All in all, the most important thing is just to go paddle –whether it’s on a lake or a river, solo or tandem canoes, or even a kayak or SUP. However, never close your eyes for the chance to get better and freestyle canoeing will make you a better, more efficient paddler.
So ends a wonderful piece by Kringelfieber veteran Martin Strunge… who also takes glorious photos:
]]>Thanks go to one and all, but especially to Mark Maier and Lennart Bal for leading on the water, and to Colin Broadway and Ian Richards for hosting us off the water 
Robert Maddock has started a blog on SoTP: Quietwater Plus Conclave - what a great weekend! - and there's more in the Facebook Group.
]]>- Why style: goals, aspirations and rewards…
- Core concepts: what contributes to good style?
- Core ACA Freestyle manoeuvres
- Further ACA Freestyle manoeuvres
- Style in other contexts: wind, waves, current, features
For more on what might be covered see here.
]]>- Friday evening Buffet in The Boat House @ Barrow
- Friday night Bed & Breakfast @ Quorn Grange
- Sharing in Twin / Double room with sole occupancy option
- Continental Breakfast with Cooked Breakfast option
- Saturday workshops with our coaching team at The Boat House @ Barrow
- Includes a lunch each day in The Boat House @ Barrow
- Saturday evening Carvery @ Quorn Grange
- Saturday night Bed & Breakfast @ Quorn Grange
- Sharing in Twin / Double room with sole occupancy option
- Continental Breakfast with Cooked Breakfast option
- Sunday workshops with our coaching team at The Boat House @ Barrow
- Includes a lunch each day in The Boat House @ Barrow
- Any / all weekend training materials and follow up support
To cover the above we’re charging:
- Bed, Breakfast and Evening Meals (including Carvery) – £50 (one night) / £85 (both nights)
- Solo occupancy in rooms: £10 / night
- Full Breakfast – additional £4.50 / day
- Core workshops, including lunches – from £55 to £95
- Boat hire – £10 / day
Note: For those with alternative local accommodation (or wanting to camp at The Boat House):
- Camping – £5 / head / night
- Friday evening Buffet – £10
- Saturday evening Carvery – £20
This is now all bookable through the Open Canoe Association website.
]]>We’ve a strong team of instructors, all of whom tailor their coaching to individual needs and aspirations. Between us, we’re more than happy to offer any/all of the following:
- Style that’s “Free”: cultivating your own, personal approach to boating…
- Tools of the trade: is it all in how you use them?
- The Wet end and the Dry end: finesse with a Cue…
- Listening to the water and letting the boat do the work…
- Sport Canoeing: in the spirit of The Solo Mystique…
- Introduction to ACA Freestyle manoeuvres – solo / tandem…
- Sideslips, Free Spins, the Christie and the Axle…
- The Wedge, the X-Axle, the Post and the X-Post…
- Progressions in ACA Freestyle – solo / tandem…
- Reverse axles, the reverse wedge and the x-reverse Christie…
- Other Axles / Posts / Wedges / Christies, plus Gimbals, etc…
- Transverse Stance, Reversals, High Thrust (Bootlegger) variants, etc.
- Transitions – the art of linking manoeuvres…
- Functional Freestyle: on and beyond quietwater, including with loaded boats…
- Finesse on moving water…
- Paddle Canada “Style Canoeing”: aka “Canadian Style” – a contrasting tradition…
- Coaching in the “Quietwater Plus” tradition….
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- Using ACA Freestyle to coach British Canoeing’s “Fundamentals of Paddlesport”…
- Coaching Progressions for ACA Freestyle and becoming an ACA Instructor…
- Mythbusting: from orgins in Sportcanoeing to “Quietwater Plus”…
That’s not an exhaustive list… but it’s more than enough to keep even the keenest of students busy for a lot longer than a weekend!
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Canoeists have good reason to hold The Boat House @ Barrow in high regard.
Firstly, The Boat House is located at a recognised beauty spot on the banks of the River Soar, and is the obvious departure point for the classic “Soar Loop” – a short but attractive paddle incorporating the winding “backs” from the navigable waterway.
Secondly, The Boat House is owned and run by Colin Broadway (founder of Mobile Adventure, stalwart of East Midlands Paddlers, past president of the Open Canoe Association and veteran Coach Educator) and is a well established base for training courses and canoeing events.
The pub offers good food, fine ale and boat hire and will be the base for the Uk’s 1st Quitewater Canoeing Conclave.
[See image gallery at q-canoe.uk]
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Quorn Grange is a majestic building situated in 8 acres of beautiful gardens in the heart of Leicestershire. It’s owned and operated by the GFTU Education Trust and the Business Development Manager is Ian Richards: past Chairman of the Open Canoe Association and past Chairman of British Canoeing’s Regional Development Team for the East Midlands.
Our thanks go to Ian for arranging this impressive venue for the 1st UK Quietwater Plus Canoe Conclave!
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In January, 2016, canoeists will gather in rural Leicestershire for a first formal Conclave of the UK’s “Quietwater Plus” Community. This will involve quality on-water workshops during each day with an international coaching team, but also quality time off the water – and we will have excellent hosts offering fine food and accommodation!
Over the afternoon / evening of Friday 29th January, we meet for a buffet and informal get together in The Boat House @ Barrow, on the banks of the River Soar (our daytime base for the weekend) and at Quorn Grange – where we’ve got Bed and Breakfast Accommodation for two nights, plus a Saturday evening Carvery.
During each day, European specialists will be leading workshops in various dimensions of Quietwater and “Quietwater Plus” Canoeing – developing approaches to canoeing famously associated with US legends such as Mike Galt, Patrick Moore and Harold Deal, and linking to a tradition of “Conclaves” which started in the US in the 1980s.
We anticipate the strongest gathering of solo-canoes ever witnessed in the UK, but tandem “Quietwater Plus” sessions may also feature, as might “Canadian Style” – in a programme which will respond to the needs and interests of those attending.
Note: find the programme here, the timings here and booking info here.
Expect a quality weekend both on and off the water!
]]>The animating spirit of this community was captured quite powerfully (if controversially) by Mike Galt back in 1978, in a legendary article entitled The Solo Mystique. This was a defining statement from the early days of solo sport-canoeing.
Here in Europe, Jörg Wagner, Silke and Andreas Reitner, Wouter and Annemieke Kieboom, Mark Maier, Franziska Pokorny, Sebastian and Tanja Stetter and others developed an ethos of Advanced Quietwater canoeing rooted in a “reduction to the essentials” with water, body, boat and paddle in perfect harmony – and ACA “Freestyle” Instructors can be found championing this approach across the continent. Find them through www.freestylecanoeing.org!
Here in the UK, we have our own Quietwater Canoeing community, developed through workshops and gatherings at assorted festivals and symposia. We’ve also been developing “Quietwater Plus” – returning to the animating spirit of Mike Galt and Patrick Moore. Our “Plus” side recognises the special kind of engagement with the water which can also be found when we play with grace and style even amid wind, waves and/or current.
If you enjoy moving well upon the surface of the water… whether the water is “quiet” or not… our “community of practice” group exists for you: to offer encouragement, support, guidance and more. Find us and get involved through the OCA website, our Facebook Group, the Song-of-the-Paddle Forum or any other channel you care to find!
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