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Frome Canoe Club is affiliated to British Canoeing and is a Registered Charity (Number 1104728)

Newsletter

Volume 39 Issue 10: October 2015

Our next Saturday afternoon

session is 10th October, 2-4pm,

Frome Trip report: Cliffords Mill Weir here - too scary for this paddler perhaps? See more about the Frome Trip on p10-12

Dart Weekend: see p6 for details.

For details of the River Barle and

River Avon trips see p4-5.

Canoe Polo at Paulton Pool: 3 sessions over the winter (second Wednesday in October, November and December). 8-9pm. Bring your own boat.

It’s All In The Timing - Graham’s

article about timing mishaps makes a

good read, p8-10

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In this issue

3 Calendar in brief

4 River Avon trip

4 Canoe Polo at Paulton Pool

5 River Barle trip

5 Work Party - come and help us!

5 Coaches meeting

6 Dart Weekend

7 Winter programme

8-10 It’s All In The Timing by Graham W

10-12 River Frome trip

13 Bits and Pieces

14 Some Thank Yous

15 Copper Noseclip Points

16 Back Page

CALENDAR: details

REPORTS

OTHER THINGS

FCC ‘THROWLINE ’ CLUB MAGAZINE

Send articles for the next issue to [email protected] by 27th October

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

President

Graham Warnecke

Vice Presidents

Richard and Jane Arney

Jim and Catharine Croft

Chairman

Andy Vowell

Vice Chairman

Gareth McGiveron

Treasurer

John Kent

Secretary

Pam Dixon

16 Blagdon Walk, Frome, BA11 2YH

Committee Members

Rich Carter

Richard Heal

Jonathan Howell

Tracey Lemon

Stuart Miles

Jack Smiles

Kit Officer

Jack Smiles

SmokefreeSports Please help us to promote a smokefree club by

refraining from smoking publically at all our events.

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Calendar 2015


Date Event Who for Contact

October

3/4 Tiverton moving water weekend

Passport/One star and 10 years+

Pam D

10 Saturday afternoon club session All Rich C

14 Canoe Polo at Paulton Pool Polo players Jack/George

17 Work Party All Pam D

18 River Avon trip All Stu M


25 River Barle trip One Star and 10+ years and spray deck.

Gareth M

November

7/8 Dart Weekend Passport/One star and 10 years+

Pam D

7 Saturday club session cancelled


15 River Frome trip Passport/One Star + Rich C


29 Grade 2 River Passport/One star and 10 years+

tbc

December



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PAULTON POOL

FOR CANOE POLO

14th October Paulton Pool Plumptre Road, BS39 7QY 8-9pm Cost £2.50

We have a chance to paddle once a month at Paulton Pool.

We thought we would get some canoe polo practice in!

We have to paddle in short boats so please bring your own boat (and paddle). Or let Pam know if you need to borrow club kit. The club will bring the helmets and BAs.

Meet us at the pool.

The other two dates are : 11th Nov and 9th Dec

Calendar in detail

RIVER AVON TRIP

18th October Meet Market Yard: 9am Cost £3 Organiser: Stuart Miles The section we had planned to do is too overgrown at the moment so we will re-locate to another stretch of the Avon: we could do Melksham to Bradford on Avon or we could do a ‘circle ‘ with a bit of river and a bit of canal. Alternatively we could do a different stretch of the River Frome.

So it’s a mystery trip!

It's a 9am meet and return about 3pm. Bring a change of clothes, which includes warm thermal under-clothing and a waterproof packed lunch which needs to be able to fit in a kayak.

OCTOBER SATURDAY SESSIONS

10th October 24th October

At the Clubhouse 2-4pm

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Calendar in detail


WORK PARTY

17th October At Market Yard 9am-1pm

Everyone is welcome to help us!

We’re planning to ‘sort out’ the wooden steps to the jetty. This is a big job and so help will be appreciat-ed.

Also on the cards today is the big floor wash of the changing rooms, repainting the grey containers out-side, clearing the back gutter and the list goes on.

The club doesn’t own tools so can you bring ones which you think will be needed.

Refreshments will be on tap.

RIVER BARLE TRIP

25th October Meet Market Yard: 8am Cost £12 Organiser : Gareth McGiveron

This is a beautiful river on Exmoor. Graded at 2, it has rapids almost all the way down and is perfect if you have just done the moving water training at Tiverton.

It is a trip of about 7 miles and has sometimes been likened to an alpine river because of the way it flows through the valley.

You need to have warm stuff to wear on the water: wet suit, wetsuit boots, decent cag or drysuit and thermal underclothing.

A waterproof packed lunch to carry in a kayak is essential too. (ie in a con-tainer small enough to go in a boat.)

This trip is for people who are 10 years and over, with Passport or One Star (and above) and have done the moving water training.

You must be able to wear a spray deck for this trip.

You can pick up club kit on the morn-ing of the trip.

COACHES MEETING

21stOctober At the Clubhouse 7pm

A meeting to review the summer season of paddling. Coaches and Volunteers are all welcome.

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Calendar in detail - Dart Weekend

Carl, Kurt and Neil on the Allta Chourinn, a steep rockslide in Glen Etive.


DART WEEKEND

7/8th November Meet Market Yard: 8am £40 A weekend paddling the River Dart. This is a beautiful river in Dartmoor and we paddle both days.

There are three sections we can do:

Upper - for crazy people

Loop - for 2 Star + paddlers

Lower - for less experienced paddlers

When you sign up, let us know the section you want to do. You can do the same section on both days or swap around.

We stay overnight in Powdermills Bunk-house in the middle of Dartmoor. It has bunk beds so you need to bring just a sleeping bag and your personal over-night things. Evening meal, breakfast and a packed lunch are provided.

On the Saturday morning we meet at the clubhouse and sort out kit - you can borrow paddling stuff from the club.

The cost of this trip includes transport , accommodation and food except Saturday lunch, so bring a packed lunch for Saturday.

We drive straight to the River on Saturday morning, paddle the section we have chosen, then drive to the bunk-

house where we all muck in to help get the evening meal. It’s a very chilled affair and we get to sit and chat or watch a dvd. In the morning we eat breakfast together, prepare our packed lunches and then leave to paddle the Dart again.

The bunkhouse has a drying room which lets us all have dry kit for Sunday.

A deposit of £10 secures your place on this trip. Sign up in the folder on any club session or email Pam.

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What happens over the autumn/winter season?


We can’t meet at the pool this autumn ..

SO WHAT ABOUT A REGULAR PADDLING SESSION?

Our regular paddling sessions are to be Saturday afternoons every other weekend. The October dates are 10th and 24th, at 2pm. They will be run as a normal club session and depending on what people want to do we will organise games/ skills/ chill-outs.

Cost £2.50 per person.

THE CLUBHOUSE WILL STILL BE OPEN EVERY WEDNESDAY

We will meet every Wednesday and there will be a variety of activities - eg talks by members, DVD nights, quizzes, safety training, first aid refresher and so on. Sometimes we will just meet and chat. These regular meetings are ideal for finding out what is happening by way of river trips and staying in touch.

And slalomists can train round the poles on Wednesdays too.

ADULTS CAN PADDLE ON WEDNESDAYS TOO

There won’t be organised paddling sessions, however adults can get on the water if they like, but without an instructor adults need to take responsibility for themselves. Youth members may be able to paddle but they need to ask Rich, or duty coach, for permission each week. (From now on there will be no charge for these sessions.)

WHAT ABOUT POOL SESSIONS?

The pool at Frome is out of action until January so we have booked up three Wednesdays at Pautlon Pool to play polo: the second Wednesday each month. !4th October, 11th November, 9th December. To need to make your own way there and take your own boat or arrange to share. Anyone wanting help to get there or need to use a club boat, please contact Pam.

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IT’S ALL IN THE TIMING


MARKET YARD SLALOM 2015

Yep, I got it wrong big time, but we, or should I say, I got away with it. Maybe?

I am of course talking about the last Frome Slalom at the club.

In the beginning the water was low, competitor numbers were down and the weather was iffy. These were the good points compared to what was to happen later in the day. On the bright side though, everything else was fine. Ben, John and Jack were running around full of confidence organising people and things when I arrived to offer my services. If only they had the use of a crystal ball at that point, the mists of time would have had a lot to teach them when it comes to delegation.

For the first runs I was given the job of finish, not a hard task: just press the button on the stopwatch and record the time on a sheet of paper. Easy when all goes to plan, but at low division slaloms nothing tends to

go to plan. Bib number 6 has no chance of following bib number 7 when they are sharing the same canoe unless we can arrange a parallel universe that is. And when a female C1 arrives amongst the men’s K1 class, things can get inter-esting. Don’t even get me started on the bibs, back to front, upside down, I have seen them all. These are all things that have to be dealt with at the finish point. There is also all the kit needed to do the job. You never have enough hands to hold everything! I ask you, is this a situa-tion you should put a club member/pensioner in? In my defence I would say

NO, but I survived the first runs and after a large toasty and mug of tea served in the refreshment gazebo, my heart beat slowly

returned to normal.

I may have seemed a bit harsh in my description of my

finish position/job on the first runs, but I am desperately trying to cushion my fall from grace in what hap-pened next, the start stint.

Before I go on to describe the incident, I think I need to explain the vast amount of equipment needed to operate Start/Finish. It all starts with the clip-board - a standard A4 size with two bits of string attached to the bull-dog clip. This clip stops any paper-work from flying off

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All in the timing continued


into the wild blue yonder when the wind blows. On one piece of string a pencil is attached and sometimes even a pencil sharpener. This piece of string though, is always 75mm short of being able to write with the pencil at the bottom of the clip-board. The second piece of string is attached to a whistle, which often gives off a sound like a strangled reed warbler rather than the shrill noise that is needed to wake up the competitors. Again, the string tends to be on the short side meaning you have to hold up the clip-board in front of you to activate the whistle. Which means of course, that you are missing what is happening in front of you at the time of whistling. This all occupies hand one. Hand two holds the stop-watch to record the start/finish times. The stop-watch has been synchronised to the accuracy of a moon launch clock. It is protected with two staples and a piece of tape to make it fool proof, but not Graham proof. All this is rounded off with a walkie-talkie. Bearing in mind I have no hand three, this walkie-talkie involves lots of cricket talk, (overs and outs ) and some chap called Roger. I didn’t even know we had a Roger in the

club. But what I do know was I was on Radio 4 and should have been on channel 2.

With all this equipment, plus Jack’s instructions running around my head, I arrived at the start to find I would have to operate and maintain control over all this equipment and the com-petitors at the start line whilst balanc-ing on a 60/70° sloping river bank, and people wonder why it all went wrong. Though to be fair, not to start with. We fairly whistled through the start sheet until the judges’ final runs. Was it the tap on the shoulder asking for the results sheet, the excitement of knowing we may get finished before it started to rain, or was it just slalom gremlins that altered the stop-watch? Despite the fool-proof method of staples and clips, what-ever it was I didn’t notice and carried on putting down times that had no relevance to what was happening what so ever. A situation that continued until eagle eyed John and his computer said Continued over page

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NO, this is not right, data input does not equate, plus other stuff that caused a wobbly in control.

Everything ground to a halt while we all sat around with calculators, beads and anything else to hand trying to work out a method that created a proper result from the rubbish that I had supplied, all to no avail. Re-runs were called for, but only by three com-petitors, the rest were happy with their first run results. The re-runs were whipped through and results published before I could get my hands on any-

All in the timing and Frome trip report

thing else.

So there you have it. Was it me or was it the gremlins? We may never know, or perhaps time will tell. All this from an ex-slalomist, slalom coach, slalom organiser and I.C.F. slalom judge and now ex start/finisher at Frome Slaloms, otherwise known as Graham W.

Ed: Don’t be so hard on yourself, Graham! We all need little challenges to overcome from time to time!

And thank you for this article - it reminds me of the ones we used to get in the old days . . .!

Frome trip 20th September - we had some very different water users

today! A good turnout, some decent weather and water in the river for a change meant this was going to be a good trip. And it was. The section Creamery to Langham Farm was chosen today. First weir at Lullington was the usual ‘climb-down’ affair.

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Frome trip 20th September continued

Then onto Beckington Weir with its lovely stopper. Lots of playing happened here today. Further on, a very loud and unusual noise had us all wondering what was happening to our river. It was a strange water user but we were happy to share, and we watched as it did its

business and then went on its way.

Cliffords Mill was the next weir where every-one posed for photos. Then on to Shawford with its vertical drop. Scuttsbridge Mill Weir (aka Woolverton weir) had an adrenaline moment for Su as she very

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River Exe and Exeter Ship Canal River Frome trip continued

nearly got dragged over in a very bad place. A quick thinking Jack said ‘Just get out of your boat, Su’ which she did and all was well. There was a bit of ferry gliding in the shoot below this weir, but some of us were getting cold now so we pressed on to Rode via the horrid trees on the LHS which gave Gil his three points. Langham Farm next and we were home but not all of us were dry.

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Bits and Pieces

Paddlers and Points Wye trip 12th September Boys: Alex H, Alfie L, Jacob L, Jay M (6), Jos M, Keiran C (4), Kieran F, Liam T (9), Robin M (3), Sam P, Sean C (15), Women: Nikki W (3), Pam D, Sandra M (3), Su F Men: Brian M, Jonathan H, Rich C, Rob K (21), Steve T (12), And two guest paddlers who came with Su. A high scoring trip then, with 73 points in total. What was going on? Frome trip 20th September Boys: Gil S (3), Jack N, Jacob L, Joe G, Josh N, Jude R, Liam T , Reece C (6) Women: Nicky C, Pam D, Su F Men: Jack S, Rich C, Rich H, Rob K , Steve T , Stu M and Will H

The latest issue of The Paddler ezine for is available to read for free here

From your Committee: future river trips As you may have spotted we have fixed the dates in the calendar for some river trips but we haven’t specified the actual river. The committee thought that it would be good to leave things slightly more flexible so that depending on the water on the day, the most appropriate river could be selected. So guides are Grade 1 trip—all the local sections of the Frome or Avon, and the Wye. Grade 2 trip—Exe, Barle, Usk Grade 3 trip—Dart Loop, Tavy. We will try this for a winter and see if it is an improvement. Let us know what you think. Look forward to seeing you on the winter trips!

http://www.joomag.com/magazine/thepaddler-ezine/M0151422001368812110.

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Exeter canoe loop by A


Bits and Pieces

Sorting out the intricacies of the plumbing system is no mean feat, and Terry has got it all working for us again. We can shower in comfort now. Thank you Terry.

You see it here first: tree felling up a ladder! Jonathan clears out the trees and other stuff from the gutter. Not a nice job at all. And this was after he had done the Taster session with Kate and Mike. Thank you Jonathan.

Andy squared off the gate to the jetty in preparation for the dog-proof wire we will fix to it. We have a work party on 17th October if you can spare the morning to help with re-laying steps, painting the containers etc.

The Duck Race Thank you to Kyra, Isi, India, Philippa, Chloe and Rich for helping to collect ducks for Frome Carnival fund-raising. It is like watching paint dry, waiting for the little plastic thingies to arrive at the end isn’t it?

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Bits and Pieces

Rob Kimber 21

Sean Collett 15

Ian Jones 12

Steve Taylor 12

Bex Tanti 9

Gus Matthews 9

Liam Taylor 9

Chloe Collins 9

Keiran Clark 7

Jim Read 7

Ben Nicol 7

Toby Wilde 6

Jos Maxey 6

Terry O'Neill 6

Kath Norton 6

Cameron Morris 6

Ollie Hale 6

Tom Burnett 6

Joe Weyman 6

Ollie Neilson 6

Jay Mitchell 6

Reece Cole 6

Henry Faithfull 4

Dave Pilbeam 3

Jed Ellender 3

Jed Norris 3

Rich Heal 3

Cameron Fewell 3

Chris Wilde 3

Mark Baines 3

Kate Johnson 3

Start Armstrong 3

Stu Miles 3

John Kent 3

Andrew Lyall 3

Robin Mitchell 3

Sandra Mitchell 3

Aimee Collins 3

Kieran Fewell 3

Gil Stockley 3

Graham Warnecke 2

Brian Woolven 2

Mike Bullen 2

Raphe Bishopp 2

Alun Jones 1

Our Copper Noseclip Points chart has changed dramatically since the Wye Rapids trip. Congratulations go to Rob, now top of the chart. He never once stopped trying on that trip. He was an inspiration to us all!

Points are awarded when things don’t quite go according to plan: 3 points for a capsize and swim, 2 for a technical rescue (ie you would have swum without the help from another paddler) and 1 point for a capsize and roll up.

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Canoeing and kayaking are “Assumed risk” – “Water contact sports” that may carry attendant risks. Participants should be aware of and accept these risks, and be responsible for their own action and involvement.

www.frome-canoe-club.org.uk

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CONTACTS

Chairman: Andy Vowell 07584 069432 Vice Chair: Gareth McGiveron Treasurer: John Kent 01225 765168 [email protected] Secretary: Pam Dixon 07740 472982 [email protected] Head Coach: Rich Carter 01373 864623 Youth Reps: Jack Smiles and Gareth McGiveron Volunteer Rep: Jonathan Howell Kit: Jack Smiles [email protected]

Did you know that the monthly news-letter can be accessed via the website? So if you ‘lose’ it in your inbox, it’s always three clicks away from you!

Get all your canoeing stuff

from the Family Adventure

Store, Hilperton.

New Hydro Projects in the River Frome catchment area

There are two existing projects for the generation of electricity already in the area: Hapsford near Great Elm and Tellisford.

Two more are in the pipeline: Wadbury at Fussells Mill in Vallis Vale and another at Spring Gardens where there is a proposal for an 80kw hydro-system on the site of the previous water mill.

All the projects are open to the public on 17/18 October (booking is recommended – see their website www.freco.org for details).

Do let us know if you have any more information about these projects .

3 Points for Dave at Saturday’s

club session. It was all to do with getting out of the kayak at the end.

There’s more to Shepperton Slalom than you’d expect. Read Su’s article next month.

2015 10 newsletter

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