2011 03 newsletter

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Volume 35 Issue 3 ~ March 2011

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

Usk Trip

A magnificent total of 55 points was racked up on Sunday’s Usk trip.

Was everyone swimming?

By all accounts the chivalrous behaviour we expect from the open boaters was a bit lacking today. For full details of this and more, we will have to wait for the next Newsletter. But the points chart on back page does include all the swims and rescues of this trip!

River Trip - 13thMarch

All Change! See the new plans on P4

River Exe Trip: surfing at Worth House bridge. For full report see Page 9.

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FCC ‘THROWLINE ’ CLUB MAGAZINE

COPY DATE FOR THE NEXT ISSUE 27th March Please send items 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

Debbie Ashdown

Howard Charlesworth

Sam Charlesworth

Mandy James

Alun Jones

Gareth McGiveron

Karl Waldeck

Sara Withall

Jack Smiles (Youth rep)

Kit Officer

Tim Smiles

in this issue

Page

Committee details/Contents 2

Calendar in brief 3

Details - Barle trip 4

Details - Tavy trip 4

Details - Frome trip 5

Details - Easter Egg Hunt 5

Details - Come and Try It 6

Pool sessions 7

Monthly sessions 8

Report - The Barle 9/10

Report - The AGM 11

Special from Pip 12

Open canoe tour 13

Slalom Plans for 2011 14

Photo Competition 15

Courses 16

Diary Dates 16

Paddlepower Challenge 17

Bits and Pieces 18/19

Coppernose points 20

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Calendar 2011

Date Event Standard Contact

March

13 River Barle 1 Star + Rich C

13 River Tavy 2 Star + Alun J

27 COME and TRY IT - Slalom All John K

27 Sunday Morning Paddle All Rich C

30 DVD Wednesday All Pam D

April

2 North Walls Slalom, Div 4/O All John K

8 LAST POOL SESSION All Pam D

10 River Frome Passport or 1 Star John K

9-16 Scotland trip 4 Star + Pam D

20 FIRST WEDNESDAY SESSION All Pam D

24 Easter Egg Hunt All Rich C

29 Langham Farm sessions start Adults John

May

1 Sunday slalom training All John K

4 Discover course starts Passport Pam D

8 Sunday slalom training All John K

8 River Frome Passport or 1 Star tbc

11 Passport course starts Beginners Pam D


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All Change - river trips


River Barle 13th March Meet at the Clubhouse, 8am Cost £13 Organiser - Rich Carter

The 13th March trip has had a few changes. First it was the Frome trip. Then it changed to Exe trip. And now it is the Barle trip. (All these changes because we can-celled trips in December and then we did the Exe last month when there was no water in the Barle.) Hope you can follow all that!

Notice we have two river trips on today and if you need help choos-ing which river to paddle, then ask advice from Rich, John, or Arthur.

The Barle is a grade 2 river with rapids and play spots all the way down and no big drops anywhere. We start at Tarr Steps and finish 7 miles later at Dulverton.

As always you need a good supply of warm clothing and food.

A lovely river in beautiful country-side. A true winner!

River Tavy 13th March Meet at the Clubhouse, 8am Cost £13 Organiser - Alun Jones

We lost our Tavy trip in December because of the bad weather so here is our cunning plan to re-instate it. We’re putting it on the same day and the Barle.

Choose the Tavy if you want some

It’s a longer drive there and back, so we get home later at the end of the day. But worth it.

We start in the centre of Tavistock and paddle out of the town with some easy rapids and then on through woodland and away from civilisation. About 6 miles long, it is similar in difficulty to the Loop but much less crowded.

Rapids, ledges, stoppers, waves to surf what more could anyone want?

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Calendar in detail - river trips


Grand Easter Egg Hunt 24th April - Easter Sunday At Langham Farm 10am till noon Cost £2 Organiser: Rich Carter

Come paddling and have some fun searching for Easter Eggs, all from your kayak or canoe. Please note that paddlers should bring their own boats and equip-ment and make their way direct to site between the stated times. We will not meet at Market Yard for this special session. If you need a boat or kit please either add it to the list when you sign up, or email me (see back page for details) well in advance and we will try to have it available for you. MUMS, DADS and families: come and join in. You can take an open canoe between you. This event is open to all our members, families and friends.

River Frome 10th April Meet at the Clubhouse, 9am Cost £3 Organiser - John Kent We’re doing a slightly different sec-tion today! Woolverton to Iford. From Woolverton we paddle to Langham Farm and then on to waters beyond. It’s a long time since we did this stretch so many of us paddling today won’t be fa-miliar with it. But it has flat bits and weirs just like the stretch we often do!

The beauty of this trip is that it takes in the Zoom Flume, which is like a long slide with a big wave at the bottom. Very exciting!

Then there are three more weirs after this, Snarlton, Farleigh and Iford.

This paddle is about 7 miles, so be sure to bring a good lunch to keep energy levels up.

It will be great to do a different section.

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Calendar in detail - slalom


COME AND TRY THE NEW SLALOM BOATS Sunday 27th March At the Clubhouse 10am till noon Cost £2 John and Andrew will be there to show you the ropes (sorry - the

poles) and how to get round them in the fastest possible time.

And before you actually get on the water you can have some help to choose the boat that fits you best: we have so many different sizes, there will definitely be one!

You can have a go in a kayak or in a C1, or why not try a C2 with a friend? (Don’t know what C1 and C2 are? Come and find out!)

Come on everyone - have a bit of fun today! Try out the new slalom boats.

Youth members: LOOK OUT for a new slalom

training programme on Wednesdays, designed for Passport Paddlers. More details on page 17.

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Calendar in detail - club sessions


Remember - POOL SESSIONS ARE FOR KAYAKING

So the repeated and deliberate sinking of boats is not encouraged.

Apart from anything else, it puts people’s backs at risk when they empty the boats. Flooded boats are very heavy.

Pool Sessions - Fridays, 8-9pm Frome Sports Centre £2.50 youth £3 adults

Turn up at 7.45 to the foyer of Frome Sports Centre to choose your paddling slot.

There will be three sessions and you choose which session you would like to paddle in:

8 - 8.20pm Orange bands

8.20 - 8.40pm Blue bands

8.40 - 9pm Green bands

If you bring your kayak, make sure it is dead clean!

The instructor (in a green t-shirt) is there for advice about how to improve your paddling skills. Just go up to him/her and ask for help.

The supervisor wears a yellow t-shirt. He will help you sort out a boat etc. .

POOL SESSIONS RUN ALL TRHOUGH MARCH. LAST SESSION IS 8th APRIL

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Calendar in detail - monthly sessions

Sunday Morning Paddle Once a month Last Sunday in the month 27th March is the next one

At the Clubhouse 10am-noon Cost £2

Two things are happening today: the Sunday morning paddle and the Slalom Come-and-try-it. Both at Market Yard. You can do either or both!

This session will be the last monthly Sunday paddle. April sees an Easter Egg Hunt at Lang-ham Farm.

DVD night with a DIFFERENCE

Last Wednesday in the month

30th March At the Clubhouse 7-9pm

On the last Wednesday of every month, we meet at the Clubhouse for a DVD night. 30th March will be our last one because Club sessions start again in April. And in this last session, we are going to be seeing something quite different!

Be prepared to be taken through the History of the Club with some photos from Graham’s archives.

Should be good! Tea, coffee etc available from 7pm. Picture show starts 7.30


Manoeuvre of the Month

Tim C sets off shop alarms as he leaves Go-Outdoors.

Tim had been shopping for a baby carrier for Megan and for no reason at all, the alarms went off as he left. Well that’s what he and Hazel say! We say they should have been shopping for a buoyancy aid. You can’t start too early in this canoeing malarkey, you know.

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Reports - River Exe


The Barle becomes the Exe

13th February

We were at Glastonbury en route to the river, when what should we see but a very familiar car, four boats aloft, driving the wrong way. Umm. Has the River Exe changed and we didn’t know? Some frantic telephone communications revealed that the River Exe is still where it has always been but that Mark’s car was suffer-ing from some ‘banging’ noises, prob-ably of prop shaft origin, and so they were heading back to Frome to pick up Arthur’s fuel injected rocket to start all over again. Oh well we thought, Arthur misses out on the big breakfast at the Services. What a shame – it was a lovely breakfast too. Sorry you missed it Arthur!

So the Exe it was to be today, not the Barle because, in spite of the rain, the Barle was still too low, whereas the Exe was perfect. Bolham weir saw a few sitting in the oh-so-sweet, stop-per, but sticky too. And then we were treated to our first swim of the day.

To start with, all we could see were legs upright in the air, head in the water, boat upturned and charging down the rapid. Who was it? Ah yes, Jane! Then Hilary decided to show off and do the rapid in reverse. She

survived, having persuaded herself that panicking wouldn’t be any good and any attempts to turn around would be catastrophic.

Rich was testing some Three Star paddlers today so that left John and Arthur in charge. It was John’s idea to run Salmon Steps from the top, right down to the road bridge in one long hit. The implication of this being that no one mentioned the hole at the bottom of the steps and so the unsuspecting paddler just went on through. Well that was the theory. Good plan John! But we did have one swimmer: Jane demonstrated a wet exit just after the hole.

Bex joined us from Exeter, showing off her brand new limited-edition-colour Trigger, all glossy and spar-kling. Having shown that she could paddle the little boat superbly, she had an interesting moment at Bro-ken weir towards the end of the day. Hanging on to branches below the weir, both hands firmly grip-ping the trees, (oh no, shouldn’t be doing that), paddle abandoned and then Hilary, bless her, cannoned right into Bex shifting her from her unstable position, into the flow, an even more precarious situation. Luckily for her, Jonathan picked up the paddles and returned them

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Reports - River Exe continued


before any swimming happened.

The two open boats were polite today, not charging into any kayaks. Karl and Veronica in the Reflection said it was just right for white water, a ‘dream boat’, they said. But it was Stu in the yellow Ocoee (banana boat) who did all the dreaming today. Well that’s what it looked like.

It was a lovely day. The fierce winds abated; the rain eased off, only re-turning at the end so we had the pleasure of changing in the wet. And the wildlife didn’t let us down either. Carpets of pure white snowdrops under the trees, and buds on willows and hazels just waiting to burst. Several kingfishers were playing in front of us along the flat section from the town to Bickleigh and we fol-lowed two Cormorants, or were they Shags? Alun said they were Shags and Arthur who is the resident expert concurred.

And at the end we had a wonderful play in the waves and stopper below

Bickleigh weir. Actually all the play spots were brilliant today.

Back at the clubhouse we had a big debate about Hilary’s technical res-cue which was allegedly all Mark’s fault. But we never really did get to the bottom of it.

And the last comment is ‘Should Josh get his Three Star when he forgot his lunch and had to depend on hand outs from others?’ We thought that Three Star paddlers took care of themselves?

Paddlers and points

Girls: Ellie H (3), Isi M (2) and Lia H.

Boys: Jack H and Josh M.

Ladies: Becki F, Bex T (2), Hilary P (2), Jane T (6), Kate J, Mandy J (3), Pam D and Veronica F.

Men: Alun J, Arthur B, Chris H (3), Dave B, James M, John K, Jonathan H, Karl W, Mark B, Peter B, Peter T, Rich C and Stuart M.

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Reports - the AGM

Standing (L to R): Karl, Debbie, Howard, Gareth, Sam, Andy, Jack, Alun. Kneeling (L to R): Mandy, John, Pam, Rich. Missing from picture is Sara!

A very positive meeting where we heard the good news that we are still afloat. John obviously had cooked the books .... and Pam had fiddled the stats to get a ladies takeover ...

On a more serious note: We had a good turn out of club members, a record fast meeting, going through the reports and questions in just one hour. With no Arthur there to challenge John’s figures, we blasted though, leaving people with more drinking/chatting time.

The Chairman did an overview of the year. We looked at our plans for 2010 and agreed that we had hit every target. The Treasurer’s report concluded with the fact that we had had a high turn over, using loads of money to buy kit, but we were still in the black. The Secretary reported on all our successes. And the President said a few general words of encouragement. A good meeting.

Ed - Anyone wanting to read the minutes or look at the finances, you can find them on the notice board in the meeting room.

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Work Party follow-up: from Pip


Just seen the Container Work Party images (look on the FCC website: Work Party 9th Jan) and it bought several thoughts to my mind....

1. I see the club is totally in line with 'Equal Rights' having a lady in charge of the concrete mixing.

2. However I see that the club still uses 'child labour'.

3. Gareth should have been a 'Dumper Driver' as the things he does with his van is amazing.

4. I see Stuart doesn't do a lot, just looking through his telescope at the stars.

5. I am puzzled by the very small size of the boxes that were built for the raised gardens.

6. It appears that Rich is leaning on a wall, doing what Rich is al-ways doing ... eating breakfast.

7. In the last image ... who trusted Pam with hammer and nails, or was she just building a wooden canoe for fun?

Oh well it all looked like something was going on, and on my next visit to Frome I might be lucky to see that this container has multiplied. Well done to all.

Ed - it has! Here it is! All levelled and waiting for new boats! As for ‘Child labour’ - we do only use the best!

I ran the lower middle section of the Loop the other day... low water, lots of bumps and a weir with just a trickle over it. Oh never mind, the summer is coming and that means more boating on the sea.

Cheers to all, Pip.

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Open Canoe tour


Open Canoe Tour June 10th - June 12th

A relaxing meander through the beautiful countryside and camping in the wilderness . . .

Are you interested in paddling a self supported trip from Hereford to Lydbrook in open boats?

The trip would take three days paddling and three nights camping

So we start on Thursday 10th June evening with the drive up to Hereford have a hearty meal and camp. Paddle Friday to Hoarwithy and camp, then Saturday paddle down to Ross On Wye and camp. Then on to Lydbrook on the Sunday, shuttle and home.

All three days paddling are gentle 4 – 5 hour paddles. The camp sites are family friendly and close to pleasant hostelries with a fine selection of ales, wines and vitals.

In order to plan the logistics we need to know numbers so please let Howard know. Further details will be available later.

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SLALOM NEWS


SLALOM: what IS happening this year? ...

John our slalom coach has organised a full programme for 2011.

A Come and Try It session 27th March At the clubhouse , 10am till noon An opportunity to have a go in the new boats. Or perhaps to get revitalised before training starts in earnest on Sundays.

Sunday Morning trainings Starting on May 1st At the Clubhouse 1st May till 29th May excluding May 22nd

9.45 - 11am Youth members 11am - 12.45 Adults

Langham Farm Slalom 4th/5th June A Division 3/4 event: good for beginners.

Wednesday training Normal Wednesday sessions start on April 20th and the weekly slalom training resumes then. 7-8pm for youth/beginners, 8-9pm for adults/experienced.

PASSPORT TO SLALOM A new 4 week programme specially for Passport paddlers. Start dates are 11th May and 22nd June. (See Page 17)

Fun Mini Slaloms The popular events run at Langham Farm by Andy A last year are to be repeated. Look out for details in next month’s newsletter.

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Inspired by the successes of Alex and Vicky who entered the BCU photo competition, AND got their pictures in the BCU magazine (see left and below), we are going to hold our own photo competition.

Send in your pictures, which should have a connection to canoeing, by email to Pam.

Include details of where the picture was taken, your age if a youth member and your title for it.

Ed: Congratulations you two for getting photos in Canoe Focus. Alex won a prize too!

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Courses plus other dates


Courses for YOUNG PEOPLE Passport £30 An introductory 7 week course for the under 14s. Wednesdays, 7-8pm. Start date - 11th May

Discover £45 This follows on from the Passport course. 12 weeks and designed for under-14s. Wednesdays 7– 8.30pm. Start date - 4th May

Passport to Slalom A 4 week training programme Start dates - 11th May, 22nd June More information on next page

Courses for OVER-16s One Star £35 An introductory course in a weekend. 21st/22nd May OR 9th/10th July

Two Star £50 Choose either the 6 week evening course or the 3 day one. Tuesday evenings 17th May - 21nd June Journey 12th June A course over three days. 3rd/4th Sept and 11th Sept

Canoe Safety (FSRT) £30 A one day training: 18thJune

Aquatic First Aid £25 An 8 hour course: 19th June

Advance notice about some significant dates

Easter Egg Hunt 24th April (Easter Sunday). See page 5 for more details.

Langham Farm Slalom 4th/5th June. Great for beginners!

Biblins 25/26th June. This is a fully catered, camping and paddling weekend. We get to paddle the River Wye on two days.

Market Yard Slalom 17th July. Based at the clubhouse this time.

Summer Barbeque 7th August. And do we want another cardboard chal-lenge? Or something different? Give us your ideas!

August Surfing weekend 27-29th August. Bank holiday weekend so that we can have three days.

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Young members


If you did a Passport course last year . . . look here!

Do you fancy taking part in four weeks of slalom training, building on the skills you learned in Passport? This training programme will prepare you for one of our slaloms later in the year. Training starts 11th May on Wednesdays, from 7-8pm. Cost: Just the normal session charge. Sign up for this 4-week training on the sheets or by letting Pam know. Limited to six members - so sign up for this quickly!

What do we fancy?

Something for Market Yard ?

Floating polo goals 1600 tokens

For the clubhouse?

Table football 6000 tokens

Rowing Machine 16,000 tokens

For Biblins and surfing weekend?

Volley ball set ` 8000 tokens

Baseball set Not sure !

Anything else?

Hazel, who sorted it all out for us last year, has agreed to do it again this year. I don’t think her arm is too sore from the twisting it got... No seriously - she offered quite willingly! Bring all your vouchers to any club session.

GET COLLECTING EVERYONE

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Membership Prices, 2011

Youth £16.50 Adult £26.50 Family £42

Thank you Ben and Isi, for helping with the building work in the upstairs room.

Ben and Isi gave up valuable ‘facebook’ time one weekend in Feb-ruary to help with the wiring in the

upstairs room at the clubhouse. They did the very arduous jobs of electrician’s mate and carpenter’s mate.

However on the bright side, with their help, we re-vamped our ideas for upstairs and will be installing PS3 capacity, in one of the corners. Or Xbox.

Bits and Pieces

CALLING ALL PARENTS HELP IS NEEDED

WEDNESDAY CLUB SESSIONS

We need volunteers to help ‘man’ the store and give out kit to new members. No previous experience is needed - we will show you every-thing you need to know! Can you give up one Wednesday a month (or more) to be in a rota of volunteers? Email Pam if you want to know more. [email protected]

WANTED: BRICKLAYER

We would like to hear from you if you can lay bricks and would be able to do some work for us in the clubhouse (to be precise: cut a doorway

in a wall!)

Contact Rich

[email protected]

Have you seen the club message board? Why not put a comment on, or start a new tread thread?

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Bits and Pieces

KIT OFFICER

A new kit officer for us. Tim Smiles.

Thank you Tim.

Coaches’ Meeting - 23rd March Wednesday evening 7-9pm, Clubhouse

Coaching Two Star strokes and more . .

Rich will be leading this session and it will be 100% practical. But be reassured, you won’t get wet: it’s all in the comfort and warmth of the clubhouse.

Coaches (and would-be coaches) are all welcome. We’ll also try to answer any of your questions and we’ll cover other aspects like games to use, how to give feedback and more.

A Noggin’ night

No not egg nogs. So what are noggings? Well they are ‘wooden lateral supports to vertical timbers’. Makes sense? Don’t worry! You’ll see when you come to help.

We’re having a work party to attack the noggins needed in the upstairs room in the clubhouse. We need help with measuring, cutting wood, nailing in and so on. No need to bring tools - we will have everything needed to do this job.

Wednesday 9th March, 7-9pm at the

2011 Courses Full details are now available in the new leaflet and on the website. But see also page 16 for summary.

Graham’s Slide Show Travel through time as we look back to the 1980s/1990s with Graham’s photos of the club.

30th March At the clubhouse 7-9pm

NOT TO BE MISSED

CONGRATULATIONS to:

Dave Bloodworth, Jack Hobbs, Josh

Martin and Ben Nicol who recently

completed the moving water bits of the

three Star White Water Kayak course.

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www.frome-canoe-club.org.uk

CONTACTS Chairman: Andy Bell 07966 203309 Vice Chair: Rich Carter 01373 864623 [email protected] Treasurer: John Kent 01225 765168 [email protected] Secretary: Pam Dixon 01373 473836 [email protected] Youth Voice: Jack Smiles [email protected]

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!

COPPER NOSE CLIP POINTS

1 point for a capsize and roll up 2 points for a technical rescue (ie you would have swum without help) 3 points for a SWIM

Miles Benjafield 17 Becki Fryer 12

Jane Thomas 12 Ian Jones 9 Chris Harvey 9

Veronica Francis 8 Jaz Shillabeer 6

Jon Cox 6 Ellie Howell 6

Karl Waldeck 6 Joe Gregory 5 Mandy James 5

Bex Tanti 5 Stuart Miles 5

Ben Lemon 3 Alan Carpenter 3

Ben Miles 3 Jonathan Howell 3

Nadine Robson 3 Mike Bullen 3 Arthur Belbin 2

Isi Miles 2

Hilary Pound 2 Kurt Doel 2

Alex Nicol 1 Matt Norman 1

George McGiveron 1

Carl Gilder 1

2011 03 newsletter

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