© 2010 Halifax Canoe Club Ltd, Greenups Mill, Wharf Street, Sowerby Bridge
Registered Company No 2612775
I’d heard various stories about the WWSR course floating around the club, ranging from “you’ll love it, it’s loads of fun” (Sarah F), to “she looked like she was drowning” (about Sarah F!), and “It’s the best fun you can have with your clothes on!” (Simon Spencer); so it was with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that I set off to Wales on a Friday afternoon, accompanied by Dig. Sharing our luxury bunk barn (no sarcasm intended – it was quite lovely) were Renos and Ian, with Jess opting for the family campervan and Rob’s cooking (which actually smelled quite nice).
Saturday dawned in typically Welsh fashion (i.e. raining) but at least it was warm,
especially with teddy bear suits and drysuits on. Steve (our instructor) started
us off gently, with cups of tea and a bit of theory. But it was not to last. Dressed
in all our gear, we followed Steve to a weir, which he informed us we were about
to swim in. I couldn’t see my own face, but I know it had a look of terror and disbelief
upon it, similar to that on Renos’s face! In jumped Steve and let himself be taken
effortlessly across the weir and washed out the other side. After watching Jess
and Dig bravely follow Steve like lemmings and survive, I pulled myself together
and leapt in…it was brilliant! In fact, the hardest part was trying to swim into
an eddy with about 10 tons of clothing on. The rest of the morning was spent practising
safe swimming techniques upstream of the “Chipper” before adjourning, exhausted,
for a well-
Saturday afternoon was focussed on using throwlines to rescue swimmers. Dig and Jess volunteered to be first swimmers (there’s a theme developing here!) and Steve was to demonstrate throwing the line to Jess. However, as Jess swam elegantly past on her way to be “chipped”, the rope got stuck in the bag. Amidst much laughter was a lesson learned – always pack your own throwline. Meanwhile, no sign of Dig – we assumed he’d gone to visit a tree and were therefore completely unprepared as he also came floating (a little less elegantly) past. Seems he’d decided to hike further up the river for a longer swim! Eventually we did manage to practice some rescues successfully before the next level – live bait! I will never forget the slightly manic look on Ian’s face as he launched himself from a rock to “save” me.
Suitably adrenalin-
It seems I’ve rambled a bit, so I’ve got to summarise Sunday. Hmm, what to say…Ian,
Jess and Dig braved the “Graveyard”, with Dig showing off his excellent support
strokes and using up at least four of his nine kayaking lives. Renos and I provided
bank support as every muscle in my body was aching (and I’m a chicken) and Renos’s
words were “why would anyone want to paddle that?” Later on, Renos showed his rock-
The weekend was finished off with a zipwire across the river – great fun, should be a new sport – and a final swim from the weir to the “chipper”. It’s a testament to Steve that we were all cheerily throwing ourselves down the river without fear by the end of the course, confident in our abilities to swim out of trouble.
It goes without saying that we all had an excellent time and came away with lots of useful knowledge (as well as a long shopping list). I‘d highly recommend this course to anyone who paddles.
Special thanks go to Cliff for organising the course, Steve (our excellent instructor), Rob for resisting the paddling temptation and looking after a poorly Molly, Christine for providing spag bol ingredients, Ian for cooking the spag bol and sorting out the bunk barn, Renos for snacks and wine and Dig for chatting up the older cyclist ladies in the barn next door (and introducing Renos to them as a stripper!?!)
Lois Young
