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Smiles all round at Lee Valley White Water Center

MCC at Lee Valley

During the early part of the year, there’s been lots of interest in paddling moving water from our club members, and there’s also been lots of paddles that have took advantage of the extra rain making some local weirs great play spots to practice on.

So with that in mind MCC organised a trip to Lee Valley White Water Center, where we had the whole of the Legacy course (grade 2/3) to ourselves.

But before the trip, we wanted to make sure everyone was as prepared as they could, so MCC decided to organise a few local white water training trips to help members with their moving water skills and also cover safety aspects for when things do quite go as planned.

Chris Davies and other coaches helped to organise and run 2 events on the Chelmer to cover basics such as edging, trim, breaking in, breaking out, S turns, surfing, wet exits, river signals and rescues/throw lines. Both training days were very well attended and all participants came away with confidence and an eagerness to get to Lee Valley!

Our day at Lee Valley (Sat June 10th) was booked for 5.30 – 6.30pm for inclusive hire of the Legacy course, although, all members met at 4pm to get ready/sort our kit, before a safety briefing took place and a walk around the course to discuss all the features and split the group of 30 into coached smaller groups and bank safety.

There was a few nerves showing to begin with, however, within 5 minutes, everyone was laughing and smiling! I’m not sure, but I think everyone had a go from top to bottom of the course – which is a massive feat for those who have never paddled the course before.

After the end of our session, everyone was still smiling and filled with adrenaline, with lots of member’s asking when can we book again, or ‘can we organise a WW river trip’. So with that in mind the MCC are pleased to announce that we have again booked Lee Valley for Sunday 19th September! whoop! and then a WW river trip after that maybe??? watch this space.

Finally, MCC would like to thank everyone who made this event such a success, not only on the day, but also those that helped with the pre-training and the behind the scenes organising, admin, risk assessments etc… But also those that gave their time to help with bank safety and taking lots of great pics (Angela, Summer, Paul and Chris) Finally, a big thanks to our friends at Bramston CC for helping to support our event.

Take a look at some of the action below

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