The club brought the year to a close with the traditional Christmas paddle.
As a fun outing for all members, it involved decorations, dressing up, a paddle challenge, and food and drink back at the clubhouse.
This tops off an outstanding year for Addlestone Canoe Club, with the whitewater, freestyle, and racing groups all undertaking many activities, and encouraging paddlers to excel in all areas.
We’ve also introduced many new paddlers to the joys of kayaking, canoeing, and paddle boarding, and many took advantage of the discounted membership through the summer.
Plans are already being put in place for another exciting year of paddling.
As part of our increasing programme of flat water and touring trips, Addlestone Canoe Club organised another day trip down the River Medway from Tonbridge to Yalding.
The Medway is a great river for a gentle paddle – feeling very remote despite being in the heart of Kent. It’s also enhanced by the addition of canoe chutes to each lock – starting gently, these get more and more exciting as the day goes on (the last one being too exciting and requiring quite a bit of bailing out of the canoes!).
On the May bank holiday, intrepid explorers from the club took on the challenge of an expedition around the Weybridge loop of the River Wey. A trip the previous year had ended in failure due to the vast amounts of Pennywort blocking the way. Thankfully a recce had shown that the Environment Agency had cleared this over the winter due to flooding, so we were raring to give it another go.
The Weybridge loop is approximately 20km, starting from the club and heading up the navigation initially, then flowing down the river section of the Wey through Brooklands to Weybridge, before returning up the navigation to the club. One of our groups a few years ago did this trip in reverse, but going downstream with the flow of the river seemed like a better plan for us!
The section up the navigation was a gentle warm-up, with only a couple of locks to portage, but also the chance to pop in for a cup of coffee at the Anchor pub at Pyrford lock.
This section of the Wey is full of variation, from the noise and graffiti under the M25, past farmland and equestrian fields, and then out into wilderness and flood plains.
Lunch number 1 was had before the drop from the navigation to the river. Thankfully the boats were lightened by this, as the drop into the river was more exciting for some than others.
Despite the occasional shower of rain, the river section was a pleasant gentle float down with the flow. with very few strainers or obstructions. And thankfully very little Pennywort.
Second lunch was had at Byfleet Mill, before the final stretch down through Brooklands to the navigation.
There was one major obstruction in Brooklands, with a pair of trees completely blocking the route. A bit of clambering got us over that though.
In total it took about 6 hours of paddling to complete the journey, and a great day out was had by all.
At the end of April, Addlestone Canoe Club had over 60 members of the public visit for try-it sessions on our try-it day.
The try-it day sessions each last an hour, and attendees could have a go at paddling kayaks, canoes, or stand-up paddle boards, learning about the basics of controlling paddle craft, as well as an introduction to safety on the water.
As with all of our activities, the day was run by volunteer coaches and helpers, and we are massively grateful to the support of all of our members who help make these events happen.
The first Runnymede Civic awards was held on the 22nd February, where Runnymede Borough council celebrated some of the most talented, determined and extraordinary individuals and groups in Runnymede. We are proud to share the news that Addlestone Canoe Club (ACC) were honoured to receive two winner’s trophies and a highly commended certificate for the work and achievements of our members & coaches.
The first Award of the evening was for Young Sportsperson of the year, which was won by Addlestone racing team member Emily. We are so proud of Emily and the work she has put into developing herself in the sport since she came to her very first try-it day at Addlestone 7 years ago. Emily is a committed junior member of ACC and trains 5-6 times a week all year round. During 2022 she won a medal at the National Championships Sprint events in Nottingham and was selected to represent Great Britain at the Brandenburg International Regatta in Germany. She is also the youngest GB athlete to be selected to participate in the Olympic Hopes regatta. Emily also volunteers at the club in coaching our younger juniors.
Another proud moment came when ACC Head Coach Neil was highly commended in the category of ‘Coach of the year’. Neil took over as Head Coach at Addlestone Canoe Club during the pandemic and has since set a new standard when it comes to organising the training and development of coaches which has been a massive benefit to the club and its members.
Our final prize of the evening went to ACC (Chairperson) Carol and (Coach) Nick, who were presented with the winner’s award in the category ‘Changing peoples lives’. We originally nominated ACC for Club of the Year, however the judges decided that although a worthy contender in that category, Nick & Carol were genuinely changing lives and should be recognised as such. In addition to the wonderful achievements that they have accomplished with the club they also undertake many canal clean-up campaigns and are proactively working with local families, youth groups and schools to provide training on water safety and encouraging residents to get involved.
Huge congratulations to Carol, Nick, Neil, and Emily and thank you to Runnymede Borough council.
It has been a busy half term week and weekend for the race team.
Hannah and Emily were invited to join the England Sprint Talent Programme training camp led by Southampton Canoe Club. 15 athletes ranging from U16 Juniors to U23 paddlers travelled to Montebelo Aguieira Lake Resort & Spa in Portugal. The two girls completed 3 training sessions a day and covered the physical, tactical, and technical requirements for sprinting, covering all 3 distances (200m, 500m and 1000m). They trained in both K1s and crewboats (hired from the Nelo Center). The training camp provided Hannah and Emily with an opportunity to learn from others, build training experiences and take part in high quality sessions in mixed ability training groups. Although they trained hard throughout the day there was always time for homework /revision and the highlight of each day was the evening entertainment which was organised by different athletes each evening (this ranged from canoeing related Pictionary, card games & treasure hunts).
On Sunday we had 2 adult crews who raced in the Thameside race, from Aldermaston to Reading. Well done Adrian, Bertie, Steve and Charlie, good results which put you in the middle of your respective classes.
Other members participated in the last of the Hare and Hounds series at Wey Kayak Club in Guildford. The conditions were good and many put in their best time of the season. Particular congratulations goes to Sam who won the trophy for the most improved U14 boy, having taken part in 4 of the 5 events over the winter.
Britain’s freestyle kayaking community came together over the weekend, 11 & 12 February, as the top paddlers competed for places on the 2023 GB freestyle team, with all eyes on the World Championships in Columbus, USA.
The selections saw great success for Addlestone members. Jools and Sienna were both selected for the Junior GB team, with former club member Sam also being selected.
Day one saw a stacked junior women’s heat with a number of strong up and coming paddlers take to the water as they showed the judges what they were capable of. It was a magnificent aerial blunt that took Niamh to the top of the leader board, taking the win on day one with Addlestone’s Sienna coming in in 3rd place.
They were shortly followed up by the junior men, and the standards again were high. With three places on the team up for grabs it was always going to be tough. ACC member Jools kicked off his selection campaign with a high scoring run, boosted by a textbook pistol flip that sent the crowd crazy. This landed him a first place, with former Addlestone member Sam in third.
The second day of action saw performances step up a level a huge donkey flip rocketed Izzy to the top, taking the day two win in the junior women’s event. Niamh’s aerial blunts put her into second, and Sienna smoothly spun her way into third.
Jools and Timmy rounded off the second morning in the men’s junior event with some more fantastic paddling, matching their previous day’s performance by taking first and second respectively. However, it was Ash who seriously upped his game from the previous day to take third place with a last second donkey flip.
Congratulations to all the Addlestone paddlers taking part – we’re looking forward to seeing Sienna, Jools and Sam at the World Championships later in the year!
Last weekend saw a group of about 20 club members heading off to the Lake District on a new adventure for Addlestone Canoe Club. The mission was to find some rivers not paddled yet by the club and to venture to an unfamiliar location to put our skills to the test.
Our location for the weekend was The Old School House in Carnforth which made for an excellent location to travel into the Lakes area each day to chase the rain.
The trip was billed as medium to advanced level, and the amount of rain in early January made it a great challenge for many paddlers.
On the morning of day 1, all paddlers ran the River Lune from Lowgill to Killington New Bridge. With a level of nearly 1m on the Killington gauge, it was big bouncy fun all the way down, with not much rock-dodging needed. In the afternoon, the braver members paddled the River Kent from Scroggs Weir to Park Head, a route that starts with a gentle bimble on relatively flat water before dropping into a series of gorges with challenging features and the final might Force Falls.
Day 2 saw the paddlers tackle the River Rawthey on a huge 2m from Sedbergh to the Lune confluence – easily the biggest river that some of the members had paddled. There were thrills (and a few spills) all the way down, including a challenging run through the Grade 4 Railway Falls that a few members elected to portage. The afternoon saw a small group travel to the Leven for a few fun runs down the first section in huge levels.
The last day was a return to the Lune – a chance to try some new lines, attempt to catch more eddies, and revisiting the sites of some topples for another go.
In the evenings everyone returned back to the bunk house to swap stories, watch videos and eat.
An amazing weekend was had by all those who attended and big thank you to the organisers and river leaders as these trips can’t happen without them.
You can see more of the fun we had in the YouTube video:
On Saturday 17th December we held our annual Christmas paddle, always a great event which sees all paddlers from all our disciplines coming along for a paddle and some Christmas festivities.
This year the paddle was a letter hunt challenge – we set a trail out for paddlers to follow where they had to collect information and solve the puzzle and the first group to return the correct answer won a prize. There was also a prize for the best dressed Christmas themed paddler and for the best decorated boat.
Well done to all the people who took part. The afternoon continued with food and drinks and then former Addlestone junior paddler Ben returned to give a talk on his adventures about “Life in the Box”, all about his paddling of three of the great whitewater rivers in a year.
If you were unable to make the presentation, check out his adventure on his YouTube Channel.
Ben is now off on his adventures again this time to New Zealand. We wish him a safe journey and look forward to seeing what he gets up to next.
