The students are our future – Let’s keep them safe!

Indeed they may be a notorious as soap dodging, daytime television watching scroungers, but student canoe clubs make up perhaps the most active and adventurous paddling community in the UK. The annual Student Safety Symposium took place last weekend at the beautiful Plas Y Brenin National Mountain Centre in Snowdonia, and as an ex student paddler myself, I was keen to join in the fun and get involved with the new batch…

The SSS has been running every autumn for many years now, and offers any student canoe clubs the opportunity to come along and receive heavily discounted training on how to go paddling safely, have lots of fun, and generally get a new generation involved in our excellent sport.

Saturday morning kicks off with some truly exciting lectures on the legal aspects of running a club, but once the nitty gritty of keeping people safe, not crashing minibuses, and not getting sued has been covered, it’s straight on to the water for practical advice on running trips, coaching beginners, and a bit of personal development too…

Saturday evening saw some rope based action in the form of the Palm Olympic Throwbag University Challenge. The event is designed to test speed and accuracy of deployment in arange of situations, and was hard fought, with only one student allowed to enter per university. Crowds of spectators cheered on their brave throwbag heroes, with Aberystwyth eventually coming out on top.

Sunday morning saw more glorious sunshine, and with the Tryweryn river releasing, it was an opportunity to work on whitewater skills and coaching. An excellent day was had by all, mastering eddying techniques, and thinking about tactics for coaching and guiding in a river environment.

All in all the BCU SSS is a great event, and it’s really exciting to see a new generation of student paddlers taking over their clubs and sharing the love of all things paddling.

I’ll leave you with one final thought, courtesy of Plas Y Brenin’s Pete Catterall (paraphrased):

‘Nobody’s good at safety and rescue, if you’re doing enough of one, then the other probably isn’t happening.’

An interesting thought, and perhaps one we all need to consider from time to time…

That’s all for now.

See you on the river,

Nick