We’ll come directly to your club session so no special arrangements need to be made for the club. We can run flatwater playboating sessions (with demo boats), rolling clinics or any variation of our usual white water or safety & rescue skills courses. Or if you’d like us to display our skills to inspire members (or potential members at an open day), we’d be happy to come and show off

Get in touch for more details.

Well February and March were very busy indeed here at FlowFree. We’ve run trips abroad, freestyle courses, safety courses, week-long bespoke courses, BCU courses and white water skills courses of all varieties. And our coaches have been just as busy in their spare time: slalom competitions (see below), ski trips, Level 5 development, open boating and much more besides…

New Course Dates Online
We’ve now put all of our course dates for the whole of this year online so you can chose a date to suit you. Of course, if you do not find the course you would like on a date to suit you, just get in touch – we may well be able to arrange (or re-arrange) something for you. Check out our course calendar.

New Confidence Booster Course
Due to popular demand, FlowFree now offers a two-day confidence boosting course for anyone who feels that their inhibitions hold them back on the river. Confidence is a delicate thing and without it, no-one can paddle at their best. Losing your confidence can happen to anyone, of any standard. There may be a trigger – perhaps a you’ve had a bad experience or had a long gap since your last white water adventure – but sometimes you just seem to lose your mojo. We understand how frustrating this can be and would like to help you past that mental block towards happy, relaxed and enjoyable paddling at whatever level you’re at. Low ratios and highly experienced coaches ensure that you will have a very productive weekend, tailored to your needs. For more info and dates, click here.

FlowFree in France this Summer
From mid-June to early July, Lowri will in the French Alps and available for coaching courses, guided trips and playboating clinics. During this time, she will also be running Big Wave courses on demand on the Hawaii-sur-Rhone wave in Lyon. Whether you are freestyle whiz-kid or a river boater who fancies the thrill of surfing a giant standing wave, Lowri can help you to make the most of your time at H-S-R. Our “Intro to Big Wave Surfing” courses have been extremely successful in the past, with big smiles and great feedback every time. Why not come and join the fun? Lyon is perfect if you are on your way to or from the Alps or just fancy a few days of big wave fun as a short break from work.

For more information or to arrange some coaching in France this summer, just reply to this email or give us a call.

Student Boater-X, France
While we’re on the subject of paddling in sunny climes; we’ve just confirmed that we will be sponsoring the 2010 Student Boater-x which takes place on the Durance at l’Argentiere. This event is close to our hearts as our very own Tom Laws was the creator and original organiser of what has become a rip-roaringly fun event. Any Uni groups who will be in the French Alps on 11-12th June should definitely go along. It’s free!

Can we do better?
“To stand still is to go backwards.” – we understand the importance of always seeking to improve. Your feedback is really important to us, which is why we have made it even easier with an online form. If you have recently been on a course with us, please give us any feedback you may have. We take on board anything people take the time to send to us, so whether positive or negative, we want to hear from you!

New Coaching Staff
We take great care in choosing who we employ and have strict criteria: they must be an experienced and passionate paddler who is able to pass on this knowledge, technique and tactics to others through great coaching skills. But most of all, they should be people that we like spending time with and that we think our clients will like too. That’s why we are excited to announce David Fairweather as the latest member of regular FlowFree staff. Dave is an experienced white water paddler who over the past 15 years has paddled in Nepal, Kyrgystan, Morocco, Norway, Italy, India… the list goes on. You can read more about Dave’s adventures and passion for coaching on our About Us section, or check out some of his glowing customer feedback in our testimonials.

Palm Big Paddle
We are proud to announce that FlowFree will be running clinics and will have a stand at the Palm Big Paddle at Symmonds Yat on May 15-16th. If you haven’t heard about the Big Paddle, check out www.thebigpaddle.com – something for everyone!

Slalom Success
After whimsically saying she’d enter a slalom, Lowri realised she had just 4 days back in the UK before she was supposed to race in a Div 1 (for those who don’t know much about slalom, it has leagues like football, which go from Premier down to Div 4 – Premier is for very good people, usually GB Team and those sponsored for slalom who regularly train, so Div 1 is kinda like the best of the rest). There were a few problems with this plan: a) She had been in a slalom boat just twice, ever before b) She didn’t own, nor have access to a slalom boat c) The only rules she knew about slalom were that you had to go through the sticks. In order. Fast.

Luckily, Lowri found a slalom boat, someone told her what the beeping at the start meant and she didn’t miss any gates – resulting in her finishing middle of the field and being granted a rank in Div 1 for future races. Well done!

More Congratulations!
To FlowFree coaches David Fairweather and Lowri Davies for becoming Aspirant BCU Level 5 coaches earlier this month. We wish you luck with your continued coach development!

That’s all for now. We look forward to see you on the water sometime soon!

The FlowFree Team

The weekend will involve a range of disciplines with the idea being to give people the opportunity to try disciplines they may otherwise never get to try while allowing those with experience to showcase their discipline and excel. We will take the results from each event to determine an overall winning University and to award the best paddler in each category. However, the focus of the weekend is most certainly on making sure everyone has fun.

Below is the timetable and other useful info for those coming along – but first… We are still looking for helpers! We need people to help with the time-keeping, judging, scribing, running etc. No special skills or knowledge required, although if you know anything about sprint, polo or WWR you will be very much loved. In return for your help, we can offer you free accommodation and food for the weekend, plus free entry to the Saturday night party and may even be able to cover reasonable fuel expenses or a few beers. Please get in touch if you can help!

Getting There

The event is taking place in Llandysul, mid-Wales – get directions, please see http://www.llandysul-paddlers.org.uk/centre/how_to_get_here.htm. Camping is available on site and all events will take place pretty much on site too; so once you are there you shouldn’t need to drive anywhere!

Timetable

Below is a provisional timetable – please understand that times are liable to change so it is important that you come to the briefings and keep an eye on notice boards for an changes to the timetable. You will notice that some events on the lake and the river over lap, this is to make sure we fit everything in. We will do our best to ensure that no-one has clashing events but each competitor’s own responsibility to check and bring it up with an organiser as soon as possible.

Friday

Camping will be available, so come along as early as you like. There a couple of pubs within walking distance or the usual campsite capers.

Saturday

8.30am-9am: Final Registration – club captains please come and confirm your entries. Make sure you know the names of everyone competing and what they will be competing in. We will particularly need final team-lists for the polo event.

10am: Morning briefing – to be attended by all competitors, in the area outside the outdoorkit4u shop. Start lists go up.

10.30am-12.30pm: Polo group stage. Lake.

11am-3pm: Slalom. 2 timed runs on a short course. You may use any boat, some slalom boats will be available to borrow. River.

2pm-4pm: Flatwater sprint. Lake.

4-6pm: Floodlit it’s-a-knockout. We hope to have time for a fun its-a-knockout type event. Details will be announced on the day.

6.30pm-late: Food & party time! Porth Hotel, within 5 minutes walk of the camp site in Llandysul. You will need a ticket to get food, so make sure your club captain has registered everyone and that you do not lose your ticket!

Sunday

9am-12pm: WWR. One timed run in any craft, some WW racers will be available to borrow.  River.

12.30-1.30pm: Head-to-head. Seeded heats of 4, top 2 from each heat will go through to next round, and must make their way back to the top of the course immediately. River.

2-3.30pm: Polo finals. Top two teams from each group battle it out for 1^st,2^nd,3^rd and 4^th. Plus Ladies teams final. Lake.

4.30pm: Prize giving. Stick around to find out who has won each event (we’ve gt some cool prizes to give away) and which University has won the overall prize!

Other Stuff

We have plenty of recreational kayaks available for use and a few slalom and WWR boats as well, so you can try out each discipline for real – or you can stick to the boat you are used to.

There is a paddling shop on site (outdoorkit4u) who will be offering 10% discount all weekend. On top of that, we have a couple more outfitters coming down with stands to sell gear and lend out demo boats, such as the new Jackson Kayak playboats.

You are free to use the river or lake between events, however be aware that the centre also has a course running so they may ask that you do not use part of the lake at certain times.

To download the timetable as a Word doc, click here.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Mile End Mill is ideal for aspirant playboaters of all abilities, with 3 features which are great for learning all sorts of new moves or even having your first surf (if the river is very high, those without a confident white water roll will be advised not to attend. I will update on water levels on the Thursday before.) We welcome anyone with an interest in freestyle and particularly youngsters, anyone who’d like to get into competing or coaches who wish to learn how to deliver better playboat coaching. Those wishing to attend as a student should live in Wales and/or be a WCA member. Coaches are welcomed from anywhere; those wishing to observe and get coaching tips can come for free. If you would like to help with providing the coaching, please get in touch and we’ll also cover your expenses.

The day costs £15 for adults (coaches attend for free) and £10 for U18s, which includes quality coaching from a range of experienced freestyle coaches and use of a small range of demo boats. It does not include the charge made by White Water Active to use their site.

Please let me know if you plan to attend by dropping me an email on wca-freestyle@flowfree.co.uk or joining the facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49882181829#/event.php?eid=50993751346

Any questions, drop me an email.

Hope to see you there!

Throughout the weekend we will also be on-hand to answer questions and take bookings, so keep an eye out for stand – we’ll have a flag!

For more info see the Paddlefest website, or drop us an email.
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