Canoe

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About

We are UPSU Canoe and Kayak Club, we were founded in 2005 and have been thriving ever since. We are one of the only water sports clubs to have grown every year for the last 5 years running! We have built a reputation over the years for providing something for everyone no matter what your interests or ability. We are a friendly club with the sole intent to get our members out and about as much as we can whilst offering training and a safe environment to learn new skills and of course meet new people. We also offer some of the cheapest trips of any water sports club and unlimited free training sessions so what are you waiting for, sign up today. The cost to join us is only £35!

Here's a video showing who we are (link)

We hold socials every Wednesday night throughout the whole year, which range from meals, quiet drinks to big fancy dress socials, bowling etc! We also have an amazing Christmas meal each year, with prizes for various achievements so far, this is always good fun and a massive turnout! Then we have a summer meal with prizes to round off the year.

Events

By becoming a member you gain the ability to join us on our fantastic trips which run almost every weekend. This includes our famous “Fresher’s Trip” (. This is a chance for new members to join us for a weekend try everything we have to offer with a BBQ and fun and games in a great location. Our other massive event is NSR (National Student Rodeo) this is our major competition, it is a gathering of over 1000 students to compete and party! Our trips include everything from white water kayaking, flat water paddles to surf kayaking. We actively encourage our members to gain BCU qualifications, if you are interested in gaining a specific qualification let us know and we’ll try to organise it for you. Throughout the year we enter into student competitions too. We have recently purchased a significant amount of new kit, meaning the equipment used on club trips is modern and high quality. We run fortnightly pool sessions at the life centre for our members to enable to learn and develop their skills such as rolling.

Our Sessions

As mentioned above we run a range of sessions:

Free Weekly Sessions - The club offers subsidised free weekly sessions at Mountbatten water sports centre, typically on Wednesdays afternoons between 2 and 4 (tide, weather and coach dependant). We are currently the only club to offer unlimited free sessions. These sessions are run by our team of experienced coaches, who will help you to develop your skills and to gain BC qualifications. These sessions are free, but we do take a £5 deposit when you sign on to a session which is returned when you arrive at the session.
Pool Sessions- We run fortnightly pool sessions at Plymouth Lifecentre. Qualified coaches shall be at these sessions, to help you develop your skills, especially rescues, braces, and rolling, in a nice warm environment. These sessions cost £5 for an hour, and sessions run between 7-8 and 8-9 every other Sunday evening during term time
Trips- We run a range of trips throughout the year, including going to Exeter to play on the weirs, canoeing along the River Axe, a range of whitewater paddles from introductory sessions to more advanced trips, overnight bunkhouse trips, sea kayaking, surfing and much more. We aim to run a trip at least every other weekend, but sometimes its every week! The cost of these trips vary depending on if we use internal qualified volunteer coaches or get external professional coaches in, the transport cost, and accommodation and food cost if its a 2 day trip. Typically a local whitewater trip with internal coaches cost around £10-£15, a day with a professional coach may cost £20-25, and a weekend trip shall cost around £40-45, but these are just rough numbers to give you an idea. Each trip is different and the price shall be set as cheap as we can make it, as after all we are also students!

2019/2020 Focus

Our focus for this coming year is to get those with an interest in the sport, to gain experience kayaking/canoeing. And specifically give those with a passion (or ignite said passion) the ability to gain qualifications and the skills required to have confidence on the water, and furthermore give others this wonderful opportunity!