We have an active junior section at the club encouraging juniors to get involved in a sport that can take those involved from having fun splashing around in summer through local and regional competition right up to international standard. Some of our older paddlers started as juniors with the club and have now clocked up 20, 30, 40+ years of paddling but all of them started on this same stretch of river.

Information on how to begin paddling and other information about the club can be found on the Getting Started page.

Coaches and Junior Session Leaders

There are a number of club coaches who are involved in coaching juniors, some on a regular basis and some helping to cover sessions when they are able to. Our coaches are all volunteers and are DBS checked. The Club has a Child Protection Policy that can be found here and Welfare Officer.

A few people you will find it useful to get to know are:

• Dave Pedlar – coach and organiser
• Dave Smith – coach and organiser 
• Nick Fowler-Rimel– Coach
• George Parker– Coach
• Matt Howard– Coach
• Amy Green– Coach (in the holidays)

Summer Session Times and Groups

As there is overlap between these groups some paddlers may be invited to join in with more than one group whilst transitioning from one group to the next.

All Juniors – Thursday evening 6pm-7:30pm, focus on fun and skills, all coaches will be there.

More Advanced Juniors – Mondays 6pm-7pm, run by Nick or Dave, other sessions may be available in the week so make sure to keep in contact with you coach or check the WhatsApp group

Winter Session Times

During the winter we hold circuit session at a local school hall and some paddling machine sessions as it is usually too cold and the river is too high to safely paddle. Details of times and addresses of these session will be communicated out in the winter.

Parental Involvement

We encourage parents to get involved either on the water or on dry land. Please come into the club house, chat to members and get to know people, don’t be shy!

Help is always appreciated whether that be holding a stopwatch, putting boats away, or helping with catering at events etc.

News/updates

If there is any important news to relay, this will be sent through our WCC junior WhatsApp group. When your child comes down to the club we will ask if you would like to be added to the group to keep updated with changes to sessions or extra session opportunities.

Juniors and BC/ British Canoeing Membership

You need to be a member of British Canoeing to compete at events. All club juniors under the age of 18 are automatically members of British Canoeing. All we have to do is issue a Club Number. Please contact our membership secretary for details.

When you get promoted to Sprint Girls/Boys C or above or Marathon Div 6 or above, you need to join British Canoeing in your own right to continue to compete. The link to join is: BC membership