprehensive. On Saturday morning we knew we had to leave the B&B promptly to get Jack registered for a judges run. Julie was more interested in bar-gaining for a sofa that was for sale as the B&B was closing down. The deal was done with 45 minutes left to get to Shepperton providing we didn't get lost or stuck in traffic. We arrived at 9.20 am after a faultless navigation, and Jack with Lorraine's help, got to reception in time.

To summarise the day: there were many division 2 swimmers and oth-er

left right and centre but not Jack. He did really well surfing the

large wave to cross the main chute on both runs. I think he learnt a lot

We both agreed that we would have to come back next year and Jack would give it another shot hopefully this time he would be in Division 2.

Alun leads Safeguarding meeting for volunteers This was the first of its kind in the club. Alun had attended a training course on Safeguarding and he offered to disseminate the infor-mation to volunteers. It was bril-liant.

Our new Level 1s and a few others turned up and went through all the issues. Action packed, with activity after activity and loads of discus-sion, Alun explored all the issues with us. It was a really worthwhile evening and got people thinking. Everyone came away with a better understanding of the issues.

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Caption Corner plus


Slalom Training Sundays, 18th + 25th April Organiser - John Kent At Market Yard Cost £2

Get ready for Loddon! A morning training for slalom un-der the watchful eye of John Kent .

Don’t forget we’re aiming for more medals that last year.

I can’t do this. I

only just started

yesterday!

I am determined

to win a gurning

championship!

Oops...Upside-down your head, I said. Oops... Upside down your head!

(Rich in rap mode!)

Who put those spikes there?

Can anyone

see two small

boys? I told

them it was

all right!

If you have another caption or this photo, send it in to [email protected]

Caption Corner .. Caption Corner ..

LIGHT RELIEF ! We recently had a new neighbour who called the Highways Department to re-quest the removal of the DEER CROSSING sign on our road. The reason they said: 'Too many deer are being hit by cars out here! I don't think this is a good place for them to be crossing anymore.'

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What’s New in Kit?

This is that section again that explain all the new kit out there to look for when you’re next at the shops. It will include all those new expensive toys plus those little ‘treat yourself’ ones.

To kick off, the new Adventure Technology paddles. These paddles have been around for a while but have recently become more popu-lar and noticed since joining with Palm as the UK distributor. I have seen a pair of these and I have to say they took my fancy. They only come in one colour, the red shown here and really stand out. They only come in cranks, this shows they really mean business. One thing I did notice was that they had a resin tip all the way around the blade which helps protect them on the rocks.

Canoe and Kayak a few months back. At first I wondered what on earth do you use this for. After reading up on I found out, and it went something like this: “Ever found sweep-ing round a slalom pole, the back dig-ging in on the turn then all of a sudden the front swings round and hits the opposite pole”. So I thought well it kind of makes sense then, having a really short front. Made by Vajda, still in its prototype stages hence why being made of plastic, it will be around next year in a lighter carbon fibre model.

All your paddling needs can be fulfilled at the Family Adventure Store in Hilperton, or visit them at www.familyadventurestore.co.uk. All FCC members will get a discount on presentation of their membership card.

http://www.familyadventurestore.co.uk

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The entries for The Best Dressed Award were Sam C and James M for their appear-ances in the fetching soft blue, silky number seen on the right here. Sam wins the prize because he worked with the hood up, displaying the outfit to the full.

Jonathan comes away with the

Highest Achiever Trophy for his work on the gutters which I understand were particularly smelly today.

And the winner of the Do-As-Little-As-Possible Cup is Rich who never

seemed to be doing anything. Ok I lied he did do something—he walked around, sometimes with a clipboard in hand!

Prizes Go To …..

And Ben here, just looked real cool in his new gear.

A big THANK YOU must go to all the work party participants: Sam C, James M, Bee, Philippa, India, Jane, George, Gareth, Hazel, Tim, Rowan and Andy, Richard H, Dave B, Peter B, Jonathan, Alex, Ben, Pe-ter N, Sam N, Pam, Andrew John and Rich.

A job well done today!

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Bits and Pieces


Advance Planning - Dates for your Diary

Biblins - 29/30th May A camping and paddling weekend in the Forest of Dean. Fully catered. River trips on both days.

Langham Farm Slalom - 19/20th June Two days of slalom competition when you can compete in a National Slalom on home ground. We also need lots of help to organise this weekend!

Market Yard Slalom - 18th July A one-day event, Div 4/Open. Ideal for newcomers to the sport.

Surfing weekend - 14/15th August A relaxing weekend of surf, sand and sun. A self catering camping weekend.

Barbeque - 29th August A day at Langham Farm where we cook a feast and a half. We paddle too!

Moving Water Training - 9/10th October Tiverton weekend. Learn how to paddle on moving water. Fully catered.

More Moving Water Training - 6/7th November The Dart weekend. Fully catered again with coaching on both days.

Another two for you to guess No clues for you this

month!

Entries to Pam by 25th April and first pulled out of the hat wins a box of chocs!

This is your last chance to enter the photograph competition. Next month sees a new series: mini-interviews with members.

23

Bits and Pieces


Courses 2010

Full details are now available in the new leaflet. Also on the website. In brief:

Passport £30 An introductory 6 week course for under 14s. Wednesdays 7-8pm. Start dates - 28 April and 16 June.

Discover £45 This follows on from the Passport course. 15 weeks and designed for under-14s. Wednesdays 7– 8pm. Start date 9 June

One Star £35 An introductory course in a weekend, for over 14s. 3/4 July 21/22 August

Two Star £50 A course over three days. 8/9 May and 23 May 4/5 Sept and 12 Sept

Three Star White Water £60 A course over three days. 10/11 July and 24 October

Canoe Safety (FSRT) £30 10/11 July

Aquatic First Aid £25 An 8 hour course: 25 July

Last year’s Passport Paddlers Look Here!

If you were one of those people who did the Pass-port Course last year and didn’t quite finish it, then come to the first two Wednesday sessions this year and finish it off with Sara! No extra charge.

Pool Sessions - have stopped now!

Well we have come to the end of another season of pool sessions. We have had some brilliant sessions this year and the earlier hour has made the sessions far more popu-lar. It has been good seeing so many mem-bers there.

I hope you have all have enjoyed the ses-sions. Let us know your views, good or bad. It helps us to make improvements!

I look forward to seeing you all out on the real water, in the fresh air, the cold and the rain, as we move onto the River Frome on Wednesday club nights. Ah, we love the rain don’t we? These start on 14th April, 7-9pm.

Last but not least, I would like to say a big thank you to the dedicated band of coach-es and supervisors who have given up their chance to be in the water each night and have instead kept the pool safe and organ-ised. And so to Sam C, Alex, Jack, Howard, Andy A, Stuart, Gareth, John, Julie, Arthur and Rich, THANK YOU - Pam.

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www.frome-canoe-club.org.uk

CONTACTS Chairman: Andy Bell 01373 468030 Vice Chair: Rich Carter 01373 864623 Treasurer: John Kent 01225 765168 [email protected] Secretary: Pam Dixon 01373 473836 [email protected] Youth Reps: Julie Middleton 01225 351188 Alex Nicol: alexjamesnicol@google mail.com

Gareth McGiveron 15

Amanda Reeves 12 James Hannan 11 Kate Johnson 9 Bill Fryer 9 Alex Nicol 9

Hazel Cottle 9 Stuart Miles 8 Dave Bloodworth 7 Arthur Belbin 7 Andy Bell 6 Joe Gregory 6 Lily Charlesworth 5 Michael Topp 5 George McGiveron 4 Ellie Howell 4 Louise Bastable 3 Richard Norman 3 Karl Waldeck 3 Vicky Bennett 3

Sam Charlesworth 3 Ben Nicol 3 Pam Dixon 3 Jack Hobbs 3 Jonathan Howell 3 Steve Scammell 3 Peter Nicol 3 Emma Spurling 3 Julie Middleton 3 Andy Lyall 2 Rich Carter 1 Mark Baines 1 Tim Cottle 1

COPPERNOSE CLIP POINTS

Canoeing and kayaking are “Assumed risk” – “Water contact sports” that may carry attendant risks. Participants should be aware of and accept these risks, and be responsible for their own action and involvement.

Get all your canoeing

things from the Family

Adventure Store at

Hilperton. BA14 7PJ

Check out the photos of club events or put a comment on the message board!

Attention Club Mark clubs (that’s us!) This year, for the first time, the Sainsbury’s Active Kids scheme has been made available to Clubmark Accredited clubs.

From now till 8 June 2010 Sainsbury’s shop-pers can earn Active Kids vouchers which can be donated to clubs to redeem against any of the products featured in

the Active Kids Catalogue.

So come on everyone, get collecting!

2010 04 newsletter

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