This afternoon, I got to spend a couple of hours canoeing on The Mere in Ellesmere with a dozen pupils from Ellesmere Primary School. The school had asked me to put on the session after school, so it was 4pm by the time the group arrived and they were very excited and itching to get on the water.
However, just as we they arrived, the breeze picked up a bit and it was clear to me that they were going to have to work hard with their paddles. As a result, a warm up was even more important than normal, although the sight of water and canoes didn’t help the concentration!
Different instructors strike their own balance between bank based instruction and learning by exploration on the water. In reality, we all adapt things according to the group, the environment and the conditions. From my end, today was a day for a bit more directing from me as a young group would need to be on the ball fairly quickly to get the most out of the session. However, sometimes young minds find it hard to listen when there are exciting things just round the corner.
To my surprise, they actually coped very well to start with, making good progress as they tried to get their heads around what to do with the paddles. We managed to play a couple of games, which were going really well until one of the canoes capsized. It wasn’t really a problem, but you wouldn’t have thought so from the screaming induced by the cold water! By the time they were returned to their boat another one was upside down, but in a slightly more dignified manner, patiently waiting for the boat to be emptied.
The final paddle back to the ‘get in’ proved to be hard work as the paddling pairs struggled to make headway into a relatively light breeze. I ended up with 3 canoes rafted onto mine, at which point many of the kids seemed to think they didn’t need to paddle any more. Paddling 4 boats and 7 people proved to be quite hard work into the breeze and, by the time we got out of the canoes, my body seemed to be complaining!
Most of the kids left with smiles on their faces, although a couple were less than impressed when their parents saw the funny side to them going for an unexpected swim!
As the kids left with their parents, for a brief moment I thought that I could relax, until I realised that I still needed to load 7 canoes onto the trailer on my own. It’s a good job my body’s got half term to recover.
