Many thanks for taking part in this year’s Event. Next Event – Sunday 17th July 2022 Full results / photos and details of next year`s event are now on our website – just click the appropriate links.  If you have any feedback or comments to make next years event even better, please email them in. https://liverpoolcanoeclub.co.uk/hilbre/ Sunday 12th September 2021 Full list of all results and times….  Hilbre Race (13km) 8.7m Tide  Little Eye Race (9km) West Kirby Race (4km)  1st Racing Ski Nigel jones  1st Kayak Simon Witcher 1st Junior Kayak Poppy Clews (12)  1st Performance Race Ian Makkison  2nd Kayak Derek Connolly 2nd Junior Kayak Oliver Groom (9)  1st Sea Kayak James Shrimpton  3rd Kayak Brian Green 3rd Junior Kayak Ella Clews (15)  2nd Sea Kayak Max Pipe  3rd Sea Kayak Mark Martindale  1st Double Sea Kayak Isaac and Al Pipe  1st Female Sea Kayak Helen Marriott  Highest LCC member Andy Rowley

2021 Scottish Sea Kayaking Trip to the Summer Isles     LCC Home News items or reports on club activities should be sent to Archived Newsletters  Major Trip Reports.… This year’s trip was organised as two separate weeks but both starting from the same campsite at Ardmair Point. This would enable people to paddle for either or both of the weeks and allowed for greater flexibility. Week 1 headed North around the Point of Stoer to Kylesku Bridge. Week 2 saw us head South around Rua Reidh to Gairloch and Charlestown. We enjoyed fantastic summer conditions again. On both occasions we were self-sufficient and camped out of our boats. The Paddlers Alan P, Andy G, Catriona H, Debbie H, Frankie A, Ian B, Mark B, Keith S, Roger M, David G Ardmair Point Holiday Park Ardmair Point is one of Scotland’s most beautifully situated holiday centres. Located 3 miles North of the fishing village of Ullapool, Ardmair offers both self-catering holiday accommodation and a caravan or camping park with excellent facilities. On one side of the peninsular is the location of the self-catering holiday accommodation including lodges, chalets and a holiday home. All are situated just above the beach and command stunning views over the sea to the mountains beyond. On the other side of the peninsular separated from the self-catering holiday accommodation is the touring caravan or camping park with most of the pitches having spectacular views. The Park has excellent facilities and including an on-site café serving a range of meals and cakes. https://www.ardmair.com/ Day 01 Sunday Ardmair point to Tanera More (island) via Horse Island & Tanera Beg island by Frankie Annan Or alternately the day of car shuttles and buffalo girls…… Waking to a midgy misty morning we quickly loaded (threw) gear into the cars to transfer […]

Why not take part with a last minute entry or come along to watch and meet other club members. As you may all know we have the three events on this Sunday – Many club members are taking part or helping with safety and organisation. The weather is looking extremely promising with very light winds so if you would like to paddle you can still enter up until midday on Saturday. 4km West Kirby paddle can be done in any craft or paddleboard. If you want more of a challenge why not try going around Little Eye (8km). Any craft. https://liverpoolcanoeclub.co.uk/hilbre/payment.php Club boats can be loaned for the day. The compound is open at 5pm on Saturday to collect boats and will be open on Sunday after the event and BBQ. Loan of Club boats. https://liverpoolcanoeclub.co.uk/members/Equipment/equipment.htm We have out sponsors from Go Kayaking (Runcorn) over to give out prizes and they will have a selection of gear on show or for sale. If you would like them to bring part of the shop across, ( a demo boat / range of sizes in a particular  item of clothing) Give them a ring or email to discuss. 01928 710770. Even if you do want to take part, why not come along to watch from the sunny beach / club house. The race starts at 2:30pm but you are advised to get there early as we have closed the road except for competitors. You may need to park in the public car park by the café. Dee sailing club BBQ and Bar are available to spectators and participants. Hot Dogs and Beef Burgers £3. Dee Sailing Club Station Road Thurstaston Wirral CH61 0HN

Glyndwfrdwy to Horseshoe Falls – Improvers White Water Solo Open Canoes by Zoe Maynard 21st August 2021 Thanks to Martin and Nikki Aldridge for organising and leading a fantastic improvers day out – and it was a long one – about 7 hours paddling in total! We met at the field above the put-in and unloaded all the kit. There were going to be 8 of us in the group, all in solo canoe. After a little discussion, the decision was made to move the cars to the Royal International Pavilion in Llangollen (with a little stop at Horseshoe Falls car park on the way). Getting back to the put in, those left behind had started to move the boats closer to the river to speed things up a bit. Before getting on the water there was a brief from Martin and Nikki about hand signals and what to do if we fell out of our canoe. We put on one at a time and, while waiting for others to join us, those already on the water had a bit of a warm-up ferry gliding across the river and back. When everyone was on the water, we set off down the river to our first rapid. The river level was very low so we were all scraping the bottom in places. I got stuck on a rock (as did others) but with a bit of bum shuffling managed to release the boat and head on down the rapid. At the bottom we had some fun ferry gliding and practicing breaking in and breaking out. Great fun putting previous training into practice. This set the tone for the rest of the day – a drop followed by skills practice. The leading was great with encouragement given where required. After lunch we […]

Alps Alternative Week 2 Central and Southeast Scotland. Day 05 River Garry Although a long drive to the Inverness-shire River Garry, as it was releasing it was definitely worth it. We set off early to drive up the A9 and across to Spean Bridge and up to Invergarry. This was across the highlands of Scotland and was a beautiful drive and in total contrast to the wide, lowland valleys of Perthshire. We arrived at the car park and already there were a few other boaters there (Rafting companies, open boats and kayakers). We organised the shuttle and decided to do the lower section first. Nic, Ella and I scouted the first section along the new path that had been put in since I was there last. We spotted the line on the couple of drops on that section. We put in at the bridge just below the large wave on the corner and paddled down as a group. Taking the main drop on the right we followed two chutes into the eddy below. Good lines by all made this look easier than it was. The river then had a few large bouncy rapids running over a steepish section. Below here the river is quite sedate with the occasional grade 2 rapid or section. We paddled under an old footbridge, chatted and relaxed. Towards the bottom, the river gets more serious and comes to a large natural ledge with a 1m pour over. We paddled over this one at a time, Ella let out quiet a large yelp as she dropped over the edge as it was considerably larger than she thought. Immediately below this feature some of us got out to inspect the rapid and steep bend under the old road bridge. This is now half-collapsed after the floods and […]

Alps Alternative Week 2 Central and Southeast Scotland. Day 03 River Tay – Stanley This is the most paddled section of river in Scotland according to the guidebooks. We headed off in 4 vehicles as the information said that parking was an issue. We navigated to get out car park which was much smaller than I expected. We met three retired paddlers from Edinburgh dropping a car off. We got talking to them and they informed us that the top car park was now locked and we had to contact the Scottish Canoe Association for the code for the gate. There was then some discussion of the fishing issues with paddling on the river Tay compared to open access across the rest of Scotland. Two redirected phone calls later and we had not been able to talk to anyone on the number(s) given on the SCA website. There was no one available in the offices. Stuart and I took a punt and went to take a look at the get on, it was down a long winding road with new no parking signs and even one ticketed car! The three retired guys had left the padlock open, while I distracted them with more chat, Stuart was able to observe the code. Just after this, another car with a playboater arrived. I opened the gate for her. The paddler said, “you know they have changed the code”. Oh, I replied, I didn’t know that. She then told me the code. We now had access to a warm, sheltered beach with flat pool and a safe place to leave the cars. A quick shuttle back to let the others know the planned trip was on. We paddled upstream to a small rapid to play a bit and practise our ferry gliding. After […]

Nominations for our 2021 Awards are now requested – If you would like to nominate a fellow paddler please send an email to: with a brief (no more than 60 words) summary of why they are being nominated and ideally a photo of them. (Please include any video or other material you may have.) Winners of our three Club “Paddler of the year” Awards will be presented at our Virtual Awards Evening and AGM on Monday 18th October 2021 Nominations close on 13th September and you will then be able to cast your votes to find the winners. During August/ September we will be taking nominations from club members for: 2021 Nominations for Paddler of the year (club member who has either made the most progress or achievement in paddle sport over the year) 2021 Nominations for Young Paddler of the year (Under 18 club member who has made either the most progress or achievement in paddle sport over the year) 2021 Nominations for Volunteer of the year (Club member who has given their services to help the club over the year) Historical Record 2020 Paddler of the Year 2020 Junior of the Year 2020 Volunteer of the Year Victor Leather Ella Clews Julie Brooks From a spluttering begoggled mess on the Sunday paddle, breaking his neck to get upright at the end of a paddle float, Vic has blossomed to my knowledge into a surfing veteran of a stormy Saturday morning at Crosby to an intrepid kayaker in the Scottish Isles, with a fish that he allegedly caught himself with a length of string and a bent pin. Amazing progress in such a short time! Ella is a regular and active participant in the Junior club and plays in the Junior Polo team. Despite having little river experience, Ella paddled grade 3 rivers in […]

LCC Alpine Holiday with Staycation Alternative for 2021 This year we were all set to go to France again. All the planning had been done, restrictions checked and most of us fully jabbed. With the third wave and a month to go we started to look for an insurance option, just in case. We provisionally booked campsites in St David’s, Pembrokeshire, and the Scottish Canoe Association Campsite on the River Tay at Grandtully. With two weeks to go the UK Government decided to add France to the Amber plus list, meaning compulsory isolation for all on return. Fortunately, we had our insurance option, Plan B as travel to France was now totally unrealistic. Alps Alternative Week 2 Central and Southeast Scotland. Day 01 River Tummel After meeting up on the Scottish Canoe Association Campsite on the River Tay at Grandtully the night before we confirmed that the River Tummel was still releasing. There is plenty of information on the SCA website. We drove up to the dam but first left a car at the get out (the large stone arch that marked the HEP power station car park. There were several rafting companies operating so we knew we were in the right place. We had to follow the river guides carefully as none of us had paddled the river before. Near the Dam at the top, we dropped off our kayaks and carefully parked our car – many of the roads had been recently converted to no stopping zones with frequent ticketing. Once changed we carried our kayaks down through the HEP dam, following some gates and flattered grass made by dragging the rafts. We put on below the dam and warmed up on the first rapid. The first sections were great – easy grade 2`s leading into a couple […]

Hi everyone, Just a reminder of the annual Hilbre Island Sea Kayaking event run by Liverpool Canoe Club in partnership with Dee Sailing Club is at 2:30pm on Sunday 12th September 2021 All the usual events on Sunday 12th have been taken off the calendar as the people who run those sessions are usually involved with helping with the event. We still need some helper and volunteers. Eg safety kayakers, car park helpers, timers and general help on the day so if anyone would like to volunteer, please drop me a quick line. If any more club members would like to enter any of the events, please just enter via the club website. https://liverpoolcanoeclub.co.uk/hilbre/ Juniors and new paddlers can enter the West Kirby Event which is along the shore and approximately 2 lengths of the docks. If you want more of a challenge then try the round Little Eye event. The compound will be open in the Morning and later in the afternoon to borrow club boats – just book the type of craft you want before the event…. Why not consider paddling as a group of 3 for the Hilbre event – this is new the year. Even if you do not want to help or take part it is a great afternoon out with good access to the beach and faces the sun. The bar and a BBQ at Dee Sailing club will be available for all club members – just make your purchases as a required. It will be great to catch up with everyone and is an ideal family day out on the Wirral. Kind regards Keith Steer Liverpool Canoe Club

Alps Alternative Week 1 Pembroke. Day 5,6 & 7 (Cardiff WW Course 4 and 6 Cumecs, Surfing at Whitesands Bay and Cardiff WW Course 10 Cumecs) Day 05 Cardiff WW Course 4 and 6 Cumecs Some went to the beach surfing, some walked around the coastal path and mooched about. Later that day most of us loaded up the cars and headed off to Cardiff for that evening`s “park and play session”. Some of the artificial rocks had been taken out to compensate for the lower flows. The course was on 4 Cumecs for the first hour and 6 Cumecs for the second one. At this level it was less intimidating but there were more kayaks and rafts on the course for the midweek session. Soon everyone was up to speed with the course layout and paddling around in laps. We began to play with each feature, popping out, surfing waves and getting ever tighter breakouts. Some of the features were very shallow but the directed flow was at speed over the smooth concrete artificial bed of the course. The speed of the water meant that the depth was irrelevant here as you were speeding over a film of water only 6 cm deep and then into a deeper section. We kept going until after 8:15pm when the water and escalator were turned off. The handy retail park and Maccy D`s allowed us to enjoy a chat and some food before we drove the 2hrs back to the campsite. Click for more photographs……. Day 06 Surfing at Whitesands Bay Roy had been up all-night checking “Magic Seaweed” and the surf was going to be up – 4-6 feet and massive. Excitedly Roy exclaimed that we must go – he was going to take all 4 of his surf toys on […]