Ladies Freestyle Coaching
Cancelling the Hurley Classic Freestyle Event was a good way of ensuring rain. Dutifully the river came up only a few days after the event was postponed, in fact it came up a lot. Thursday saw a high 2 gates at Hurley - very flushy, hard to get into the corner gate, and even harder to stay on. By Friday mid-morning it was on 4 gates, with a very reasonable temperature. It was great to go upside down and not have ice-cream head.
On Saturday I helped out with some Ladies Freestyle Coaching. The half-day(ish) course was run by Kayakojacko and was for ladies of all boating ability - from being able to cartwheel to having only been to Hurley previously on one gate, to those that were only just getting their whitewater roll. For those that hadn't been to Hurley before, 4 gates was a very intimidating level to start with and they were, literally, 'thrown in at the deep end'. We split down into groups straight away as some were ready to get into the wave/hole from the outset, whilst others worked their way up gradually by starting out with ferry-gliding and rolling in the eddy and then rolling in the flow. The fact that there were so many others giving it a go meant that even those with low confidence in their roll or in their paddling ability threw themselves in fairly quickly. It probably helped that there were at least 3 of us ready to rescue as soon as any of them struggled to roll up, and of course the mild temperatures meant that a swim didn't really matter.
Unfortunately it was a difficult level to sit in the eddy and actually get onto the wave, as the water was pushing in from all directions, but everyone had a really good go trying. Several of the ladies ventured into the very sticky gate 2, although some had a few difficulties getting out again, but all ended up with huge smiles, even after a few inevitable swims. It was great to see so many female paddlers at Hurley, we definitely outnumbered the guys, something which is happening a lot more now. In my early days of paddling there would never be more than one or two other ladies in the eddy, and very often I was a lone female. Hopefully days on the water like this will encourage more ladies into playboating.
Everyone enjoyed the session, and I think got a lot out of being on the water with other ladies (although it's a shame we couldn't have got all of those men off the water to lessen the queue). After the on-water coaching we headed back to Jacko's place for the best bit: tea and cake - excellent. I couldn't say for certain, but possibly the first time Jacko has had at least 10 ladies following him into his house! Obviously I was there just for the cake, but there was also some really useful video analysis of the morning's session. I find slow-motion video analysis is such a good way of figuring out what is going right, and what needs to be improved on, for all levels of freestyle paddling. Unfortunately I had to leave this session early (the cake had run out), but I hope all of the ladies got something out of this really useful post-water session, and out of the day in general; it certainly gave me a few tips on how to coach others in the basics of playboating. Hopefully we will see these ladies back at Hurley in the next few days, putting into practice what they learnt from the day, and having fun on the water.
It's Easter Holidays - no work for 2 weeks- and Hurley is still running. Hopefully it will stay up for a few more days. I'm off for a boating session, maybe see you there.
On Saturday I helped out with some Ladies Freestyle Coaching. The half-day(ish) course was run by Kayakojacko and was for ladies of all boating ability - from being able to cartwheel to having only been to Hurley previously on one gate, to those that were only just getting their whitewater roll. For those that hadn't been to Hurley before, 4 gates was a very intimidating level to start with and they were, literally, 'thrown in at the deep end'. We split down into groups straight away as some were ready to get into the wave/hole from the outset, whilst others worked their way up gradually by starting out with ferry-gliding and rolling in the eddy and then rolling in the flow. The fact that there were so many others giving it a go meant that even those with low confidence in their roll or in their paddling ability threw themselves in fairly quickly. It probably helped that there were at least 3 of us ready to rescue as soon as any of them struggled to roll up, and of course the mild temperatures meant that a swim didn't really matter.
Unfortunately it was a difficult level to sit in the eddy and actually get onto the wave, as the water was pushing in from all directions, but everyone had a really good go trying. Several of the ladies ventured into the very sticky gate 2, although some had a few difficulties getting out again, but all ended up with huge smiles, even after a few inevitable swims. It was great to see so many female paddlers at Hurley, we definitely outnumbered the guys, something which is happening a lot more now. In my early days of paddling there would never be more than one or two other ladies in the eddy, and very often I was a lone female. Hopefully days on the water like this will encourage more ladies into playboating.
Everyone enjoyed the session, and I think got a lot out of being on the water with other ladies (although it's a shame we couldn't have got all of those men off the water to lessen the queue). After the on-water coaching we headed back to Jacko's place for the best bit: tea and cake - excellent. I couldn't say for certain, but possibly the first time Jacko has had at least 10 ladies following him into his house! Obviously I was there just for the cake, but there was also some really useful video analysis of the morning's session. I find slow-motion video analysis is such a good way of figuring out what is going right, and what needs to be improved on, for all levels of freestyle paddling. Unfortunately I had to leave this session early (the cake had run out), but I hope all of the ladies got something out of this really useful post-water session, and out of the day in general; it certainly gave me a few tips on how to coach others in the basics of playboating. Hopefully we will see these ladies back at Hurley in the next few days, putting into practice what they learnt from the day, and having fun on the water.
It's Easter Holidays - no work for 2 weeks- and Hurley is still running. Hopefully it will stay up for a few more days. I'm off for a boating session, maybe see you there.
posted by flea at 11:00 am 
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