About
Course Information
A small group, coached week of adventurous paddlesport day trips for 11 to 16 year olds, leading towards the Paddle Explore Award and Leave No Trace Awareness Training.
Journeying through and connecting with our fantastic outdoor environment, learning all the associated skills, overcoming challenges on the way and working as a team, naturally fits well with our health and wellbeing ethos and encompasses all of the steps in the "Take 5" programme.
The week will provide the opportunity for the young people to make new friends, learn new journeying and paddlesports skills and develop their interpersonal skills. Facilitated by our professional, qualified and experienced paddlesport coaches with a passion for both the outdoors and young people's development.
We will meet each day at a different location, no more than 15 minutes drive from Enniskillen, then plan, prepare for and paddle a route, with a lunch stop, before returning home for a recap of the day's learning.
Throughout the week a range of paddlesport craft will be used, including: kayaks, open canoes and standup paddleboards.
The young people will need to be dropped off and picked up each day at these various locations e.g. Broadmeadow Canoe Steps (behind the Lakeland Forum), Bellanaleck Quay, Trory Jetty, Ely Lodge, Carrybridge, etc.
Meeting each day at 9:30 and returning for 3:30.
For this course, the participants should be 11 to 16 years old (as a guideline), water confident and have paddled a few times before (e.g. on any of our other courses or summer camps, etc). Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about the suitability of this course for your child.
The Paddle Explore award is an internationally recognised National Governing Body award leading people towards becoming independent paddlers. The training for the award includes: paddlesports skills, safety and rescue, journeying skills, trip planning, map reading, weather forecasting, equipment selection and use, camp craft (at lunch stops), dynamic risk assessment, leadership, decision making, team working and building resilience.
Equipment
We will provide all the paddlesport and safety equipment you need; kayaks/canoes, etc, paddles, buoyancy aids and helmets.
The only thing we can't supply is your personal paddling wear. For this course, normal outdoor clothes suitable for the prevailing weather (tracksuit, fleeces or walking clothes and waterproofs, including shoes to get wet) are perfectly fine. If you have a wetsuit, that's great, please feel free to wear it, but it is not necessary for this event.
A full set of dry clothes including shoes and a towel are essential to bring for your comfort and safety.
Please apply/supply sun screen as necessary.
All children must bring a packed lunch, snacks and something to drink.
Facilities
There may or may not be changing facilities available, depending on the venue. Please arrive ready to go paddling. If changing at the site, a changing towel and a mat to stand on make this a much easier and more discrete process. A large bin liner to sit on on the way home in your paddling kit works well too.
