Open Canoeing. Its not just for old people.....

Last weekend a few of my friends and I headed up to North Wales to do our Open Canoe Four Star training. I have had my Open Canoe Three Star for a little while now and when I got the opportunity to to more I jumped right in. The training took place on the River Dee, and was run by GETAFIX. I was quite impressed my the amount of stuff we could cover in two days. As well as Honing our Personal skills we also learned about leading groups, different ways to run a river, poling, Lining and Tracking (This is where you use throwlines to guide your boat upstream through a rapid from the bank) and much more. Much fun was had by all, especially with many comedy swims happening all round (mostly by me).

Heres me goin for an eddy.

We travelled up on friday evening straight after work, luckily I wasn't driving as it was a trip which took five hours. When we arrived in Bala we were already booked into a bunkhouse. I can't remember the name of the place but it was awesome, Fifteen pounds per night including three meals a day. The only downside was that it was quite a way out of town. Oh well.

Setting up for another eddy.

Trying to catch the last wave.

Over the course of the two day the course was tailored to our needs by our coach Richard from GETAFIX. I think the course was run very well. Big thanks to them for sorting us out.

If your going open canoeing in the future, let me know as im always up for another trip.

Keep safe