To be honest there is so much going on that it will be easier if I simply put in the links for you to have a look:

First off:  Maidstone Hasler (Canoe/Kayak Marathon Race) so no Sunday 7th June  club paddle this week!!

For our local community:

Junior club has started back - the coaching team is expanding with some great new aspiring coaches in Kate, Natalie and Andrew, thank you for coming along as it makes managing this very large group of incredibly enthusiastic young people seamless!!

Local Scout/Guide Units are invited for fun sessions on a Monday throughout June and July. These dates are booked up well in advance and are a great way to showcase our club and impress upon parents and juniors what we do really well: have fun on the water.

We have three annual Charity events: Kenwood Trust, Charlton Athletic and Kent Young Carers.  Coaches have in many cases given up a day's work to come and give these groups a fantastic day out on the water and it's our way of giving back to the community.

For our own club members:

1st Wednesday of the month we are trialling SUP night for anyone wanting to give this a go!

3rd Wednesday of the month we are trialling Canoe night for anyone wanting to give this a go!  

Please make sure to sign up if interested in coming along so coaches know to expect you!

Pool session - third Thursday of every month - a must for those who really want to practice their capsizing or indeed give rolling a go. Always a coach on hand so do please book up well in advance if you are thinking of going. 

Touring Award: starting 04.06.26 for three weeks and a trip. Read all about it on the link.

Bewl Water - invitational paddle. You must book onto the Bewl Water events page for this one and you can go for some or all of the day - but you will need to pay £12.00.  For those not paddled here before - book!!!

Paddlesport Instructor Course - completely booked. We will try and run another one again this paddling summer if there is a need, so do please let us know if you are interested.

River Nene, Northampton Active  - 10 of our juniors are giving this a go on the 5th July - but its open to all, so check it out.

Quiz night - 11th July - following on from the huge success of the Christmas quiz we are doing it again! Sign up - teams not required that can all be done on the night!! Don’t be shy - should be a great night!

Enjoy your paddling and lets see you all out there on the water!!

PS. If any members are thinking about doing Explore please message me and I will add to the list.

This week in 1966, The Beatle’s Ticket to Ride reached #1 in the charts. Meanwhile, Super-cali-fragil-istic-expi-ali-docious inexplicably only managed #66. The acoustics in the Cranbrook pool are excellent, so the sing-off at the pool session this Thursday 21st May promises to be a belter.

Book here

Housekeeping notices first:

Membership fees for the year should be paid in the Month of April please.  Either in whole or by direct debit.  Please ensure you have updated the amount with your bank (£105 adult, £51 junior). The new fees can be found on the membership application form attached.

Junior club starts on Tuesday 21st April.  All juniors must have paid their membership fee and have Paddle UK ‘on the water’ license number ready for inspection.  Paddle UK must be linked on your profile to Maidstone Canoe Club so all licenses can be verified. New consent forms will also need to be completed and returned. 

Fun bits!

So, we have moved the Wednesday paddle to 6.30 so many more of you can come along.

But, more excitingly, we are going to change this up a bit:

The 1st Wednesday of the month will be ‘Give it a go’ SUP style

The 3rd Wednesday of the month will be ‘Give it a go’ Canoe style

We will run these alongside our regular club paddles. It just means that if you fancy trying out a SUP or a Canoe then please come along. We want it to be fun and with the evening getting lovely and light we simply want all our members to have as many opportunities as possible to get out and enjoy the water.

Courses

We have a lot of courses coming up - these are specifically for our members and are intended to help all members to develop their paddling in a variety of areas.

Pool sessions - these are for anyone who wants to practice specific skills like capsizing or rolling - we urge all new paddlers to try and attend one of these sessions so you are more confident when going out on the water.  It is also exceptionally useful for those looking towards whitewater events where rolling would be really useful - I believe!!! So do please check it out. Every month on the 3rd Thursday.

PRSC -  here 10th May

This is a very much sought after course and we will be providing it only once this year - - there are only two spaces left so if you are thinking about it please book asap.

Explore Courses - 

6th May - sign up here

For all those paddlers who may have started last year and have done a fair bit of paddling over the winter months or experienced but not done this qualification yet - please please do sign up, this may not be repeated until the end of the summer - so if you fancy signing up to the many trips and days out on the calendar best to get your Explore Award in!!:

Touring Award - 4th June - sign up here

Many paddlers make great friendship  groups at the club and really want to take themselves off on a paddle of their own. This course will enable you to have the confidence to be able to do that knowing that you have the skills and capabilities to safely go out within your group. The dates may seem daunting initially but I understand that these are not set in stone and once the initial participants sign up discussions can be had to see what works best within the group - so please show an interest and sign up so we can gauge how best to deliver this module of training.