This course is aimed at paddlers who are confident and competent at paddling on grade 2 water and swimming in moving water.
In order to receive certification you need to be aged 16 years or older.
↓ Course summary
The White Water Safety and Rescue Training course is designed for all paddlers operating in a moderate to advanced white water environment in either kayak or canoe. In addition, the training is required for those seeking their 4 Star Leader (white water or open canoe) Award.
The objective is to provide the underpinning knowledge and teach simple and safe practical skills that can be applied appropriately. By its nature the course is very ‘hands on’ and should not usually contain much classroom work. Any theory should be short riverside sessions, the duration of which will be naturally limited.
A variety of skills will be introduced and developed over the weekend, including:
Paddlers awareness of safety skills in the river environment
Throw line rescue techniques including the ‘clean rope principle’
Safe paddling and boat handling techniques
Basic rescue protocols and dealing with an incident
Swimming skills
Equipment retrieval
These sessions will be reviewed and reinforced in the evening sessions, giving you the opportunity to learn from the staff and other course participants alike.
↓ Who is the course for?
This is an essential course for all open boat and kayak paddlers who intending to progress to safe, independent self-led river trips. The sessions covered over the course of this practical weekend will help you to make informed decisions afloat, anticipate problems and solve them when they arise.
By the end of the weekend you will be better equipped and have the confident to enjoy your river adventures.
The White Water Safety and Rescue course is a pre-requisite for those wishing to attend the 4 Star Leader Training Inland or Canoe
The following list is of equipment we recommend you bring. All essential equipment is available from our extensive stores. We advise you not to rush out and buy kit for the course, but use it as a chance to find out what would best suit your needs, but if you do have any of your own equipment do bring it along our staff will be required to vet for suitability equipment such as buoyancy aids and helmets. You should bring the following personal equipment with you: Footwear - wet suit boots, thermal tops, warm outdoor wear (fleece is ideal), hat, gloves, small first aid kit, vacuum flask, personal medication, notebook and pen.
Our equipment stores are by far the best around with a stock of over 100 boats from across the range of models there are plenty to choose from! If your thinking of buying a boat come along and ‘try before you buy’ and also get unbiased expert advise from our staff on the most suitable equipment for you.
Again participants are encouraged to bring any of their own personal equipment so they get the opportunity to be coached using the equipment they are most familiar with.
↓ What does my course fee include?
The course fee includes accommodation, kit, equipment, coaching, guiding, maps, in-course transport and is a fully catered course.
Current situation
As you are probably aware the current advice from the Northern Ireland Executive, Health Promotion Agency NI and Health & Safety Executive NI, as well as our expert group within Sport NI is that we cannot deliver any face to face courses for our customers including use of the Hot Rock Climbing Wall.
We know that you and many others like minded folk are very keen to get back on track with your plans to attend and complete a range of personal skills training and qualifications in a range of disciplines.
Believe us when we say we are equally keen to get outside with you and help you reach your goals and complete that journey.
How do we know? Because every day we get emails and phone calls asking when will courses resume and with every NI Executive mention of easing of restrictions the emails and phone calls are more frequent……
