A few photos from UL’s Wednesday Afternoon Sessions

: The Team after their dog and ball rescue session

Hi Everyone

Since everything has settled into place since the first few hectic weeks, I thought a quick report on how we’re getting on with the Wednesday afternoon beginner sessions would be in place.

Every week we get a mix of some regulars and some newbies. With help of the people that have been to the boat house before we sort everyone out with gear and then get on the river. We’ve been on the Castleconnell section of the Shannon, out the back of the boat house and yesterday we shuttled the boats up to Kilmurry.

At this stage we are still working on the basics like forward paddling and edge control, and we had a look at the ideal hand position on the paddle. The challenge of the day however was a giant search for all the paddles that Elayne scattered over the river, on charge of having to tidy the boat house for the last to find their paddles back. Roisin did a lovely job hanging all the gear and also offered to give the boat house a lick of paint, thank you very much!

There was an unlikely amount of sunshine, so the short trip could have been very romantic if we hadn’t been concentrating on paddling into eddies and ferry gliding the whole width of the river. The last rapid saw some people getting stuck on rocks, but it ended up being a dry hair day for everyone. A special mention to Colm who had the most ‘stuck on rock’ time and still didn’t get his hair wet!

Back at the boat house some had to leave early but as the rest of us were talking about draw strokes, Rebecca cleverly pointed out the drowning of a little dog that had gone for an unlucky swim. The team came to action and we performed a little swiftwater rescue under the eye of the owners. If that wasn’t enough, we rescued 3 footballs as well! That gave Gareth and Leanne the courage to try out their t-rescues and rolls, with mixed results…

All over it was a great afternoon with some excellent show of talent, especially from some of the guys that came out for the first time! If you’re new and want to move on from the pool sessions, just come along yourself: Wednesday at 3, at the Boat House!