Intro to Moving Water

Saturday 14th May and its our first introduction to moving water for some of our new members. It seems ages, due to the pandemic, since we have had this opportunity to develop people beyond flat sheltered water.

For Kayaking, unfortunately the weather has been less than ideal hot and dry, great for those on the bank but the Irwell was really on scrape levels 0.25 on the gauge. For those of you new to moving water understanding the water levels is important so websites and apps such as Rainchasers, Riverapp and Riverpredictor are important tools in your kayaking or

Canoeing virtual toolkit, and also your personal logbook. Features change with levels so it's good to have a record, remember nothing is guaranteed on the water so you need to assess ahead.

So Burrs Country Park and the River Irwell is an ideal local river to develop, so we had 5 new to moving water, 2 coaches and an some willing support Paddlers.

So it all starts with a paddle up the canal or equipment carry to the infamous weir, depending on the water levels this is either a nice slide into the lower river or a dangerous to the novice stopper risk.

Today levels are so low its a push to get over the lip of the weir and a nice slide down. Remember weirs can be great fun but also extremely dangerous, if in doubt don't risk it.

Levels are very low in the top phase of the River its a real scrape with a some walking through the normal nice introduction features.

Key to moving water is breaking into Eddies and crossing the water flow, so remember that you edge away from the moving water, or look down stream or bottom upstream (there are other maybe more memorable phrases to some).

With confidence growing the morning ended with crossing the current from both sides of the river, and some introduction to surfing a wave.