marlow canoe club summer newsletter no.137

7/31/2019 MARLOW CANOE CLUB SUMMER NEWSLETTER no.137.

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A little legal stuff....

This newsletter is a free publication for theMarlow Canoe Club.

Whilst every care is taken, the newsletter andthe Marlow Canoe Club do not accept respons-ibility for the opinions expressed or the goodsand services mentioned in this publication.

2012.

INSIDE YOURAUTUMN 2012 ISSUE

3 Safe paddling in high water levelsTraffic lights on the water. Whatever next,roundabouts? Some timely advice fromyour chairman reprinted.

4 Olympic sprint canoeMen and women from all round the globecongregate to paddle boats very fast instraight lines on a mythical lake, all to thenon-dulcet accompaniment of Captain Jackfrom Doctor Who.

6 Great white riverA bunch of white-necks and mono-lingualvandals spy a perfect opportunity toinfiltrate and sabotage a foreign hydro

electric facility.12 Canoepedia

Love and marriage go together like a horseand canoe.

13 How to book a boatFinally, the mystical secret is revealed.Abra abra cadabra, I wanna reach out andgrab ya! The Space Cowboy can gethimself a canoe and so can you.

14 The Old Boys ClubHow committed is your committee?Enough to talk about helmets withoutgiggling, and Newtonian mechanicswithout falling asleep.

15 Committee members & RetailersDirectory enquiries, who needs them?Well we all still do, but not for committeemembers and local paddling shops.

16 Calendar

Because the newsletter is a bit late, it hasbeen necessary to fill the blank space leftin the page by a shortened calendar. Ohdear.

COVER PHOTO

The cover photographfor this newsletter wassupplied by John Norris

and is entitled "Rob onhis way to a successfulLVWWC legacyassessment".

EDITORIALIn the last newsletter I lamented

the dismal start to summer andwondered if the rain would ever stopfalling. As we now know the rain dideventually stop but not long enoughto prevent Summer being the worst

most of us sun-worshippers canremember.However, lady luck usually falls on

Marlow Canoe Club, and that was mostlytrue this summer, notably with the inlandtours organised by Andy Maxted (more onthose in the Winter newsletter) but alsousually with our club sessions.

A white-water article dominates thisautumn edition of your newsletter. That

is unusual these days where most people,myself included, generally think thatonline video streaming is the best way toappreciate the fun and frolics of white-water trips. But Chris Porteouss articleproves that words and white-water canindeed go together.. sometimes.

But what do you think? Take a lookand post a comment on the yahoo groupor the scribd site. We are coming upsoon to it being a couple years with yourstruly as editor and I think it is worthreviewing if the newsletter is serving theneeds of all the rank and file members.The committee has also agreed to discussthis subject and make some decisions atthe AGM in early 2013 so be prepared tohave your say.

But that is next year. Until then it is

business as usual and you will have tocontinue to put up with the low-browformat and, worst of all, the terrible jokeon the back page.

Rodney Casbierd, Editor.

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3SAFETY

Safe paddling in

high water levelsby Adrian CooperMembers are reminded to take extra care at times of high water levels and high flowspeeds. After an unusually long period of relative benign river conditions, the heavyrain in the summer of 2012 caused the river level to rise and catch out some of ournewer members.

Duty Officers duties do not extend to being responsible for club sessions on the water so membersattending need to ensure they are operating in a safe manner.

A large group during a club session will probably want to divide into smaller groups, some maybeusing the weir whilst others venture up or downstream. Groups should ensure they have at leastan experienced paddler with them to assist in a safely planned trip and then advise the DutyOfficer of their intentions.

A helpful guide for a group is the traffic light system operated by the Marlowrowing club on the other side of the Thames. When their light is at amber, theyare recommending only experienced rowers venture out. When the light is red,

hey are instructing that no rowers be on the water. For canoeists, we areusually able to cope with the more difficult water but we do need to be moreaware. If the light is red, novice paddlers should really not be on the water since

hey will not have the necessary control to avoid hazards.

Fast flowing water can be very dangerous and inexperienced paddlers may besurprised how difficult it can be to make progress paddling back upstream.

A tip for paddlers trying to make headway upstream in fast water is to keep closeo the banks, paddle on the inside of bends in the river and make use of the

slacker water behind obstacles.

Be safe out there.


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Olympic sprint canoeby Rodney Casbierd

The date is Monday 6th August 2012, it is day one of the Olympic Canoe Sprint at DorneyLake, and your editor has a ticket. Actually it is the only London 2012 ticket that I wasgranted out of the basketful that I applied for but, never mind, at least it is for a sportthat I am involved with and it is on the doorstep.

I stroll into the venue, using the Dorney entrance used mostly by local cyclistsand pedestrians, and someone welcomes me to Eton Dorney. For a momentI am disoriented, and wonder if I am in the wrong place. Dont you meanDorney Rowing Lake, I ask, to which my smiling greeter responds, Oh, thatsfunny, a lot of people have been saying that this morning. Hmmm.

After being strip-searched and having my urine analysed for traces of high ex-plosive, I proceed from the security checkpoint to the banks of the lakes. Andthere I see a sight so bizarre and alien that I am forced to perform a double-take. Is that what I think it is? Could it really be?

But yes indeed, there really is a boat on Dorney Lake. In fact there are several, kayaks and ca-noes all out practising. All these years that I have cycled and walked my flea-bitten mutt around

his lake and not once have I seen any kind of boat upon it, until now. Amazing. Well, not really,but you take my point.

During the 2 km hike to my seat in the main stands, I passup on the opportunity to buy an official Olympic pen for sixquid. I also pass up on buying either a day or full pro-gramme when I notice that neither have much to say about

odays events or paddling at all. The programme seller in-stead gives me a free starting list summary, which is all Ireally need. On arrival at the spectator stands I am relieved

o note that the water dispensers are also free.

My seat in the stands is not by the start line but is still reasonably close and is at least directly op-posite the big screen, so that I can see close-ups, replays and the results tables. The commentat-or is a rather over-enthusiastic American chap, whose name I forget, but he sounds exactly like

ohn Barrowman and is just as irritating. John tells us that there has been a frenzy of activityover the weekend to convert the course from one used for rowing to the one we have now forpaddling. But he is a bit thin on the details of what actually happened, and that kind of set thescene for the quality of his commentary thereafter.

So what of the action on the lake, I hear John Norris shout. Well, this was just the first day andhere were no finals, but I can assure you there was still plenty of paddle-power action to report.

There were five races for the mens singleskayak (MK1) 1000m culminating in the semi-fi-nals. Our hero Tim Brabants did well to finish

fourth in his semi-final in 3 minutes 30.769seconds, just 0.049 seconds ahead of the Bul-garian Miroslav Kirchev, and hence qualify forthe final. Tim has suffered from injury and ill-ness over the past year or so and this hadclearly affected his performance, requiring truegrit and determination to get him through. But

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a couple of days later Tim would finish last in the final, with the gold medal going to the Dane, Ei-rik Larsen.

t was also quite blowy and after a few races it was already clear that the westerly wind blowingacross the lake was putting east-bank competitors in lanes 1 and 2 at a disadvantage. It seemeda shame that after 4 years of preparation, luck could be so influential on the results.

Next up were the mens singles canoe (MC1) 1000m. Once again, five races spread over themorning, with British interest restingwith Richard Jefferies. Richard madet through his heat but finished last inhe semi-final in a time of 4 minutes

50 seconds. That was over 58seconds behind the semi-final winner.These were the only canoe events on

he day and the sight of these boatswas awe-inspiring. How these guyskeep the things balanced was beyond

me, some truly incredible skill was ondisplay. And, judging from the pad-dling technique, I imagine that it putsa lot of stress on the thigh and buttock muscles. Ouch! The gold medal in this event would even-

ually be won by Sebastian Brendel of Germany.

Then we had the male pairings in the kayak(MK2) 1000m. John Barrowman informed us thatthe key skill here was for the couple to paddlewith a similar technique. You could clearly seeevidence of this with the ten year old Germanpairing of Hollstein and Ihle being able to paddleat a faster speed with a slower stroke rate thanthe newer Australian paring of Smith and Wal-lace. There were no British competitors in thisevent and the gold medal eventually went to theHungarian couple, Dombi and Kokeny, with theaforementioned Germans taking bronze.

Certainly not to be outdone by the chaps, the women kayak sprinters also put on a good display inhe 500m fours (WK4) events. Male paddling first became an official Olympic event in the contro-

versial 1936 Munich games, ultimately leading to the second World War. Following the end ofhostilities, female paddlers were finally granted equal access in the 1948 London games and wehave avoided World War ever since.

But I digress. There werewo heats and one semi-final,

with the four British womenof Walker, Cawthorn, Hannahand Sawers finishing inourth place to qualify for theinal in which they would

eventually finish fifth. Hun-gary again took the goldmedal in this event.

And that was that. The end of the day's competition and time for me to leave Dorney and makeuse of the Travelcard that London 2012 had kindly supplied, to make a day of it up town. Until Rio

hen..

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6WHITEWATER

Great White Riverby Chris Porteous

"Help!" Its not something I have ever felt the urge to shout while on a river, but sitting

half submerged under a siphoning rock, clinging on to the top of the rock as best I couldwith my gloved hands, it took a lot of self restraint not to yell for help. Its not really thebest way to start a trip down a brand new, undocumented river.

We had found the river the previous day while driving through a small hamlet nestling in the heartof the French Alps. As kayakers tend to do, we stopped as we drove across a small bridge to lookat what was below. Not being aware of any guidebook sections in the area, we expected to see arock strewn ditch with little paddling interest. However after lazily stepping out of the cars andooking over the dilapidated stone walls of the bridge, what we saw was far more exciting clear

blue water rushing over granite boulders forming a enticing grade 3/4 boulder garden winding offup a steep wooded valley.

t was five in the afternoon and we had finished our paddling for the day, but were immediatelyntrigued by this river which didn't even get a mention in the "other rivers" section of our new

guidebook. A quick consultation with TomTom showed that there was a heavily switch backed roadwhich eventually rejoined the river valley a couple of km upstream. Having finished boating for theday, we decided to spin the car around and have an explore up the valley.

After a km or so we started losing hope of anything runable lying up the valley we had beendriving up impossible switchbacks which required 3-point turns simply to get around and gained aworrying amount of altitude. However eventually the road flattened out a bit and we hung out of

he windows (literally!), craning our necks to try and spot the river far below in the deep, woodedvalley. Apart from being nice and cooling in the 30degC heat, hanging out the windows eventuallypaid off when rounding a corner we caught aglimpse of the azure water of the river below.Far from the terrifying boulder choked rapids

hat we were expecting, what we actually sawwas flowing rock gardens and slides which (albeitrom 150ft up) looked as if they went at about

grade 4. Excitement building again, we continuedup the road, but the thick forest swallowed theriver again.

Finally, about another 2km up the road wecaught sight of what looked like a horizontal jetof water through the trees.

Uh-oh, that doesn't look good'. We couldntreally see much , but horizontal water normallymeans one thing hydro-electric schemes. 'Itigures, this river has quite some gradient on it' Ihought. Seeing as we were up for a bit of an

explore, we abandoned the car and bushwhacked

hrough the forest in the rough direction of thewater we had seen. After rather a lot of sliding,ducking and swearing we eventually got down to

he river.Wow.' The river fell away downstream in the

most amazing looking G4/5 rapids I had seensince being in Val Sesia a couple of years ago.


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Looking upstream, we could see what had caught our eyes a funny house like structure over theriver with thick jet of water erupting from close to the left bank. 'Micro hydro.'

This river looked too good to miss, so after even more swearing, we re-assembled back at theroad to discuss our options. "Its been 2km since we last saw the river there could be tonnes ofthose hydro systems down there." Nick, unusually being the voice of reason had a pretty goodpoint hydros strike fear into any river boater and even gungho Mike agreed it would be unwise toget on the river being so far away from the road.

We slowly drove back down the valleyand about 750m downstream saw ameadow which looked like it wentquite close to the river, so we pulledover into a small layby and set off onfoot again. Once again, arriving at theriver, we were greeted with sinuousooking G4 rapids winding down the

mountain and then flowing abruptlyaround a corner into a gorge. 'Whysn't this river described its

amazing!'

"We can do this everything we haveseen looks brilliant" Mike said in histypically enthusiastic way. I had toagree, the river looked just too goodto miss. The concern was the factthat over the space of 4/5km, we hadseen the river 3 times not exactlythe best bit of scouting ever!

We slowly made our way back down the insane switchbacks, to the campsite eagerly talking aboutwhat may or may not be on the river and how we could run it safely. The ultimate decision wasthat we needed more information. Happily in the world of WiFi networks, our little, out the waycampsite had high speed Internet! After grabbing some grub, we sat down on the campsiteounger chairs with some beers (or lemonade for me :) ) and set about finding out what we could.

Google, UK Rivers Guidebook and the German equivalent failed us however there was absolutelyno information on this river. Luckily, Titi, the owner of the local rafting company happened to liven a caravan on the site, so we decided to have a chat with him.

"Parlez-vous Anglais?""Oui, a little.""Have you paddled the river up the valley by your raft centre?""... Pardon?". Oh, this could be interesting!"Have... you... paddled... the... river... [with various gesticulations!]""Ah, non, very risky water. You need to get out.". Ok, so it has some difficult rapids which needscouting on foot."Is it ever paddled?""Ummm... maybe every few years, yes"

Excellent so its hard, but does go. However, still puzzled as to why we couldn't find anything andwanting more info, we resorted to heightmaps and satellite imagery. Here was our first clue as towhy we couldnt find any information on the satellite photos, the river looked completely dry.Crucially, we could see that the contours were moderately constant and there wasn't any otherhydro buildings. 'Maybe this river needs really high levels [which we had at the time] to run. Wecould have lucked out here and be able to paddle something that is rarely possible here!'


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In our excitement we latched onto this as a plausible explanation, not considering (or maybegnoring) another far more sinister possibility.

In the rather faffy fashion which was typical ofour trip at this point, we didn't manage to packup camp until about 10:30 the next morning,but we had all cemented our determination todo this river overnight, so organised a shuttlewith other Chris (who didn't want to paddle itbeing a big water boater as opposed to a creekboater) and set off back to the meadow thatwe had found the previous evening. It didn'ttake us long to kit up, do the obligatory bit ofvideoing and photography and hike down tothe river.

"Lets make absolutely sure that we have an

escape route on this no paddling round blindbends or into gorges too high for us to climbout of." Both Nick and I had been thinking exactly the same thing, but it was nice to know thatMike was on the same page. "Who's going to godown to the eddy at the gorge entrance then?""Rock, paper scissors?!" Nick suggested (lasttime he made that suggestion, he lost andbroke his back a few minutes and one 40ftwaterfall later!)"Maybe not! You guys know how to rig climbingropes, I'll go down" Mike suggested.

We both watched him style the line round asnaking grade 4 rapid and boof ledge, landingcleanly in the eddy. A quick glance round thecorner and he smiled and waved us down. 'Yes!We are doing this!'

By time we made the eddy, Mike was on thebank downstream, scouting the next drop. Thisooked like a "sporting" grade 4 rocky slide into a big pool with a tricky dog-leg move at the top.

Nick said that he wasn't really feeling

the line and was going to walk. Fairenough start of a river, rocky line.However Mike and I thought it went, soMike hopped back in his boat andbombed down the rapid perfectly. Igave my throw line to Nick and jumpedback into my boat.

Its funny, when you are psychingyourself up for a rapid, all your brain isfocusing on the line you need, what

strokes you want and how fun it will be.I didn't really give much thought to thefact that I was in a new boat whichdidn't have the line holdingperformance of my beloved PyranhaBurn. Nor did I notice the tell-tale tinycushion wave sitting on a deep flow of


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water hitting the rock right next towhere I was about to launch. NormallyI would have instantly seen the siphonand given it a wide berth, but this timeI didn't. Instead I pulled my deck on,hit the record button on my helmetcam cam and gave the thumbs up to

Nick standing below. I slid into theflow, heading for the eddy the otherside of the river that would put me in agood position for the rapid. Except Ididn't head for the eddy my boat'sdisplacement hull'ed nose didnt grabthe water as the Burn would andnstead immediately spun downstream.

The word 'Dammit' was just starting tomove through my brain when suddenlythe nose of my boat hit and thenmmediately sank down and under the siphoning rock a split second before my body hit the rock

and my paddles were ripped out of my hand. Exactly what I thought at this point probably isntpublishable, but suffice to say I immediately realised the severity of the situation.

So why didn't I shout "Help!" ? A really stupid reason really, but part of my brain was too proud toadmit that I might need rescuing and it was my own stupid fault. Instead, I started making splitsecond decisions.

Am I stable? No, I'm sinking. Can I get a better grip? Probably not. What about pushing off hard?Yeah, that might work. Will I capsize? Maybe, I can hand roll though. Do it. DO IT!'

I pushed the rock as hard as I could trying to make the back of the boat catch the flow and pullthe front out from under the rock. 'Yes! I'm out!' Unfortunately the force of the push off balancedme and I did a rather comical,slow, capsize, unable tosupport myself with just myhands. 'Not good, I'm goingover the lip of the rapid... curlup.' A few bangs and bashesater I felt the boat shoot into

calmer water and instantlyhand rolled back up, luckily insuch a way that I was able topower into a big eddy and grabmy paddles from Mike.

After rolling up, I was strangelyunconcerned about what hadust happened, just a bit out of

breath and glad for the full facehelmet I was wearing and the

eash that I had on my camera(as it had been knocked off thehelmet while upside down).

"You ok?" Mike and Nick asked."Yeah, yeah, its fine glad I can hand roll!" I said, slightly embarassed and trying to shrug it off."Just thought that your upright line looked a bit boring really Mike!"


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WHITEWATER 10

We set off again into anexceptionally scenic micro gorge withhigh scree banks and bright greentrees overhanging above our heads.It really was perfect boating clearwater, boulder gardens with

inventive lines and the odd bedrockslide thrown in for good measure,the difficulty never really exceedingG4.

The majority of the paddling wassinuous read and run boatingleapfrog leadership at its finest. Thefew times that we did have to getout to scout, it just gave us anopportunity to soak up the

surroundings and take some photos.

This is amazing, why does no one else paddle this?!' I thought, sitting happily in an eddy, waitingfor Mike and Nick to scout the next bit. Then it struck me we were on a narrow river, in a heavilytree line gorge. More than that, a gorge with trees precariously hanging over the river, yet what,n over a km of paddling had we not seen a single one of? Trees in the river. I started thinking

through all of the information we had learned about the river with a more objective point of view.Deep gorge. Very nice rapids, yet rarely paddled. Micro-hydro upstream. Jet of water on river leftbank. "Risky water, you have to get out" according to Titi. It suddenly hit me that almost certainlythe real reason the river wasnt paddled very often and didnt appear in a guidebook was verydifferent to what we had thought last night. I scanned the walls of the gorge above me for

confirmation. Yes, there it was. 7 or 8 ft above me was a faint but obvious water line with waterscoring on the rocks below.

"Risky water." Titi didn't mean therapids were difficult, he meant thatiterally the water was risky in allikelihood the hydro outlet we had

seen on the far left bank a coupleof km upstream was probably onlyone of many outlet pipes acrossthe whole river and judging by the

water scoring and complete lack oftrees, the hydro probably flushedthe river quite regularly.

"Guys, we need to speed this up abit!" I decided not to say why, weneeded to speed up, but Mike andNick didn't argue, jumped back intotheir boats and gave me a series ofsignals telling me how to run thenext section and where the next

eddy was.

Once I broke out into the flowing rapids, my concerns melted slightly. This river is too nice. Itcan't be that dangerous, right? A few corners later, we saw, high above us the road bridge fromwhich we had been craning our necks to see the river the previous evening. Its funny how seeingthis suddenly made me feel better it was familiar, friendly and it felt like we were no longer


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paddling in the unknown.

One more corner and suddenly the gorge walls fell away, revealing a pretty stunning vista of thelear blue, tree lined river leading our eyes to the high, rocky mountains of the main river valley

ahead. Suddenly the hydro seemed far less dark and threatening even if it did suddenly release,we could easily jump onto the banks here.

Despite opening out, the rapids steepened slightly and with a renewed sense of freedom, I slid myway down through the boulder garden, savouring the moment. Exploring new, unknown riverswhere few people go and finding lovely, flowing rapids in stunning scenery this is what whitewater kayaking is all about!

t wasn't long before we shot round a corner and saw the bridge where it had all started theprevious day. Talking excitedly and telling stories of our own little incidents or lines on the riverwe hauled out boats up the bank and up to the car where Chris was waiting with lunch. It reallyhad been an amazing river it really isn't often that you get to paddle a completely new river,especially in the crowded, heavily paddled French Alps.

However, as we were de-kitting, we saw two EDF Energy and one Violia Water van heading up theoad which ultimately led to the hydro plant, adding weight to my suspicions. Would I have got onhe river had I realised about the hydro beforehand? Probably not. For that reason, I am very gladhat we hadn't realised this the night before as even after another week and a half of paddling,his river remained the highlight of our trip. Ignorance really is bliss!

f there is one thing that this river has made me realisets that exploration and adventure is the thing that

makes white water paddling so great. Exploring in mykayak is something that I want to do more of, now more

han ever (just maybe with proper research next time!).

Marlow tend to run trips out to the Alps every year andalthough its unlikely that you will do rivers quite like

his, it is a great place to paddle warm sun, toughivers and good food. It makes all the practice onreezing cold UK rivers over the winter season

worthwhile!

TOP TIPSLEARNING TO ROLL : Once you have a flat water roll, to learn a WWroll, go to Hurley when it is on 2 gates and ignore the main wave,

just purposefully capsize in the wave train and try to roll. If youcan't, you'll be in flat water within 4 seconds maximum where youcan roll. Once you can roll at Hurley, you can roll anywhere.

NEWBIES : If you capsize, don't worry and don't think you have to

act immediately. You can hold your breath for at least 20 seconds,so just hang there, gather your thoughts and bang for help. It's alot warmer and less faff than swimming!

(tips courtesy of club member Chris Porteous).


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CANOEPEDIA 12

The canoe with

four wheelsby Rodney CasbierdWe are all aware that some canoes and kayaks may be equipped with wheels to helptrolley them about, but I think this is the most extreme example that I have ever seen!

Now I know what you are thinking, but enough of my Derren Brown like powers of extra-sensoryperception. This really is a canoe, it honestly is. And a horse-drawn one at that.

The Canoe Landau in the photo originally belonged to Sir Alexander MacDonald (whoever he

was, presumably an early BCU president). It dates from the late nineteenth century and was builtby Holmes, Derby & London. The first bit of the name comes from the rounded body shape, and

he second bit comes from the origins of this type of vessel in Landau, Germany.

It has a two part spray-deck, orcanopy as some people might callit. Both halves can be raised orlowered independently of oneanother, allowing it to be closedcompletely or left opendepending upon the weather

conditions, the scenery or theoccupants degree of exhibitionism. At the time thatinnovation was considered quitea breakthrough, akin to beingable to rapidly convert yourcanoe into a kayak and vice-versa.

It was apparently once verypopular with the professional and

middle classes as a compact,lightweight but versatile methodof transport for all types ofconditions, a bit like a PyranhaFusion.

believe you could call it a C6, or maybe a C2+4, because it seats two people steering it along,and four passive passengers. No paddles are required, just whips and carrots dangled on sticks toprovide encouragement to the two horses that pull it along.

am not entirely sure how watertight the canoe is. But if you ever get to try one out on theThames then I would definitely recommend wearing both a decent buoyancy aid and a wetsuit.

f you want a closer look then get yourself down to Arlington Court, where it is on display. If youare really lucky they may even allow you to get on board. But do not repeat my mistake when Iclimbed inside the canoe with a paddle it spooked the horses and I was promptly escorted off theestate by two burly security guards. As John Norris might say, whatever floats your boat.... orpossibly not.


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13HANDBOOK

How to book a boatSo you want to take out one of the club boats on a club trip or for stealthily sneaking upon unsuspecting victims as part of your secret life as an undercover angler assassin.Either way the procedure is pretty straightforward.

Step 1 : Check availabilityThere is no point in trying to book aboat that is already reserved bysomeone else. You can get an ideaof existing boat bookings by lookingat the boat bookings view of theclub calendar. The good news is

hat the club calendar is availablerom the website. The bad news is

hat, at the time of writing, theboat bookings" view is not

available. But when this iseventually fixed you will simply clickon the down arrow next to theright-most tab and tick the "Marlowcanoe club boat bookings" option.

n the mean time you can accesshe boat bookings calendar by

clicking on the very snappy address

below or, if you are very sad, youcan type it into your web browser:

https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=cmExdmtrbXBoN3FoNGQ1c29iczA1anNjaGNAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ&gsessionid=OK

Note that club training events always take priority where club boats are concerned, so look out forraining courses on the calendar.

Step 2 : Ask for permissionTo do this simply contact the Equipment officer using the contact details provided on page 15 of

he newsletter. The officer will want to know what type of boat you need, when you want it,where you will be taking it and for what purpose.

Step 3 : Wait for permission to be grantedBe patient. The equipment officer is a volunteer and has a life so cannot always respond instantly.Provided your request is straightforward and does not clash with an existing booking there usuallys not a problem, but do please be patient and wait for permission before taking your boat.

Step 4 : Check the calendarOnce your boat booking has been approved you can go back to the club calendar and use the

boat bookings" view to confirm that your booking has been made. It makes you feel happier.

A final noteBoat bookings do not apply to club sessions and the like where the usual "first come, first served"principle applies. Boats belong to the club, you are responsible for looking after them and areinancially responsible in the event of their loss or damage. Enjoy!
https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=cmExdmtrbXBoN3FoNGQ1c29iczA1anNjaGNAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ&gsessionid=OKhttps://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=cmExdmtrbXBoN3FoNGQ1c29iczA1anNjaGNAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ&gsessionid=OK


14/16

14COMMITTEE

The old

boys clubDiscusses river boats,X-boxes, skegs,Sir Isaac Newton,

helmets and paranoia

At a recent meeting of the Marlow Canoe Club committee, or the old boys

club as you rabble have hurtfully described us, we all got pie-faced and triedto play Quake on our smartphones for old times sake.

As before, we hereby dedicate a page of the newsletter to report committee proceed-ngs and hence bore you all to death with our demented ramblings.

Membership is somewhere north of 160. A river tour boat operator asked us for permission to use the club's frontage for

mooring. We refused on the grounds that there is a risk of damage to the frontageand because the bribes offered to committee members were derisory.

The new locks should be installed before Christmas, once the President has handcrafted delightful new doors for us. So far we have invested 2200 in the systemcomponents, 90% of which has been spent on a new interactive whitewater paddlingsimulator for the committee's new X-box.

A new kayak for small people is to be purchased. The skegs on the Easkys have finally been repaired. Good on ya TB. The buoyancy aids shall be subjected to testing once Alex has re-sat his GCSE Phys-

ics. F=ma, Newton's third law of motion, remember! Anyway, those that fail the testwill be replaced. I'm talking about buoyancy aids there, not Alex.

Helmets will also be inspected and faulty ones replaced with shiny new ones.

No plans to buy any more playboats. Head coach to investigate possibility of an "introduction to whitewater" course. Sev-

eral other courses are being investigated including canoes, whitewater and sea. There was considerable interest in the "roll training". So it will be organised. It was agreed that club coaches should be reimbursed reasonable expenses. News-

letter editor to determine what is meant by "reasonable". We have responded to the approaches made to us by the rowing club with our usual

tact and diplomacy. Essentially we are supportive of their goals, but we are too lazyand tight fisted to get involved with anything that involves lots of paperwork ormoney.

No social events to report. Presumably because we are antisocial. Discuss.... There will be a survey to allow members to comment on the newsletter and hopefully

direct changes. Gawd help me. Date of the next committee meeting was going to be changed until it was realised

that doing so might allow the Newsletter editor to attend. So the rest of the commit-tee closed ranks and decided not to change the date.


15/16

15COMMITTEE

LOCAL RETAILERS

Riverside, Oxford01865 248673

http://www.riversideoxford.co.uk

Marsport, Reading01189 665912

http://www.marsport.co.uk

WWC, Shepperton01932 247978http://www.whitewaterthecanoecentre.co.uk

Paddlesport, Warwick01926 640573http://www.paddlesport.co.uk

PresidentTim Ward01494 [email protected]

Secretary

Jonathon Garner07765 [email protected]

MembershipRod Edmonds01753 [email protected]

EquipmentTom [email protected]

Women's RepresentativeCatherine [email protected]

Social SecretaryMelinda Livett

[email protected]

ChairmanAdrian Cooper01844 [email protected]

Treasurer

Kelvin Abbott01753 [email protected]

CoachingAlex [email protected]

Newsletter EditorRodney Casbierd07960 [email protected]

Youth RepresentativeAlex Green

WhitewaterChris Porteous

01628 [email protected]

1* Course Co-ordinatorSimon Knowles


Pool sessions organiserDave Goddard


SeaVacant

TouringAndy [email protected]

Feel free to contact us to discuss a relevant issue or share your views


16/16

Monday 5 NovemberCommittee meeting7.30 pm 9.30 pm, Marlow Donkey PH

Saturday 10 NovemberPool session

7.15 pm 8.15 pmWeekend 17-18 November3-star whitewater course

Weekend 24-25 NovemberSouth Wales weekend

16CALENDAR

Weekend 8-9 December3-star whitewater course

Saturday 8 DecemberPool session7.15 pm 8.15 pm

Weekend 15-16 DecemberSouth Wales weekend

Saturday 22 DecemberClub Christmas Dinner7.00 pm, Marlow Donkey PH

Saturday 5 JanuaryPool session7.15 pm 8.15 pm

CLUBSESSIONS

Every SundayDoors open at 9.30 am.On the water for 10 am.

POOLSESSION

Once per monthSaturday 7.15 - 8.15 pm,

see calendar for dates

Chalfont Leisure Centre, Nicol Road,

Chalfont St Peter, SL9 9LR.

5 adults, 3 juniors

Only jokingThere were four guys travelling in Africa, a Frenchman, a Japanese, an Eng-lishman & an Australian. They are captured by a tribe of fierce headhunters.

The witch doctor says to them, "We are going to slaughter you, but you might

take some comfort in the fact that we don't believe in waste here, and thattherefore every part of your body will go to some use. We will weave basketsout of your hair, we will render your bones for glue, and we will tan your skinand stretch it over wooden frames for canoes. Now we are going to allow youan honourable death, so I will allow you to choose how to die and say somelast words before killing yourselves."

The Japanese guy, takes a large knife, yells "Banzai!" and commits hari-kari.

The Frenchman says, "I take ze poison". The chief gives him some poison ex-tracted from local berries. The Frenchman says "Viva la France!" & drinks it.

The Englishman says, "A pistol for me, please". The chief gives him an oldpistol. He points it at his head, says, "God save the queen!" and blows hisbrains out.

Then the Australian guy asks for a fork, pokes holes all over his body, and

marlow canoe club summer newsletter no.137

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