January 27th, 2012
Dorney Lake (pic from Bucks County Council)
If you’re going to watch the canoeing events at Dorney Lake during the Olympic Games you can expect to be targeted by the local council’s zealous parking enforcement team if you take your car.
Plans by Windsor and Maidenhead council chiefs look set to zero in on anyone who parks illegally. London Games organisers have set out plans for spectators to use public transport only to get to venues. While that makes sense for London’s Olympic stadium, Eton Dorney is out in the sticks, relatively speaking, and much harder to get to by bus.
There will be a shuttle bus service from Windsor station and it’s not clear whether there will be any on-site parking for any of the 3o,000 spectators expected to watch rowing and canoeing at Dorney Lake every day that Olympic competition takes place there.
According to a report on the BBC website, the local council has said it will set up parking areas, park and ride sites and shuttle services from train stations.
Categories: Olympic Canoeing
Tags: Dorney Lake, maidenhead, olympic canoeing, parking, windsor
January 27th, 2012
Canoe & Kayak UK Magazine is now available in a digital version as a downloadable app on the Apple App Store Newstand.
The current version and several back issues are already available. Further details can be found on the magazine’s website.
Categories: Press & Publicity
Tags: app, apple store, Canoe & Kayak UK magazine, digital
January 26th, 2012
There is a Nelo K2 for sale at Reading, advertised on eBay. It’s white, has handles and appears to be in a fairly well used condition. As it’s on eBay, it’s for sale to the highest bidder – the sale ends on 28 January at 5.06pm.
Categories: Classifieds
Tags: classified advertisement, Devizes to Westminster, dw, ebay, for sale, K2, nelo
January 26th, 2012
If you’re in the canoeing team for London 2012 or you’ve been to a previous edition of the Olympic Games, you can join the Olympic athletes’ hub on the International Olympic Committee website www.olympic.org
The hub pulls together all the social media feeds and website links for all Olympic athletes past and present. The idea is to make it the central repository for all athlete-related information online. The hub has just launched but by summer it is likely to have thousands of Olympians registered
If you’re interested in particular athletes you can register to follow them – and if you’re an Olympian yourself, you can sign up and develop your own community there.
Canoeists already on the hub include Adam van Koeverden, GB medal winner David Florence, Athens medalist Campbell Walsh and British C1 sprint paddler Mark Oldershaw.
Categories: Olympic Canoeing
Tags: international olympic committee, Olympic Games
January 26th, 2012
Tesco's canoeing partnership
Supermarket giant Tesco, already a sponsor of British canoeing through a two-year deal announced in 2010, is believed to be close to securing the post-Olympic Games naming rights for the Lee Valley whitewater centre. The centre, which will be the venue for canoe slalom at London 2012, is near Tesco’s company headquarters in Cheshunt.
According to an article in the Independent, Tesco is expected to pay some £5m for the naming rights to the centre. The British slalom team will be based at the centre after the Games.
Currently the canoeing centre is run by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority. Securing naming rights means the centre’s financial future looks more secure. The park authority wants the venue to be making a profit by 2014. It will also be hosting the 2015 World Canoe Slalom Championships.
Selling naming rights is key to ensuring the future financial security of Olympic Games venues and a way of avoiding facilities becoming ‘white elephants’. Most canoeing figures in the UK say that Lee Valley facility (or the “Tesco Clubcard Every Little Helps Canoe Course” as it probably won’t be known) will become a magnet for canoeists in the UK and a surefire way of developing the sport in the south-east after the Olympic Games are over.
Categories: Olympic Canoeing
Tags: Cheshunt, Lee valley, naming rights, Olympic Games, slalom canoeing, Tesco
January 26th, 2012
Ice kayaking
So you don’t normally paddle when the water’s frozen? Why ever not?
Ice didn’t seem to get in the way of a good session on the water as far as this canoeist was concerned.
(Image copyright: Buzzhunt).
Categories: Photos
Tags: ice, picture
January 25th, 2012
The club now has a page on Facebook. As Britain’s oldest canoe club it seemed about time to let the digital age in….we’ve had a website for a while but many members are on Facebook and other social networking sites and it makes sense to be there too.
Have a look and see what you think, all contributions and comments are very welcome. Feel free to add pictures, video and articles to the page, send the link to your canoeing friends – and please ‘like’ us!
Categories: Info, Press & Publicity
Tags: digital media, facebook, royal canoe club
January 25th, 2012
If you were one of the lucky individuals who were notified that they’d won a prize in the end-of-year photo competition, you should also subsequently have received an email asking for your postal address. Unfortunately I’ve only had one address so far (thanks Neil H!) so if everyone else could please let me know their postal address I can send you your prize – please email secretary@royalcanoeclub.com
I will be at Royal this Saturday morning and can bring the prizes with me, if you’d let me know you’ll be there. Otherwise just email your address and they’ll be posted to you.
Categories: Photos
Tags: photo competition
January 25th, 2012
Canoe challenge picture
Royal Canoe Club paddlers are nothing if not determined. Peter Hope turned up at the London Boat Show recently to find a canoeing test on one of the stands. The challenge? Paddle 20 metres on a canoeing ergo as fast as you can.
Peter gave it a go and – extended drum roll – managed to produce the winning time, a mere 3.7 seconds. For anyone doubting the significance of this performance, cast your eyes down the results column (picture, left). Under ‘staff’, you’ll just about be able to see the name Campbell Walsh. Yes, that’s the current British Number 1 and Olympic silver medal winning slalom canoeist at the Athens Games who’s currently training for the London Games too.
Peter does have competitive form, albeit not in canoeing. He has rowed extensively over the years, competing for Leander in the Britannia Cup in 1978, won three Henley medals with Shrewsbury, Kingston and UL, and also rowed in the GB coxed four in 1979 and 1981.
Let’s hope Campbell does better in London. On the plus side, at least he won’t have Peter to worry about.
Rumour has it Peter’s celebrations lasted a tad longer than 3.7 seconds – in fact, according to some Royal sources, he was still talking about it at the club this weekend, a full seven days after the event. Many congratulations just the same, Peter!
Categories: Olympic Canoeing, Race Reports
Tags: Campbell Walsh, Great Britain, Leander, medalist, olympic canoeing, Peter Hope, royal canoe club
January 25th, 2012
Ed McKeever - student canoeist
Olympic medal hopeful Ed McKeever features in Kingston University’s alumni magazine this month. McKeever, who received an accounting and finance degree at the university four years ago is currently studying for a professional accountancy qualification there.
Click on the image (left) to enlarge it. Eagle-eyed readers may notice the byline on the article – it’s Hilary Wells, former Royal Canoe Club member and Olympian (Barcelona 1992), who now works in the communications department at Kingston University.
Categories: Olympic Canoeing
Tags: Ed McKeever, Hilary Wells, Kingston university, olympic canoeing, royal canoe club
