Author: Russell

Club welcomes ‘surge’ in paracanoe interest

Post author By Russell
Post date 23 February 2025

Addlestone Canoe Club (ACC) is the latest club to make strides in expanding opportunities for paddlers of all abilities.

Inspired after attending a recent paracanoe education day, hosted by Paddle UK, the club has witnessed a surge of interest in the sport.

ACC has been welcoming paddlers into the club for their first experiences of the water, ranging from children with disabilities to paddlers with aspirations of reaching the Paralympics.

“The training has already paid dividends,” Caroline Pemble, Chair of Addlestone Canoe Club said.

“The club currently has three paracanoe athletes, each with unique stories and aspirations.

“One athlete has a dream of competing at the Paralympics and is now training with us at Addlestone, even braving the coldest days of the year to pursue his goals.

“We also have two young lads now coming down to the club.

“They’ve been getting involved in our club session, taking part in a bit of race training and they absolutely love it.

“Their families have even started getting involved in the sport.”

The paracanoe education day, provided club’s coaches and volunteers with invaluable insights into the world of paracanoe.

Led by Paddle UK coaches Attila Herbent and Gary Quittenton, as well as community members such as Julie Gray, Julia Lawley and Nick Adnitt, the day covered a wide range of topics, including classification, boat adaptations, safety considerations, and practical handling techniques.

The event also featured inspiring talks from programme athletes, who shared their personal journeys and experiences with paracanoe.

Caroline continued: “The education day gave us more confidence that what we were doing was okay.

“I think it also helped us to know who else we can tap into to get that knowledge and learning to adapt the boats and things like that.”

Addlestone Canoe Club’s dedication to inclusivity extends beyond providing coaching and equipment. The club strives to create a welcoming and supportive community for all its members.

They engage in open communication with potential athletes, ensuring that their individual needs and concerns are addressed.

“We work closely with individuals to assess their needs and ensure safe and enjoyable paddling experiences.”

Looking ahead, Addlestone Canoe Club is eager to expand its paracanoe programme and encourage more people with impairments to take up the sport.

“We would say give it a go,” said Caroline.

“We’re happy to try and help anyone fulfill their dreams and get them on the water.”

Are you local to Addlestone and interested in getting involved in the sport?

Contact the club here to arrange an evening at the club

Club

Come and get involved in 2025!

Post author By Russell
Post date 14 February 2025

The dates for our Try-it and Intro days for 2025 have just been announced.

The Try-it days will be on:

Sunday 6th April
Sunday 22nd June

The Intro courses will be on:

Sunday 18th May
Sunday 20th July
Sunday 14th September

To find out more about the Try-it days and how to sign up, click here.

To find out more about the Intro courses and how to sign up, click here.

Club

King’s Award for Voluntary Service

Post author By Russell
Post date 14 November 2024

We are proud to announce that Addlestone Canoe Club has been awarded The King’s Award for Voluntary Service for 2024. This is the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK and is equivalent to an MBE.

Based on the edge of the picturesque Wey Navigation, Addlestone Canoe Club has been established for over 40 years. We are a registered charity run entirely by volunteers. Addlestone Canoe Club is a multi-discipline club that welcomes all those interested in paddle
sports from Whitewater, Sprint, Marathon Racing and Paracanoeing. Addlestone Canoe Club is probably the most diversified Club in the region, and we run programmes and instruction to suit beginners and advanced paddlers of all ages and abilities. Due to our location on the Wey Navigation, we have developed a special ethos of providing a wide variety of Canoeing experiences and opportunities for young people. Some of our young paddlers have gone on to represent Great Britain at International events while some adult members have participated in the renowned Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race.

The Canoe Club operates all year round and during the summer months the volunteer (Paddle UK qualified) coaches at the Canoe Club take out hundreds of local young people from various scout,
guide, church, youth and school groups including young carers and those with disabilities.

Addlestone Canoe Club is one of 281 local charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive the prestigious award this year. Our work, along with others from across the UK, reminds us of all the ways fantastic volunteers are contributing to their local communities and working to make life better for those around us.

The King’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by local volunteer groups to support their communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate Her Majesty The late Queen’s Golden Jubilee and, was continued following the accession of His Majesty The King. 2024 marks the second year of The King’s Award for Voluntary Service.

Recipients are announced annually on 14th November, The King’s Birthday. Award winners this year are wonderfully diverse and include volunteer groups from across the UK, such as a mental health and wellbeing support network for veterans and their families in Yorkshire; a group preserving a historic 12th century castle in south Wales; volunteers providing English lessons for refugees in Stirling and an organisation providing a opportunities to engage in
the arts for people with learning disabilities in County Fermanagh.

Representatives of Addlestone Canoe Club will receive the award crystal and certificate from Michael More-Molyneux, Lord-Lieutenant of Surrey early next year. In addition, two volunteers from Addlestone Canoe Club will attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace in May and June 2025, along with other recipients of this year’s Award.

Caroline Pemble, Chair of Addlestone Canoe Club said: “We are delighted that Addlestone Canoe Club’s work has been recognised. We are a multi-disciplined canoe club based on the edge of the Wey Navigation that provides safe, quality paddlesport activities, fitness and health opportunities for all. This is not possible without the hard work & commitment of all our volunteer coaches & club members.”

Club

Come and get involved in 2024

Post author By Russell
Post date 14 March 2024

The dates for our Try-it and Intro days for 2024 have just been announced.

The Try-it days will be on:

Sunday 21st April
Sunday 2nd June

The Intro courses will be on:

Sunday 12th May
Sunday 21st July
Sunday 1st September

To find out more about the Try-it days and how to sign up, click here.

To find out more about the Intro courses and how to sign up, click here.

Racing

Waterside series

Post author By Russell
Post date 27 February 2024

Some of our senior racers have been testing their endurance with competing in ‘The Waterside Series.’

The series consists of four Sunday time trials. Each race is spaced at fortnightly intervals and progressively increases in length from 13.5 miles to 34 miles, with between 19 & 35 portages. The river conditions have been tough with fast flowing, swirly water, and very slippery, muddy portages.

Adrian & Bertie have raced well in their K2 and it’s always great to see their cheery faces at each portage. They are taking part in this series of races as part of their training towards The Devizes to Westminster endurance race, which is a gruelling 125 miles, which they are planning to complete at Easter… hopefully in under 24 hours! We wish them both well in their training and will update you with their race progress soon.

Two other club members that seem to enjoy the annual challenge of the series is Doug and Becky. The pair have raced in their K1s finishing respectfully in the top 5 each time.

Club Racing

Winner of Sports Volunteer of the Year: Wendy Dodson

Post author By Russell
Post date 22 February 2024

Congratulations to Wendy Dodson for winning the ‘Sports Volunteer of the Year’ award.

Wendy is the head racing coach at Addlestone Canoe Club (ACC) and has spent the past 50 years dedicated to the sport, firstly as an individual athlete and in later years as a passionate coach. Wendy, along with her husband Andy, joined the club in the mid 1990’s and together founded the ‘Racing’ section and developed it into the successful program that it is today.

Wendy has been a World Class canoeist competing in numerous international events for Great Britain, including the Sprint World Championship in Sofia, Bulgaria, 1977 and winning the Marathon World Cup in Gudina, Denmark, 1983. She was also a formidable runner, top placing in the Nottingham Marathon in the early 1980s. Over the years Wendy’s passion for the sport has not waned and she still competes in National canoe marathon events as a veteran and runs with her friends weekly.

Wendy’s dedication to the sport has impacted many people’s lives. As the head race coach within the club, for over 25 years, everyone who races for ACC begins with Wendy’s coaching. From the many juniors that have been involved with the club over the years, six junior racers have gone on to represent Great Britain at International events (Sprint & Marathon) and a few have been chosen for the National Talent Program. As a small club, we have over-indexed in GB team representation verses club size, when compared with larger ‘Racing specific’ clubs. Additionally, Wendy has coached three crews (six people) in preparation for the gruelling Devizes-Westminster 125 mile endurance race.

During a recent audit of volunteer hours given by members, Wendy stood out from all others, with a mighty 467 hours per year or 9 hours per week, which she dedicates to our club, the community and the sport. Within the ACC, this includes coaching, supporting members at races, club maintenance, environmental clear-ups, committee meetings, safeguarding and first aid. Alongside her commitments to ACC, Wendy is on the British Canoeing National Sprint Regatta Committee and gives 4 weekends per year to running National regatta events plus sixteen hours at the planning meetings associated with these events.

In addition to her coaching work, Wendy is the club welfare officer, a critical role, with key responsibilities such as ensuring all adults working with vulnerable people have up to date DBS checks in place. She is an active member of the club committee and helps to organise our ‘come and try it’ days run by ACC, which encourages ‘newbies’ in the local community to try out many different forms of paddle sport, hopefully joining us as new members to enjoy the sport all year round. She also coordinates the purchase and distribution of club racing kit and branded casual clothing.

Addlestone Canoe Club is highly regarded in the canoeing community and Wendy was instrumental in the club attaining the British Canoeing award of ‘Club Mark; by leading the team writing our policies and procedures. The attainment of ‘Club Mark’ status was key to unlocking the potential of the club, enabling us to acquire funding to provide more opportunities for paddle sport in the community. Following on from this, Wendy then built the ‘development & talent pathways’ for Junior racers, which guides individuals and coaches through the stages of development from beginner to elite athlete. Addlestone Canoe Club has now been awarded ‘Talent Club’ status from British Canoeing.

Through her work in the club and the Canoeing community, Wendy has been a driving force behind bringing visibility of the sport to as many people as possible in the wider Runnymede borough. Wendy was instrumental in ACC (jointly) hosting the National Hasler Final
British Marathon Racing in 2022. This took place in Runnymede and lead to the club getting recognition from the public and both local and county councillors.

Wendy’s passion for all aspects of the sport, meant that she also championed for a clean and safe environment and initiated river clean up days from ACC. These involve general litter picking and the removal of non-native invasive plant species such as floating pennywort from the local waterways. These days are fun, educational and also benefit the local community by maintaining a valuable local amenity, the Wey Navigation. Such is the popularity of these events; they have been expanded from being run in the school holidays for junior club members, to hosting locally based global companies such as Sky TV for their staff activity volunteer events. These days have been recognised by British Canoeing who presented ACC with the ‘Clear Access, Clear Waters’ award.

Racing

Hare & Hounds

Post author By Russell
Post date 19 February 2024

The racers have been taking park in a series of races over the winter at Wey Kayak Club in Guildford.

This series is based on a time trial format with the slowest paddlers starting first and faster ones later with the aim of everybody finishing at the same time. It is a very exciting event in which no one is left behind on the water. A paddler’s finishing time for one race becomes their start time for the next.

Our newest, youngest paddlers take part in the ‘Dash Hounds’ which is 5km. Sophie completed it in her K1 & Henry has taken part in most of the series in a mini-K2 with volunteer race coach Wendy.

Our older juniors and veteran racers have taken part in the ‘Hare & Hounds’ which is a 10km race up and down the river Wey from the clubhouse at Wey Kayak Club, with two portages in Guildford town centre and turning in front of St Catherine’s lock.

Well done to all of those who have completed over the series, with congratulations going to Sam who won ‘most improved Junior’ over the whole series.

Racing

Frank Luzmore Race

Post author By Russell
Post date 29 January 2024

This is a 13 mile race, starting at Elmbridge Canoe Club & finishing at Richmond Canoe Club racing along the river Thames. Due to the high river levels the race was postponed from its original date & then unfortunately due to the continued difficult river conditions the race had to run with restricted entry requirements.

Unfortunately, this meant that our under 16 Juniors & our racers who compete in lower divisions were unable to take part this year. Due to these restrictions we had to make some last-minute alterations to our crews so that we could take part in the event. Our two crews that were to race were our veteran & senior ladies crews of Paul & Becky, Doug & Hannah.

They raced down the river reaching speeds of up to 12mph, with the course having to be cut a little short finishing at River Lane for safety reasons. Both crews were impressed with the speed they got up to but were relieved to get out of their boats after paddling in the swirly conditions!

Freestyle

Freestyle pool session – 24th January 2024

Post author By Russell
Post date 12 January 2024

Addlestone Canoe Club are hosting a freestyle pool session on the evening of Wednesday 24th January 2024.

ACC Members £7.50 Non Members £12.00

Further information visit https://addlestonecc.org.uk/pool-sessions/

Club

Summary of the year

Post author By Russell
Post date 31 December 2023

Addlestone Canoe Club is a charity set up to run activities that teach young people and families in our community to enjoy the outdoors through paddlesport and stay safe on the water.

All administrators, coaches and helpers are volunteers working together to achieve our objectives and so much more. The support of our members is instrumental in our success and they make our club a friendly and inclusive place to be. The committee thank our
volunteers for their support.

We have now spent two years in our new building, activities are back to pre-pandemic levels. We now have a new secure app suitable for members’ communications, it is very busy with good information and fits well with our safeguarding objectives.

Behind the scenes the committee review our processes and policies keeping the club in line with the requirements of a modern voluntary group. We have continued to raise funds improving the clubs facilities and have successfully raised an extra £40,000 since the build project enabling us to invest in equipment, tech and training that we need to engage new participants.

The club has achieved so much in the year – here’s just some of the highlights.

Increased Membership numbers to pre covid levels
Two Come and Try It Days for the general public
Four Introductory Courses for the general public
Regular taster sessions for all
Car park resurfaced and grass re-laid
New gates and fencing installed, securing the site
New race kayaks delivered-enabling new participants to experience and enjoy this discipline, being used by beginner adults and juniors
Replacement canoes ordered, particularly to service families and youth groups
New SUPs (stand up paddleboards) delivered, introducing a newly accessible discipline to the community, with ACC being able to teach safe use of this craft for private owners. The SUPs are also very useful for coaches when supervising introductory sessions
First aid and safeguarding courses run for club volunteers
Skills training for white water and racing coaches run for club volunteers
Addlestone Canoe Club nominated as Runnymede Mayor’s charity for 2023/24
Ran schools and community group sessions including Runnymede
community development scheme sessions
Assisted at the Virginia Water Lake safety day, run by Surrey Fire and Rescue Service – continuing to be involved in promoting safety on our waterways
Made links with Runnymede Borough Council to offer sessions to Ukrainian families
Engaged our youth members during school holidays to
assist with clearance of Floating Pennywort (an invasive species), promoting awareness to the local and wider community too by inviting volunteers from Sky and Tribe Outside Group
Working towards two British Canoeing awards –clear access, clear
waters and sports performance
Trips organised to white water rivers (Lake District, Devon, South Wales, North Wales), developing the skills of members
and volunteer coaches.
Flat water trips in Kent and Surrey
The racing section has continued to attend events with great success for all age groups
Working towards offering junior Freestyle opportunities
Working to promote daytime, weekday paddling for retired persons and shift workers

Every week, 50 weeks of the year our volunteers run club sessions and community sessions from March to October.

Feedback from visitors has been really positive and our reputation continues to grow as an inclusive and friendly club providing safe, fun outdoor experiences for all.

After much financial investment in the build we are now in a strong position to invest financially in our people. Keeping membership and equipment usage fees as accessible as possible, Addlestone Canoe Club is working to put on funded training events for our coaches and helpers and create a ‘hardship fund’ to make paddlesport accessible to all.

Many Thanks to our committee, coaches, helpers and ALL of our members, helping Addlestone Canoe Club to meet its objectives.