Welsh Canoeing Association
Canoeing - Recreation
Recreational and competitive canoeing represent the two major aspects of canoeing activities. As either a sport or recreation, canoeing can in some form and at some level be enjoyed by everyone regardless of gender, age or ability.
Recreational canoeing is where most canoeists become initially acquainted with the activity - and is consequently the source from which the competitive disciplines attract the majority of their participants. Within what is broadly termed recreational canoeing is a range of non-competitive canoeing disciplines from sea kayaking through touring to white water canoeing as well as coaching and training activities.
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Kayaking
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Sea Kayaking
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Open Canoeing
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Surf Kayaking
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Canoeing for People with Disabilities
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Rafting
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Lifeguards
Kayaking
The majority of canoeists throughout the country take part in this discipline of canoeing. The people who paddle rivers for recreation are a varied group in age, experience, and outlook. Every river trip presents the participant with new challenges. Equally, the touring of estuaries and lowland rivers brings with it great rewards in being as one with nature and history.
Learning to improve skill levels or increase control on familiar water is an ongoing process and makes river kayaking an activity for life. You can never master the activity because there are always new rivers and new challenges.
Surf Kayaking
Surfing is exhilarating to participate in and a spectacular sport to watch. The sheer enjoyment of feeling the force of the surging sea and learning to harness its power is a feeling which is difficult to surpass. To feel your boat being lifted by a large green swell, to experience the wave steepen underneath as you gradually pick up speed and take control, carving out turns as you cut across the steep face of the wave - pure magic.
The adrenaline rush of planing down the face of a wave is enough for some. Others want to be screaming down the largest wave possible, performing the most radical manoeuvres on the most powerful section of that wave, seeking to outperform their friends. This is the basis of paddle surfing competitions. Contact Bill Beynon at WLA for more information regarding recreational surfing, or the WCA Surf committee for information on competitive surfing.
Rafting
If you have never rafted, you are missing out on a great experience. Those big rubber inflatables are actually under control when in trained hands, and this is where the specialist committee for rafting has done some hard work over the last year.
2001 saw the rafting coaching scheme come into line with other paddlesport disciplines in Wales. Many members will have realised over the last few years that rafting does not have to be a commercial activity and increasingly people are taking advantage of the many training opportunities and events organised by the committee. Anyone can take part in rafting as crew in the hands of a qualified guide, who will gently coax the best out of you from the back (that’s why the guide has a bigger paddle than anybody else). So get together with some good friends and have fun with rubber - you will not regret it!
Contact: Canolfan Tryweryn. Tel: 01678 521083