Erne Paddlers are calling for people of all ages to get out on Lough Erne and experience the thrill of paddling. The club, which boost 200 members despite only being formed six years ago, is looking for additional members, and has appealed for all ages to get involved.
“We can pretty much cater to anybody,” said Chloe Hamilton, safeguarding officer at the club. “We get people who have retired recently and are starting for the first time, we have school kids doing after schools programmes, and we have all age groups in between as well. We run junior sessions where it is all kids, we run family sessions where the parents can go with them, or longer recreational paddles, so we have a massive age range. There are so many different disciplines in canoeing and kayaking that there is something for everyone. You can go for the fast paced, more adrenaline based activities like kayak surfing or you can go out on the lake in open boats over a longer distance. People should come along and try it.”
The Enniskillen based club, who recently held a stand up paddle boarding tatser session, can offer a large variety of different disciplines in addition to traditional canoeing and kayaking, with stand up paddle boarding one of the new forms of paddling that is increasing in popularity. The club is set to host the National Championships next month, but while there can be a competitive element to some of the disciplines, Chloe says getting inexperienced paddlers out on to Lough Erne is one of the main aims of the clubs.
“We are trying to promote our recreational paddles this year,” she said. “It’s all very well saying we run races for this and that but some people are put off by the adrenaline junkie type of sports so we run recreational paddles on the lakes which really anyone can go to. Families, people who are retired, children. No one needs any experience. Come along and try it out, find out what you like, and we can take it from there.”
One of the programmes the club is focussing on is the Blueway 10K, which is a programme aimed at beginners. “”It is designed to get people who have no previous experience on the water and coach them forward paddling,” explained Chloe. “There are no fancy manoeuvres or rolling or anything like that involved. It’s just to get people up to a decent fitness that they could paddle 10 kilometres. We are not looking at getting people wet. We are just looking at getting people onto the water and getting them moving and getting them active, so they can turn up without any equipment except maybe a change of clothes.”
There is plenty of competition out there for sporting clubs, but Erne Paddlers offers an alternative to the more traditional sports, and Chloe has witnessed the enthusiasm of their new members, who keep coming back for more. “We have kids who come along and have tried every other sport and not liked anything until they tried canoeing.”
If you are interested in finding out more about Erne Paddlers there are more details on their Facebook page.