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| Date | Activity | Location | Comments |
| 13/05/2012 | White Water | Cardiff | Steve Webber and myself went over to Cardiff today. After an hour warm up on the 4 cumecs, we spent a couple of hours on the 8 cumecs, the wave train leading into the last bend was lumpier than ever! Steve did a lot of stopper surfing and was determined to conquer the stopper on the last bend which he pretty much managed, all bar one exception when the stopper hit back!Another cracking day in the sunshine! |
| 08/05/2012 | Sea Kayaking | Charmouth - Lyme Regis | Russell, Ed, David Crowell and myself paddled from Charmouth to Lyme Regis for sausage and chips on the beach before heading back to Charmouth before it got dark. I (and my stomach) thought the waves were quite lumpy (but Russell didn't!). Ed showed off to the seagulls by seal launching off the cob. No-one swam or ended up in France, which was good! It was great fun, David and I felt confident on our first sea trip knowing that Russell and Ed were there and would like to thank them. Looking forward to going again! Graeme |
| 03/05/2012 | Coaching | Club/Pool | Thanks to those who attended the Safety Rescue Session. We had at least a dozen boats on the water, with another half a dozen coaches in and out of the water and boats! Many thanks to Kay, Craig, Ian, Russell and John for their help in organising and running the show. We all had plenty of opportunity to rescue, be rescued and practice things, that for some people, they had never done before.It was a great session which I am sure will be repeated again. |
| 01/04/2012 | White Water | Cardiff | ck Steve Webber, Dave Roberts and myself went over to Cardiff today. Cracking weather - again! The sun shines on the righteous! Started off with an hour and half on the low water (4 cumecs) with no upsets, and then progressed on to 8 cumecs for a couple of hours. Dave had a great day, and only managed 1 swim. I beat that with 2 swims! Steve surfed it out right to the end, even spending some time in a pretty nasty stopper.We all came off with smiley bright red sun burnt faces! Gary. |
| Easter 2012 | Racing | Devizes - Westminster Race | Congratulations to Glen Davies who raced in the Senior Mens race, and came 34th out of a field of 54 in the Senior singles class. Just finishing this race takes a massive effort and deserves a huge amount of respect.So on behalf of Taunton Canoe Club a big Congratulations to Glen on a fanatastic achievement!! |
| 29/03/2012 | Juniors | River Tone | All juniors paddled polo boats on the river and practised polo skills. The gorgeious, warm light evening put everyone in a playful mood and we had some good games of tag with the ball. |
| 15/03/2012 | Juniors | River Tone | Juniors had a good giggle during the Wednesday night session. They were playing and swapping about in the Canadians and Duo |
| 11/03/2012 | Juniors | Pool | Another great pool session for the juniors. It won't be long before one of the rolls! Some excellent attempts at sculling for support and promising signs of polo skills for a future team. |
| General Update 2012 | Racing | Devizes - Westminster Race | Waterside A race was cancelled as it was deemed to be dangerous due to ice. Waterside B was soon upon us, with the Merrifield brothers fighting a hard battle to finish with a respectable 11th and 12th in the vets, Glen Davies finished with a valiant effort in his first Waterside race. Qeuntin had a swim, a bit of a laugh and then managed to finish. Waterside C was a lovely day for kayaking. The chase was on from the start, Quentin Cannon chased down Dave Merrifield as hard as he could, only just managing a pass near the finish line. Glen improved his speed and managed another sterling effort to finish. Waterside D was another glorious day, only slightly cooler than Waterside C, the long hard slog was on, and our three intrepid kayaks pushed on to bring home good finishes. This gave us some good series results: Senior Quentin Cannon 4th, Veteran Dave Merrifield 4th, Veteran Glen Davies 13th (good effort!). Quentin Cannon. |
| 26/02/2011 | Polo | Millfield | A successful day for the polo team. A couple of default wins meant they will be promoted back to Division 1, although the highlight of the day was "hammering Wellington 7-2" |
| 12/02/2012 | White Water | Cardiff | Steve Webber and myself went over to Cardiff today. We did about 1.5 hours on the 4 cumecs, which was a nice warm up, until I got myself unside down in a hole and swam. Not sure if it was the head freeze or being worried about damaging my new dry suit, but pulled my deck without even trying to roll! Took a break before another 1.5 hours on the 8 cumecs. Steve really got stuck in and stayed in the river section until he could no longer feel his fingers! Gary. |
| 12/02/2012 | Juniors | River Barle | A great white water trip down the Barle with a good number of juniors. We started at March Bridge and finished safely with just a couple of juniors getting wet along the way. |
| 29/01/2012 | White Water | River Tavey | Craig, John S, Steve W, Trevor, Dave and myself ventured into deepest darkest Devon to run the Tavey, from Tavistock to Denham Bridge. It was pretty low, the reading on the Mary Tavy gauge was 0.18M. Still OK but a bit of hard work bouncing the bottom in places but this was more than made up by the good bits! Compared with the Exe, Barle and even the Loop the drops and shuts were definately more tricky. The river runs through some really nice woods and countryside. We had a couple of action rolls and a couple of brief swims, but all part of the fun. Gary. |
| 22/1/2012 | Juniors | James Street Pool | Great pool session again for the Juniors. Well attended with 14 junior paddlers and 6 adults coaching. Children practised skills for capsizing, support strokes and rescuing. They all thoroughly enjoyed a capsize game and polo match to finish off. |
| 22/01/2011 | Polo | Millfield | Not a tournament the team want to remember. Won 1, drew 1 and lost 2 (one of which was Wellington). Seb was T-boned and now his boat has more holes than a sieve. |
| 08/01/2012 | White Water | Walkham/Tavey | Small group paddled with the most talked about incident being a particular member carrying out a thorough riverbed surveillance in the vicinity of the weir! He doesn't want to be named by he's tall, looks after equipment, can't read maps and won the Stour Descent!! |
| 24/12/2011 | White Water | Dart Loop | Excellent Xmas Eve with good paddle followed by the pub! |
| 29/12/2011 | White Water | Upper Dart | Sedge, Steve W and myself paddled Dartmeet after bumping into Wellington CC. It was low and rocky but fun with the highlight being a swim for Sedge:). Dave Cooke. |
| 18/12/2011 | White Water | Upper Dart | Nine members, James, Craig, Russell, Steve W, Ed, Trevor, Alex, Sean P, Dave r and myself did the Grade 2 Trip on the Exe yesterday, from above Bolham through Tiverton, most of us jumped off in Tiverton, whilst a couple of die-hards went on to Bickleigh!! The weather was fine and the water levels had dropped to a good level and we were able to shoot Bolham Weir, even if it was right against the edge, Ed thought about going in for a little play, but just about decided against it! We stopped off at several decent spots for a bit of wave surfing practice, which also coincided with some rolling practice! And even though the sun was shining, for those who were practicing their rolling techniques, it was still pretty cold underwater!!Another good day out on the River for Taunton Canoe Club. |
| 15/12/2011 | Juniors | River Tone | Juniors joined the beginners white water trip down the Exe. Getting in before the weir above Bolham and paddling to the bottome of Tiverton. Pogies were essential kit for small fingers in the cold conditions. There was plenty of excitement tackling the weirs and several sighs of relief at the get-out point. Well done Juniors! |
| 11/12/2011 | Juniors | James St Pool | Extra pool session for juniors. 10 junior members took advantage of an extra 2 hour pool session on a Sunder afternoon to practice capsizing, support strokes and rolling. Finishing off with a game of polo |
| 04/12/2011 | Juniors | James St Pool | Juniors started back after Christmas break with the Wednesday night paddles. A small group made use of the ligh levels at French Weir to practise break ins and outs and ferry gliding. |
| 04/12/2011 | Racing | Stour Descent Race | Great day out racing near Sturminster Newton. Steve Webber came 1st in the Wavehopper class and Clive and Ian came 2nd in K2 veteran Ladies ???? |
| 04/12/2011 | White Water | Cardiff | As we expected the Dart to be busy, James and myself went across to Cardiff. We did about an hour on the lower level, then stopped for hot chocolate. Not recommended, stick to the coffee! Then we did a couple of hours on the higher level. It was really quiet and by the time we finished the place was virtually empty, only had to avoid one raft all day!Gary. |
| 03/12/2011 | Social | Nags Head, Taunton | Xmas party - young and old members met for beffet and drinks at the Nags Head. There was a good game of "killer skittles". Also projected video and snaps of members' exploits throughout the year which kept us amused |
| 26/11/2011 | Coaching | River Dart | James organised a White Water Safety and Rescue Training weekend. Dave has a video showing may of the skills they learnt. It's well worth watching, if only to see Gary, Dave, James and Trevor jumping into the river! |
| November 2011 | Surf | Westward Ho! | Beginners, Steven, Amelia and George got stuck in and were surfing well. We had 1-2 ft waves with the occasional 3ft set. Warm but blustery. Everyone had a few nice runs, there were one or two swims and a few flips and rolls as everyone entered into the fun and had a good afternoon. Thanks to Russ, Ed and Becky for patiently standing as safety in the surf for hours! |
| 20/11/2011 | White Water | Lower Barle | The Pete Collins Memorial Race and Tour. Congratulations to Ashley for winning the race. We had a spectacular turn out from Taunton Canoe Club for the tour, with twenty seven boats on the water, including a wide array of beginners as well as a few seasoned veterans. Levels were low but that didn't manage to dampen anyone's enthusiasm. Dave Cooke had his camera along and has compiled a video of the highlights of the trip... |
| 13/11/2011 | White Water | River Exe | Another Exe trip, over the same section from a fortnight ago but this time aimed at beginners. Good weather once again, though a lower water level, provided a perfect platform for learning ferry gliding, breaking in and out, and, erm, breast stroke... Another video and a few more photos. |
| 30/10/2011 | White Water | River Exe | First white water trip of the season and the intended spin down the Dart was changed to the Exe (due to a mojor event at the Dartmoor Country Park). We had seven in our group and were greeted by a decent water level, around 1'8" on the gauge. The get in was heaving with people (partly due to new gates having been errected closing off some of the area and partly to another club taking up all available spaces) so we headed on up to the next layby, about three quarters of a mile upstream. This is an easy get in, though requires a short walk across a field, but has the bonus of adding an additional small but moderately playable weir to the trip. The weather held up well, there were no incidents and almost everyone made a good effort at surfing the various weirs and spots during the day. And to round it off, a video and some photos are available in the relevant section. Gary. |
| 12/10/2011 | Juniors | River Tone | Juniors had a very successful paddle in sea kayaks on the Tone. Coaches were very impressed with their progress in efficient forward paddling and edging. |
| 03/10/2011 | White Water | Cardiff | Yesterday was the first TCC WW trip of 2010/11 season, so John S, Dave R and myself went over to Cardiff for a warm us session. So warm it was that we had to do a lot of controlled rolling to keep cool!. We paddled for a good hour and a half on the lower water (4 cumecs) and then for a further hour and half on the highest level (8 cumecs). I paddled my Jackson Super Fun for the first time on white water which was a bit lively to start with, managed to get stuck side-on in a couple of stoppers, and used my tried and tested "wrong edge technique" to get out. Dave tried out a different paddle and was able to perfectly demonstrate a 360 degree roll! Good fun had by all! Gary. |
| 24/09 - 01/10/2011 | Sea Kayaking | Italy | Leonie Merrifield joined members of NWSK for a perfect week's sea kayaing around the Isle of Elba (off the west coast of Italy). Factastic weather, scenery, paddling, camping, company, and snorkelling!! |
| 25/09/2011 | White Water | Cardiff | Went to Cardiff with a guy who runs the pool sessions at Strode. Cracking time, weather was a bit miserable early on, but brightened up later into a nice sunny afternoon. Spent about an hour on the lower level (4 cumecs) in the morning, then around 1.5 hours on the higher level (8 cumecs) in the afternoon. Spent a good bit of time in the very last hole (the one that drops down into the pool at the bottom) practicing my hole surfing-roll combinations! We both came out knackered and smiling! For anyone looking to buy a new boat, for £10 per day you can use any of the boats from the on-site shop. Subject to availability, you can change boats as often as you want. Seems a really good way to test out boats. Gary. |
| Sept 2011 | Try It Sessions | River Tone | Over 120 people registered and paddled with us on our Thursday night summer sessions. On 11th August, we had 40 people taking part in one single session! Fab! |
| Sept 2011 | Juniors | River Tone | Wednesday junior club nights have been a success with 9 juniors paddling regularly. They have played games, polo, tried a short slalom challenge and paddled racing K1's and K2's. There have been 2 exciting trips on teh Tone above French Weir. One of these trips finished with the juniors sliding down the shute on the weir. Good fun! |
| 04/09/2011 | Sea Kayaking | Stert Island Swim safety | Colin, James, Becky, Gary, Seb, Steve T, Steve W, Sid, Mike, Kay and Jane all took to their kayaks to act as safety boats for the Stert Island Swim where 64 swimmers all took part and completed the annual 2,400m sea race from Burnham to Stert and back. It was won by Sara Dykes, in a time of 30 minutes 27 seconds. The biggest cheer of the day was for Roger Venner, who completed the swim in 1 hour 11 minutes and 16 seconds, at the grand age of 77!!Click here for more information Stert Swim |
| 28/08/2011 | Racing | Worcester | A BIG WELL DONE to Harvey Merrifield who entered the under 10's Lightning Class race as the National Marathon Racing Championships in Worcester. He came 6th out of 14, with a time of 18mins 44secs. Also congratulations to Dave Flynn who entered 2 races at this event, the 13km where he came 7th out of 27 entrants, and the 6.5km where he came 3rd out of a field of 12. Well done to both of you! (photo's will follow soon!) |
| August bank hol 2011 | Sea Kayaking | Penzance | Mike and Kay went on the 3 day Cornish Sea Rally and enjoyed 3 brilliant paddles in good company around the Cornish Coast. Many thanks to Richard Uren of Paddlecrest Coaching |
| 14/08/2011 | White Water | Cardiff | Went over to Cardiff WW on my own, did the 2 hours at 4 cumecs in the morning and took an hour coaching session on the 8 cumecs in the afternoon, so I now know all the things I am doing wrong! No swims, a few good action rolls, including going backwards upside down over one of the bigger drops on the back straight! Coffee and cake in the sun! |
| 27-28/07/2011 | Sea Kayaking | Isle of White | Clive, Sedge and "friends of TCC" Martin and Glyn paddled 120km circumnavigating the Isle of White over 2 days. We launched from Beaulieu on the mainland, crossing the Solent at midnight |
| July 2011 | Try It Sessions | River Tone | Thursday open sessions have run for 7 weeks now and we have had 78 participants register with us in that time. Thanks to all our volunteer coaches and helpers, we have been able to offer a choice each session of games or coaching. |
| July 2011 | Polo | Various | Two teams have been submitted recently: Div 1 team for the South West, and a Div 2 team for the Welsh Open. Polo players are looking forward to their first match in August. Good luck! |
| July 2011 | Ice Cream Run | Lyme Regis | So far, 3 out of 4 scheduled 'Ice Cream Runs' (Charmouth to Lyme Regis and back) have turned into surf trips, when weather and swell forced a change in plans. Even the last ice cream trip should have been amended to 'Fish and Chip run' as Lyme Regis had run out of ice cream! Apparently, the Morris dancing display made up for it! |
| 23/07/2011 | Sea Kayaking | Norway | Six members of TCC spent 6 days paddling over 150km around the Lofoten Islands in Norway, north of the arctic circle.Everyone had a good time, and came back with sunburn, empty pockets, midge bites, good stories and extremely enviable photos.They saw pilot whales, dolphins, sea eagles, otters, and the bottom of the sea it was so clear! A full report and pictures follows shortly. |
| July 2011 | Try It Session | River Tone | Guides from Wiveliscombe joined TCC for an introductory paddle. Some excellent feedback has drifted back to the committee and it sounds as if all the guides thoroughly enjoyed their evening. |
| 10/07/2011 | Racing | Falmouth | Fal Hasler Race - Calm conditions and a bit shallow up river, good racing in all classes. Well done for earning the club 36 Hasler points. Finish positions: Dave, Div 1/2/3, 5th; Quentin, Div 5, 1st. |
| July 2011 | Juniors | River Tone | Junior members tasted racing kayaking during one of their club nights in July. Thanks to one particular junior (you know who you are!)Leonie tasted more than she wished of River Tone K2 racing (actually, it was more River Tone than racing!) |
| July 2011 | Coaching | River Tone | Dave and Jane Cook have started their Beginners Course with (at the last count) 9 new members, some of which are familiar faces to existing members! Fantastic! |
| July 2011 | White Water | Symonds Yat | Gary and Sean P had an excellent paddle on the Wye at Symonds Yat.On the water for about 09:15, paddled solidly for a good 2 ½ hours. We had the whole place to ourselves for a good hour, when we joined by two guys on sit on tops, with no helmets! After ¾ hour and a few swims, they packed it in, leaving us to it for another 3 parts of an hour. Plenty more ferrying glide and breaking out and in practice, with some brave attempts at tail squirts and the obligatory rolling practice thrown in for good measure. Sun was shining,water was warm! Happy days! |
| July 2011 | Juniors | River Tone | Junior Club nights have made a successful start. Every Wednesday, junior members meet and work on developing kayak/canoe skills with a healthy dose of games and fun mixed in. Numbers are gradually rising and now there are 7 regular junior paddlers on Wednesday evenings. |
| 02/07/2011 | Sea Kayaking | North Wales | Leonie joined 2 members of North West Sea Kayaking to paddle to Bardsey Island from Port Oer on the Lleyn Peninsular, North Wales.The weather and tides were perfect for such a notorious paddle. Over the weekend we saw pods of bottle nose and Rissos dolphins, 257 seals (I met the warden who has to count them daily), a sunfish and so many species of birds that even Harvey could not keep track. A highlight of the trip was seeing/hearing thousands of Manx Shearwaters arriving in the early hours of the morning to nest. |
| 26/06/2011 | Racing | Totnes | Totnes Hasler Race - A good race in good weather. The river was choppy and dealing with other traffic was challenging but still fun. Well done racing members who earned the club 51 Hasler points. Finish positions: Dave, Div 1/2/3, 7th; Clive, Div 4, 5th; Quentin, Div 6, 1st. |
| June 2011 | Coaching | Taunton | This month 7 members passed their Level 1 Coach qualification.Congratulations to Sean P, Sean H, Steve T, James, Becky and Leonie. They are already ploughing back their new skills into the club with Thursday and Junior Club nights. |
| June 2011 | Coaching | Taunton | Russell, Craig, Jane and Dave also took advantage of the coaching grant to update their Level 2 coaching training. |
| June 2011 | White Water | Symonds Yat | Dave Roberts and myself braved the BBC weather forecast, which was wrong again, to go over to Symmonds Yat.The weather held up really well sunshine most of the time, water level was low, as we could paddle right up to the top of the rapids, but still ideal for some breaking out / in and ferry gliding practice, with a couple of rolls for good measure. Paddled for around 2 ½ -3 hours. As usual we arrived fairly early and were on the water before 10:00. We had the place to ourselves for a couple of hours, with only the occasional group of kayaks or canoes going directly through and on down the Wye, when 3 open canoes came down and joined us, one single instructor and 2 doubles having lessons on breaking out / in and ferry gliding, etc. also looked fun! It really is the ideal place to begin learning and improving basic white water skills, so would be really good to get a few more of us Grade 1-2 paddlers and any budding open boaters over there for a real good coaching session, breaking out / in and ferry gliding, rolling, rescues, etc. on a nice sunny day of course!!Gary |
| May 2011 | Coaching | Millfield | Russell, Dave, Jane, Craig and Ashley attended a weekend of UKCC module training |
| April 2011 | Coaching | Taunton | James secured a grant of around £8,000, to be used for training of new coaches, updating existing coaches, and providing equipment for coaching (including some new boats). Well done James, this will really help the summer open sessions, and encourage more people into the sport of kayaking. |