Unofficial UK Slalom BBS

Lee Valley have scheduled public slalom only sessions on the Olympic for every Sunday afternoon at 1pm from now until the end of August at £15 for the hour. I’ve had a chat with the centre to find out what the plan is, as these seem to have been arranged without any direct liaison with British Canoeing.

They believe the session before should finish at 12:30, so we should have time to put out gates beforehand, but bear in mind there are no coaches, so it’ll be down to those paddling to set a course, and help pull gates in afterwards. Bank safety will be provided by the centre.

It would be great to support these sessions, if numbers are low they will have to cancel them.

If there are any barriers to people booking on to them (number of sessions, timing etc) I’m happy to collate those and feed-back to the centre. Just drop me an e-mail at vetsbibs@outlook.com

Cheers

Paul.

Hi all, just an update following the first slalom session today which Nick has also put up on the website.. Please do share this within your clubs!

Firstly, they will run the sessions even if there is only one person booked on. The water is on anyway (it's an empty slot and only an hour gap so they don’t want to turn it off and back on again) and because of that the bank safety staff have to be there as well. So, any money they can get from that hour is a bonus for them.

Secondly, the previous session is rafting, they are happy for us to put gates out (BA and helmet on) when the last raft has left the start pool (basically following it down putting them out) which should be, at the latest, 12:50. That gives ten minutes to set a course, which should be fine if everyone mucks-in (remember, no coaches unless you have your own). However please be considerate of the playboaters who might still be on the water during those last 10 mins. Put any gates out that will get in the way of their surfing last.

Finally, at the moment their booking website is down, but you can turn up on the day and pay in the mean-time. Also note that you do need to have your Olympic assessment.

Public slalom sessions are scheduled at 10am and 2pm on 12, 13, 26 & 27 November and 10 & 11 December.

Roman

It would be great if we could find out about any dates in early 2023? (Before my weekends get filled up with other things!)

There are public slalom sessions on 28/29 January and 18/19 February. Bookings open 45 days in advance, so Jan slots are available now, and the Feb slots from 4/5 Jan.

Best
Roman

There is a bunch of dates in March: 8-12, 15-19 and 22-24 (two sessions each day). Then, the next set of dates will be in May.

Best
Roman