Our Week Ahead blog has been so delayed that  I have missed  flagging up yesterday’s canoe hire at Coed Gwilym Park. Well,  it was notable for some masterclass canoe handling training by David Forrest who helped Gill and Anthony with the finer pioints of steering a  one manned canoe in a straight line.

It was then time for the Peer Rescue technique for a person thrown from a capsized canoe. For this procedure David went beyond the call of duty by capsizing himself while at the same time instructung Anthony what to do to save him. This involved David getting very wet  but the crucial point is admirably illustrated in these photos. Offer the distraught paddler the end of your canoe not the side (you will just end up in the canal with him if he grabs the side).

It was now time for  Anthony to have a go at rescuing an upturned canoe. This was made slightly easier for Anthony as flotation aids have been stuck inside the canoes since last week so the overturned canoe is that much higher in the water. This makes ‘breaking the seal’ slightly easier. If however the flotation aids are not secure in the ends of the canoe they tend to just float away.These are the peculiar white blobs in the bottom right handcorner of the lastt wo photos.

As you can see Anthony did a great job.

We are so pleased to have David helping us. His training can bring us all up to a level of competence undreamt last year.