Minutes of Committee meeting held 18 Jan

Meeting held at the Plough, Whitchurch.

Present: Hywel (Sec), Les (Treasurer), Grant (Training and Child Protection), Rob, Matt M., John N. , Richard

Apologies: Andy (Chair), due to sickness, Steve M (Vice Chair) and Phil P. (prior engagements)

1. Financial report and Pool fees. Treasurer reported £785.22 in the current account, £70.35 in deposit. Last term's pool fees (£33 per session) totalled £390 had been paid. The amount in the current account included a number of advance annual pool fee payments - £100 payments (for families), £60 for individuals. These represented a 50% discount on the full weekly fee if every pool session was attended. This meant that alothough we had money in hand, weekly income would be reduced as of course those families/individuals would not be paying again until next September.WCA affiliation cost £124 last May. Similar amount would be expected this year. 

A discussion on the introduction and implementation of the scheme of annual payments following. It was agreed that it should be made clear to all new and existing members that the option of weekly payment was still open to them. Matt and Les will arrange that those who have paid up-front will have a membership card marked to show they have paid so that if the pool register isn't available for some pool session they will have some proof to show to whoever collects the fees on that day.

There was concern that the 50% discount was too large: the Treasurer suggested that it should be only 33%. It was proposed and agreed that this should be discussed again in another meeting, no later than May this year, so that all would have fair warning and that a change could be implemented at the start of the next school year.

2. Coaching scheme. Grant reported on developments concerning WCA's Local Coaching Organisers (LCOs). For the future the idea is that a coach offers to organise one event for their region. Grant had offered to run one for the South-East Wales region, and was thinking he might organise a slalom coaching session or a session on chase boating or rescue. The Committee congratulated him for making the offer and asked to be kept in touch as, if possible, they'd hoped the Club would offer any practical support it could.

3. Community Chest grant. The Secretary reported that he'd received a letterdrawing attention to the fact that the closing date for applications this year was drawing close. The Committee asked him to formulate a proposal, incorporating giving more children experience of kayaking, aiding more members to obtain coaching, safety or first aid qualifications, and seeking equipment to support those aims.

4. Child protection. The Child Protection Officer drew attention to one issue which he had leant of in a training session. This concerned the potential dangers of an adult being in the company of an unaccompanied child. In our context, there seemed to be two situations in which this could arise. First, when outside trips involved shuttling of paddlers, either on the trip - to start or finish points on ariver trip, or back to home. He advised that adults should avoid being alone in a car with a child. Second, at the pool, the situation of being in a changing room alone with a child could be risky.

Grant was thanked for raising our awareness of the risks. Means of managing the risks were discussed. The main means, already adopted by the Club, is that children under 12 can not join without a parent/guardian also joining, and parents of children under 12 are expected to remain in attendance at pool sessions. While there was no rule concerning attendance on outside trips, we could not remember any occasions when unaccompanied young children had been on trips, nor were any envisaged. Ensuring that an adult was never alone with a child in a changing room would be virtually impossible to ensure: an adult could be in the changing room alone when a child walked in or an adult could walk in when a child was already there. The first scenario could not be avoided by the adult. The second could be quickly corrected by the adult walking out again but that was not necessarily a reasonable expection on the adult. The meeting was concerned that no aspersions should be cast on adults simply because they found themselves in these situations. The main responsibility lies with the parents. They are responsible for being aware of where their children are. If they are concerned that their child is in a changing room alone with an adult, it is the responsibility of the parent to rectify the situation, not the responsibility of the adult. It was agreed that the action that needed to be taken to minimise the potential risks was to raise awareness of the risks. The Secretary was asked to include a note of the discussion in the minutes (done by this blog). The attention of members would be drawn to the matter also by informal discussion.

Taff and Usk trips, Sat. and Sunday 14, 15 Jan

Another two trips last weekend. Just Grant and Phil on the lower Taff from Radyr weir to Llandaf rowing club on Saturday, but 4 (Matt, Rob, John C. and me) out on the Usk, Tal-y-bont to below Llangynidr on Sunday. The water was pretty low for the Usk tripso just as well we didn't try the Sawdde, Irfon or Nant Brân as I'd originally hoped. Yet another lovely trip - much warmer tha the previous Saturday on the Wye, and topped off with a social pint in the Star, Tal-y-bont, afterwards where we could warm up after some ritual practice rolling at the end of the trip. No dramatic tales from this trip, thank goodness.

Upper Wye, 7 January

Very low water but it still gave me some excitement when I was stopped momentarily while upside down after having been back-flipped in the "letterbox" slot, before I gratefully swam away, grabbed the throwline offered by Rob and watched Jon manfully swim out to catch my paddle. Matt had sacrificed his fag, preparing to jump in to rescue me too.

Jon later swam twice more - once after a graceful capsize when he just failed to get around a bend with a rockface coming too close to his right, and once after just failing to roll after getting caught by a mid-stream rock. Rob managed to get in a swim in the final gorge section (he now promises to practise rolling in moving water every trip).

So Wye 3, Dragon Paddlers 2 - only Matt and Phil D. managing dry runs. Excellent experience for Jon and Phil who previously had only been on the Taff, and they both did very well. A classic end to the trip with us getting changed in snow and sleet in the car park.

(The water was so low we couldn't run what is usually the second significant drop and we spent an age trying to decide what to do before finally, after having portaged to river left, putting back in immediately below what was the tiny remnant of the usually significant drop.)

Weekend 10-11 December: 4 trips!

A busy weekend with Dragon Paddlers all over the place:

1. The main trip, Sunday morning: lower Taff. Andy's report (note to Andy: some spellings have been changed to modern English) (Note to readers: he's in IT):
"Radyr weir to Llandaff Rowing Club:
Paddlers were: Nick and daughter Carys, Andy Peate and son Jordan. Jon (not boy blunder John, John with the wave sport) and me.

We arranged to meet at ASDA's car park at Coryton. The plan was to travel to Symonds Yat, however, a quick phone call to the shop at Symonds Yat the day before revealed that the lower rapids had been washed out, so plan B was to paddle the lower Taff, which we duly did.
After the usual logistics and a spot of warming up exercises in the sunnier bits of the road at the get in we carried the boats to the picnic tables next to the sluice gate overlooking the weir. Jon and I decided to try the weir as it didn't look that big. I expected the river to be much fuller and faster flowing than it was considering the amount of rain fall we had in the previous days. Anyway while Jon and I prepared to risk all for a precious moment of glory, and of course waiting for a sizable crowd to appear from Joe Public to watch us, Andy organised Nick, Carys and Jordan. No dramas, excitement over for one day, Jon and I went over the weir without incident. The wave at the bottom of the shoot was quite small. I didn't punch my way through but, to my surprise I shot across the top and paddled in to a left hand eddy near the half submerged island opposite the weir. Anyway between Andy Peate and myself, we got everyone on the water safely, travelled down river a few meters to find an eddy to follow up on some important signals and other vital information. Once done we practised breaking in and out until Nick and Carys were comfortable with paddling on moving water. At this stage I need to mention that it was Nick and daughter Carys's first time on moving water and they did really well from the start. Note to Committee! We need to invest in kit for bigger paddlers. Nick was somewhat at a disadvantage as the kit I gave him was a little small, so wasn't really that comfortable!!!!
We travelled a little further on with Nick taking a swim. Presenting the gunwales of the boat to upstream current result! Nick took this in his stride and got back in his boat and carried on. Carys was a natural. Paddling very determinedly against someof the more challenging parts of the river and making the eddies well done. Jordan, Jon and Andy were their usual competent selves on this grade of water and appeared to have enjoyed the day.
Just after the last set of rapids, Nick successfully navigated the rapids, which at the time were flowing well, and took his eye off the river and ended up swimming again. At this point as the group was split with me at the bottom end of the rapid and Andy Peate and the others at the top end, make it potentially a very bad situation to be in. Andy Peate understand immediately what had happened and took charge of the group while I dealt with Nick. Andy sent Jon down to lend a hand and we successfully guided Nick to the river bank. Again Nick took it all in his stride and got on with. Andy controlled the remaining group members and brought them down to us. Once altogether again we set off.
Towards the end of the paddle Nick took another swim just after the last but one bridge. This where we were practising breaking in behind the uprights of the bridge some how Nick went over and swam! Nick was very good humoured about all of this and I must mention the water temperature was very cold, but fair play to Nick, this did not phase him out one bit. Well done for shear determination. We reached journey's end shortly after Nick's third swim all accounted for and a few lessons learnt along the way. Well done to Carys and Nick.First time out on moving water really did well. Jordan and Jon good co-ordination on the rescues and Andy Peate for his
competent assessments of the potentially exposed situations we found ourselves in.
A level 2 coach in the making!

Good day had by all

Andy Rees"

Phew: better keep the other reports short:

2. Saturday morning, Rest Bay. John C. and I went surfing. Beautiful morning. Big surf: 6-7ft swell. I went out through the break once and was sorry I had.

3. Later Saturday morning, Upper Taff (Quakers Yard to Trefforest): Matt and Jon.

4. Sunday, Wye (Afon Howey Bach - Boughrood). Rob and I. Beautiful day and trip. This is mainly a Grade 1 stretch with some 2, and 1 bit of Gr3: "Hell Hole" : which was basically a straight forward shoot on the extreme right. Rob and I ran it twice.

Afon Grwyne Fawr, Sunday 4 Dec

3 intrepid paddlers -Hywel, Rob and Dave ventured out onto this Grade 2-3 river. The weir gauge showed just under 3 which is low but runnable. There were a few tree blocking the river early on - some we squeezed past but we portaged too. I had what would almost count as a swim when my boat started getting swept downstream as I was scrambling out for a scout just above what turned out to be a couple of falls (for the record, both were easy - the first far left down a shoot). Further on, we scouted when we came to a footbridge across the river which is a hundred yards or so above Penydarren Falls. We ran right of centre. We also ran the weir at Llangenny (where we'd seen sewin trying to jump upstream when we inspected on the way to the put-in.). Nice trip, and a pint in the Blue Bell. We also scouted for another day the much more serious looking Clydach (Grade 3-5) at Gilwern on the way back.  

Sully Island - Lavernock, Sunday 20 Nov 2005

High pressure produced good conditions well suited to a gentle sea paddle. Grant, John N. , Dave C. and I met by the Captain's Wife pub in Swanbridge and launched just after 12 noon. Low tide at Flat Holm was due at 15.30 but already by 12 the causeway to Sully Island had appeared so that a paddle around was not possible. Instead, we paddled up to Lavernock point. A bit of energy was needed to paddle against the tide stream to get up across the two weir like features but it was possible, the longer boats have a distinct advantage over Dave C.'s short un. COming back we pulled out into the tide stream a bit and taking a transit on a buoy between us and Flat Holm could enjoy the speed we were travelling without doing anything. Grant went and spoilt it a bit, making it all hard work by leading us too close into the shore so we were paddling against the eddy. Doh! But after a bit of cajouling he relented and let us pull out a bit further (he had made the kind offer of suggesting I might go by myself first). As it was about 1.30 when we approached the beach again, John N. decided B&Q would be more interesting so rushed off. The remaining 3 of us went half way around the island, came back, watched me splash in the water a bit practising my roll, and got out about 2. Finished off with coffee (honest) for me and Grant in the Captain's Wife. Very enjoyable. You should have come.

I found this link which contains some pictures of the area: not us kayaking though.http://www.glyn-ryland.com/sea.html

 

4 Star Training - 13 Nov 2005

Here is Grant's report of the event which Grant, over L3 Inland Coach organised, on the lower Taff, from Radyr weir down to Llandaf rowing club.

"Participants = Rob Green, Matt, Andy Peate & Grant 
Phil Davies turned up but after looking at his personal kit & experience we decided this
was possibly a bit ambitious given the water level (med - high)  That said,each participant laid out their equipment to see if it matched the kit list on the syllabus.  Andy P was closest with Matt needing a lot more kit.
Participants arranged the shuttle and a warm up/stretch. After agreeing signals and action in the event of a capsize we set off and covered the following:
1. forward and reverse ferry gliding - each participant did a ferry glide while the 3 watching focussed on their body, blade or boat and provided feedback on angle of attack, edge, body forward or back etc
2. break ins/outs - started with the absolute beginnning (edging the boat) then paddling across eddy line, then eyes shut, then looking down river to initiate turn.

This worked very well and gives the coach lots of time to spot things and make suggestions - eg leaning forward during a reverse ferry glide to stop the back of the boat catching.

After this each participants led for a section of the river, playing follow my leader to practice what we'd learnt.  Half way along we stopped for throwline practice - the amount of improvement over the session reflected how much scope for improvement there was!  Lots of practice needed here!
Then surfing small waves which was fine - well done. 
Matt had a good suggestion for getting to the top of the eddy by aiming to break out above the start of the eddy.  He then led an exercise/demo that really helped to
show how this could be done.  Afterwards Andy went off breaking in and out with lots more confidence than before.

Feedback - all 3 candidates have a good chance of passing the assessment - well done  Matt's interest in coaching is really coming through - as shown by the breaking out exercise he used.

Highlight of the trip - Rob Green paddling aggressively across the eddy line when breaking in with his eyes shut - conclusion - next time you break in shut your eyes Rob.

So, lovely day and thanks to you all for the trip - regards, Grant."