Shetland Canoe Club

Excerpt from The Shetland Times “Views from the Scord” Column 27/08/10 (Mark Burgess)

Canoe Club in Vital Rescue Exercise

It's only make-up!!

Eight members of the Bridge End based Shetland Canoe Club had to be rescued from a west side beach on Sunday morning, after a dive vessel in the area exploded causing serious injury to members of the group, as well as to members of the boats crew and one fatality.
However, it wasn’t all bad, as the hypothermic and blast injured sea-kayakers enjoyed freshly made bacon rolls and cups of tea on the beach at Silwick while passing the time until rescue.
This catastrophic scenario, excluding the bacon rolls of course, was part of a Coastguard rescue exercise involving the local Coastguard cliff rescue teams, the Aith Lifeboat and the Anglian Prince, emergency tug vessel. The operation, entitled Exercise “Unni” was co-ordinated from the Coastguard base in Lerwick and involved members of several of the regional cliff rescue teams. The scenario was made all the more realistic with the addition of some shockingly realistic makeup provided by visiting makeup specialist Unni Gru, for whom the exercise was named.
The exercise began early on Sunday morning and had the sea kayaking group take up position on a beach unknown to the rescue services after reporting their intended outing, in keeping with the realism of the exercise. Concurrently the Anglian Prince took up position south of Westerwick to play the role of the vessel upon which a blast had taken place, with a member of the crew, a coastguard volunteer and Unni herself made up to simulate blast injuries and a dummy used to simulate a fatality. The kayak group had been near to the vessel when the blast took place, and aside from direct injuries, the group had theoretically spend time in the water, before making it to the shore. After radio communications from both the Anglian Prince and the kayakers the coastguard teams and lifeboat deployed and very soon found and rescued the stricken casualties, uplifting them in safe and professional manner soon after receiving the call. The addition of the make-up and victims exhibiting hypothermia and shock symptoms gave the coastguard volunteers and lifeboat crew a very realistic chance to utilise their first aid skills at sea and on the beach. Afterward those taking part were treated to some highly praised lunch in the Skeld hall and a de-brief at which John Webster of the Coastguard thanked all the volunteers for taking part, and Unni for her unique talent and input to the scenario. Apologies should probably go to anyone who met the volunteers in their scenario make-up on their way home on Sunday afternoon, it may have come as quite an unpleasant surprise to the unwitting bystander.

Some intrepid members of the club were out in Busta Voe on Saturday 21 August – in force 8 / 9 winds!  They only went a wee bit out of the marina, and there was a rescue boat at hand.  All those who took part enjoyed it – though they were mostly thoroughly shattered to end up with.  The remit was ‘to practice rescues in tough conditions’ but they were mainly having fun with the challenge of going into the wind, and the thrill of surfing back with it – and we were glad of the rescue boat back-up (Thanks to Graham Nicol in a fast RIB) for peace of mind and safety.

Up the down escalator

Waves not swell! (L-R: Mark, Janine, Angus)

Yolanda

Janine gets some helping horsepower

The “trip” is an excursion back to the burn where Stromfirth loch empties into the sea. Organiser is Mave. A number of people had fun trying out some river skills when we went one Thursday. If you would like to go turn up at the burn – just North of the Whiteness shop – for 7pm. There will be 6 river boats available and we will take turns at negotiating the “river” while it runs.

If you want more information please contact Mave on 01595 692659 otherwise turn up for some fun.
 
Please park at the shop or in the spaces 100m North of the bridge. The residents of the nearest houses get upset if cars park near them.

There will be no organised trip due to adverse weather conditions.

Keep checking the programme to see upcoming trips. If you would like to choose a trip location then call me (Craig) on 07795674053 (day) or 01950477644 (night) to arrange your trip.

Details of the Yell weekend have now been posted:

Click here for the Yell 2010 page

Here is the article published in the Shetland Times 9th July 2010.

Paddling up a storm.

(by Mark Burgess)

Trys Burke puts kayakers at the Shetland Sea Kayak Symposium through their paces during a training exercise.

The Bridge End Outdoor centre was transformed in to a bustling and busy temporary community last weekend as the sixth biennial Shetland Sea Kayak Symposium was hosted in and around the centre by the Shetland Canoe Club. The symposium was comprised of a range of training exercises, talks, presentations and full and half-day kayaking trips around the coast of Shetland. It was attended by 64 people, over half of whom had travelled to Shetland to take part from as far away as Reading, Cumbria, Powys, Bute and Edinburgh. The training sessions, both practical and classroom-based were delivered by five top class UK coaches, three of whom had travelled from Wales and the other two from Scotland, namely: Trys Burke, a Level 5 coach who works with Canoe Wales; Phil Eccles, another level 5 sea kayak coach from the Plas Dol-y-Moch Outdoor Centre accompanied by Martin Waters, a Level 3 coach from the same base; Claire Knifton, another BCU Level 5 who is based at the Loch Eil Centre and Roy Henderson, a freelance operator and also BCU level 5 who runs Sea Kayak Scotland, based in Aviemore. Together their biographies read like a catalogue of adventure stories, each having significant international expeditions and national and international status for training and multi-disciplinary activity.
The training programme, held over four full days, covered everything from basic improvement to basic paddling skills to surfing, incident management, peer rescue and chart work, tidal planning and navigation. Incorporated into the generalised training were the necessary parts of a 4 star leader training course for participants, with the individual aspects of this course open to, and useful for, even the most experienced kayakers to improve their knowledge and skills.
The weekend’s events began on Friday and despite a gloomy overcast morning the day brightened quickly to offer sunshine and ideal moderate winds for marine-based action.
This favourable weather was somewhat short-lived, but as conditions deteriorated on Sunday into a full gale and torrential rain, it served as a perfect measure of the versatility of sea-kayaking as a sport or activity with four groups of kayakers taking to the water, inshore and supervised, to perform challenging training exercises, all of which were successful, leaving the participants with many a tale to tell afterward. Those not so inclined to take the pounding dished out by a typical Shetland summer storm, took to a minibus for a trip to Sumburgh Head, where they were treated to views of both puffins and Killer Whales from the viewpoint.
The evenings were filled with sublime catering, provided by Marina Anderson and her daughter Jill at the Bridge End Hall, followed by presentations from various local and visiting contributors. Prominent among these were Tyrs Burke’s account and photos of a circumnavigation of Tasmania by herself and two fellow female kayakers, the first women to complete this 850 mile paddle; Roy Henderson on kayaking around Cape Farewell in Greenland and Phil Eccles talk on an arctic trip to view Narwhals on the coast of Baffin Island, remote, inaccessible and breathtakingly beautiful. Local contributors Dave Phillips and Jonathan Swale gave talks on marine safety and Shetland’s natural history respectively.
Despite the ever-changing weather many old friendships were rekindled over the weekend, and many new ones made and the quality of content from the coaches and goodly folk attending made for an unbeatable and enjoyable weekend for all. Speaking for the visiting coaches, Roy Henderson reflected “ It’s been great, it really has, in spite of the weather. Everybody’s enthusiasm for paddling and the training sessions has been great. We’ve been made to feel so welcome. I look forward to coming back to work or paddle here again.”
The club would like to thank Hjaltland Sea Farms for sponsoring the event’s promotional t-shirts and express their gratitude to the Community Grant Funding that helped pay for the coaches to attend. Also to the SIC for lending their outdoor pursuit section’s open canoes for training exercises, along with accompanying staff member “John”. Club Chair Julie Phillips would also like to thank her fellow committee members for their work in helping her to put together the event. The Shetland Canoe Club now looks forward to its less formal, annual “Unst weekend”, attracting large numbers of the visiting and local sea-kayakers to enjoy the spectacular coastline of Unst over three days, based from Uyeasound.

The trip on Tuesday 29 June saw 18 paddlers on the water including 10 of our new One Stars. Some shortened the distance paddled by taking boats to Papil on the trailer.

We crossed over the beach at Bannamin and paddled out to the entrance to the bay. The group all said they wanted to venture out of the bay so we took a short excursion into the Atlantic – a new experience for many. 

• Sebastian did a great job holding on to a float so we could raft up
• Tam and Craig demonstrated their towing skills
• Chris and Debs arrived to help with a rescue at just the right moment
• Audrey and Gordon worked well together to give reassurance

I could go on! We packed a lot of action into 35 minutes in the swell! It was really impressive so many stayed the right way up and even managed to smile but the next “Easy” trip will stick to calmer waters.

Due to the numbers of sea kayakers that will be paddling around Shetland’s coast over the next week or so (around 60!), it is requested that individuals, or smaller parties of kayakers, do whatever they can to inform either the club or the Shetland Coastguard as to their intentions of route and duration on trips for reasons of general good safety practise, especially if they intend staying out overnight.

The friendly and attentive Shetland Coastguard can be contacted on (01595) 69 2976 or VHF Channel 16.

The club can be contacted through the website or by calling available, or known, members mobile numbers or send a text message.

Please remember: Safety first.

With the summer symposium now only a few days away, here is a draft itinerary for the weekends events.

Friday

9.30 registration and again at 5.00 p.m.
Friday afternoon – cross discipline training open canoe training and river
boats .  Plus half day paddle. Some who arrive early may want to do their
own thing and go on a longer trip.

Booked meals are from 6.30 to 7.30 in the hall followed by an open session
for the key note speaker at 7.30 onwards ( as soon as food stuff cleared
away)

Saturday

Full day paddle and half day paddle plus 4  morning training sessions –
lunch then 4 afternoon sessions .  Evening format same as Friday night with
a key note speaker.

Sunday

Same format as Sunday. Evening format same as Friday night with a key note
speaker.

Monday

Half day and full day paddle available.

Morning training sessions.

Symposium finishes noon Monday.

Training Sessions

As a taster the training sessions will be covering the following and
hopefully more once the contributors are up and assess the weather and
conditions.

• Tidal Planning theory and practical on the water.
• Understanding the weather
• Teaching and learning process for coaches and students – learning how to
  make yourself better. Theory and practical
• Forward paddling skills, Turning skills
• Possible surf training
• Rolling clinic at local pool (numbers max 12) may be able to do open water
  rolling clinic for the adventurous.
• Incident management, towing rescues etc
• 4* leader training