During the day we offered paddle sport taster sessions, either in canoe, kayak or SUP. Over the day we had 110 visitors on the water. These were family, friends, people from the surrounding area and it was great to see a few from other clubs.

This year we ran this event in conjunction with Hinckley District Dcouts, who used the lake for the annual raft race.

Other attractions on the day included an ergo machine competition, We had three prize winners, the main prize being a £20 voucher for Stanton restaurant (kindly donated by Stanton Lakes) we also had face painting, bouncy castle and most importantly a buttie bar to keep everyone happy.

Hopefully the Day promoted HCC as a club, Stanton lakes as a great venue and introduced lots of people to the world of paddle sport.

Check out the clubs Facebook page for lots more pictures from the day

I’d like to say a big thank you to all the members that put a lot of time and work in, on and off the water, during the day and leading up to the event.

David Clarke

We split into two teams, the tall on painting and the short on decking, and cracked on.

The painting team seemed to be flying and before long were well on the way.

The main event of the day though was breakfast, with bacon and egg banjos being expertly cooked by Dave Clarke with the help of Noah. They were delicious.

Not sure what happened to this one though.

Noah was a great help during the day, he did all the fetching and carrying for the decking crew, even though he still only had the use of one arm.
He also made quite a good job of taking the mickie out of his Grandad

 

 
 
 
 
By the time we were finished everything looked great.

Neil did a great job on the seal launch, although we have since removed the blue plastic as it stood out a bit, evenvfrom the bar!

It didn’t work anyway lol

 
Thanks everyone that helped, its really appreciated.
Phil

Our first venture into the river was to gain confidence and experience moving around in the current on slippery rocks. This made you realise how easy it could be to trap your feet even in shallow water. Then onto defensive and offensive swimming in current and how to cross into eddies. This gave you confidence for what was to come through the day.

Next how to use a throw line trying different lengths and bags and how to retrieve the line and throw again if you missed the first time. A lot of lines went higher in the air than across the river to start with but slowly we all found our preferred method of throw. Now the big test one person in water one throwing. Getting your line in the correct place to rescue a swimmer is difficult,but as they say practise makes perfect (well almost). We then moved on to reading the features on a river.

This was a new experience for me and probably a few more also but very informative. A chance then to try swimming in some of these features to gain more confidence as they do look quite daunting for the first time.After lunch how to rescue pinned boats using lines and simple to tie knots.

Followed by how to cross a river in twos,threes and fours. Then using lines to across the the river. A quick swim/ float down river through a weir onto learning how to defend yourself when passive swimming using your feet.

A lot to remember but a brilliant day and great confidence booster.Many thanks to Alister for making this a fun and informative day which if you haven’t been on is a must.

Thanks also to Alice, Kat, Neil, Dave, Ross, Mark, Martin, Micheal, Hayley, Dale, Dave and not forgetting Phil for the transport.

Great way to meet club members and have a fun day.

We had Canoe, Kayak and stand-up paddle board “go canoeing” come and try it sessions. These were fully booked up all day with over 130 visitors on the water, some of them more than once.

It was great to see lots of new faces, some old members and friends from other clubs come and join us. Canoe kayak Trader bought some demo boats down for everyone to try out. We also had a raft race with three teams entering, two HCC teams and a team from National grid (team Jonny)

Off the water there was a circus skill workshop with juggling, tight rope walking, unicycling and lots of other things going on, the Ergo machine competition was very popular with some very quick times from everyone. Well done to Stuart Duncombe for winning the £20 Stanton restaurant voucher. The kids loved the face painting and everyone loved the amazing freestyle jet ski demos.

A big thank you to the team at Stanton, Steve Burrows (circus skills and raft race), Keith Wraight(SUP), Kieran and Callum(Canoe Kayak Trader),the jet ski guys, Jack Ford(Canoe England) and obviously all the HCC helpers on and off the water for all your hard work before and on the day. I think we should be very proud of ourselves as a club for making the day such a massive success.

Dave Clarke

Most improved Junior female
Row Bashforth

Most improved Junior Male
Joe Cooksey

Most improved adult
Martin Catell

Most enthusiastic family
The Bashforths

Golden Paddle
Penny Spooner

Mick Smith award for endeavour
Hayley Clarke

HCC Rubber Duck award
Rob Harrison

Runner up Rubber Duck award
Dave Garland

For consistent swimming
Martin Walker

For leaving the bouyancy aid in the car shuttle
Chris Moore

Super snorer
Rob Harrison

Dry boat award
Jonny Bennett

Most acrobatic entry into an open boat
Dale Clarke

For losing 2 paddles in one trip
Dave Walker

Supermodel award
Stuart Ritchie
 

Jackfield Rapids Funday

What a brilliant day out… we arranged with parking access with Telford Canoe Club and set up a picnic site on the beach at the bottom of the rapids. It was great to see such a great turnout for a fun family day on the rapids.
The river was the perfect level for beginner white water and Dave worked hard in the topo giving everyone a run down the rapids. Beginners could practise at the bottom of the rapid whilst the more adventurous ran the rapids… again… and again… and again.
Sam perfected his roll – lots by playing in the wave. Matt was superman and ran it without a boat… It was great to see Andy and Pete playing confidently on the water – shame they were not so confident on the bank…
New members and old agreed that it was a day to be repeated – Thanks to Dave and Dale for all their hard work giving everyone rides down the rapids.

The Doggy Paddle is an annual event organised by the Leamington club as a charity paddle in support of Guide Dogs for the Blind, and is the only opportunity to paddle the River Avon though Warwick Castle and Charlecote Park. This year HCC had a good participation with Dave, Dale, Martin Richard, John, Dave, Simon, Joe, Martin and Sam, plus friends Sam and Ben demonstrating how to do it in slalom boats.

Overall it’s about 17 miles with 4 weirs although the first at Warwick Castle must be portaged. The second, at Barford, is a good start as the drop is just a little more than you remember it is. The river speeds up beyond Barford in a winding section to reach the lunch stop at Hampton Lucy and the second weir. The weirs usually are for watermills and are to the right of the river, and all have a narrow winding section afterwards for a few hundred yards before the channel than came from the mill pond rejoins.

Soon after lunch we pass Hampton Lucy and negotiate the floating gates across the river at either end of the estate – pick a gap between floats and paddle like mad to broach the metal linkage. Then it’s a short distance to Alvaston weir and then the approach to Stratford past the caravan park and the nice riverside houses, past the Lido and then the final stretch under the bridges in the town centre to the finish of the paddle at the park.

Particularly well done to Joe Cooksey as this was his first distance paddle.