Canoe Club?

The best way of starting to canoe is by contacting your local club.

There are hundreds all over the country, for the one nearest you try looking up your local club in JoJaffa’s Canoe Club listings. Just search for ‘canoe’. (If yours isn’t listed, you can add your canoe club here).

An other great resource will be your national canoe association. There is one for most countries (including Scotland and Wales) but the major body in the UK is the British Canoe Union or in North America contact the Canadian Canoe Association.

A canoe club will provide you with the help and advice you need to get going, many clubs run training courses for everybody from beginners to experts. They will advise you how to paddle, where to paddle, what to paddle, and most importantly of all, provide friends for you to paddle with.

Once you’ve mastered the basics, which won’t take too long, you can then quickly progress to paddling on lakes, rivers and maybe the sea.

The great thing about a canoe club is the arranging and event, and more importantly, picking a location, will be a shared event. It’s more fun and much easier than trying to do it all on your own.

As far as equipment goes, a full set of all the kit you need to go canoeing can be expensive. The best thing to do is to start buying it slowly, it won’t take very long before you have the gear you need.

Initially clubs will let you borrow the essentials, the boat, paddles, spraydeck and helmet, giving you a chance to try it out before buying your own. All you should need is to turn up prepared to get wet, bringing with you a towel, a change of clothes, a warm drink and plenty of enthusiasm.

The essentials:

• 1 x canoe
• 1 x paddle
• 1 x buoyancy aid
• 1 x helmet
• 1 x spray-deck - the ’skirt’ that prevents unwanted water getting into your boat

The ‘extras’:

• 1 x cagoule, with neoprene collar & cuffs
• 1 x wetsuit, normally wet-shorts are all that are required
• 1 x pair of wetsuit boots or shoes