It is the end of the Winter Hours’ start times and session lengths at our Wednesday Club Nights. From 11th March we get back to enjoying more paddling time in what we hope will be warmer and more pleasant weather! Club Members: please check WebCollect for the available bookings, and for our wonderful volunteers who help our Club Nights to take place, please check SPOND.
Coming soon — Saturday 14th March. The Sharks are working in partnership with Paddle UK and the Wild Water Racing Committee to deliver a genuine legacy for the discipline. What Is the Lee Valley Legacy Project? This is more than a race day. The Lee Valley Legacy Project is a collaborative white water development experience with Wild Water Racing (WWR) at its heart. It’s designed to bring paddlers, clubs, coaches, and the wider WWR community together to: • Build confidence on moving water • Develop transferable white water skills • Introduce and grow Wild Water Racing • Create a shared pathway from learning → confidence → racing • Establish something sustainable, repeatable, and meaningful This event is about working together — not just turning up and racing. It’s about lowering barriers, sharing knowledge, supporting progression, and creating an environment where people feel welcome, encouraged, and excited to push their paddling a little further — at their own pace. We’re laying foundations. For paddlers. For clubs. For the future of white water paddlesport. Who Is This For? Everyone. Absolutely everyone. Our guiding principle is simple: Start with what you’re comfortable in — then take the next step with support. Progression might …
The weather is finally warming up a little just in time for our first club night of 2026, so get out all those welcome thermal layers that Santa brought and join us on Wednesday 14th Jan 2026 for the 90 minute sessions on both courses, 7-8.30pm. Booking via WebCollect now. Bank safety Thanks again to all those who gave their time, expertise and enthusiasm to provide bank safety during 2025. Hugely appreciated of course! Please sign up with Spond if you are able to help this week as we return to Club Night paddling.
Dear Club Members I really enjoyed meeting so many of you at this week’s Christmas meal. The paddling session beforehand reminded me of what makes this a great club – people young and old paddling freestyle, slalom, race rafting and simply having fun on whitewater. As we come to the end of the year and a pause in LVWWC based activities, I wanted to acknowledge and say thank you to: *All of those club members who have volunteered – to cover bank safety, welcome members at reception, coach fellow club members, organise trips and competitions, tidy the sheds, update websites, manage our finances, post on social media… *David Redington and his team at Lee Valley Whitewater Centre, for the welcome partnership and collaboration.*Pam Phillips and all the committee for your work behind the scenes.* Martin Smyth, one of the club’s founding Directors, who will be standing down in 2026. Some Club Highlights of 2025 *The summer inflatables session, where we discovered that pink flamingos are fine to go down the legacy course, but that certain other inflatable items are not (IYKYK !).*The hotdog event, where I laughed more than I have laughed for a long time.* Hosting the successful British Open …
Club Rep – Positions Vacant We are opening up the list for Club Members to volunteer as the Club Rep on Wednesday evenings for Club Night. What you get: Free paddling on any course for the evening you are Club Rep. What you need to do: The Club Rep provides a first point of contact between LVWCC and the Club in case of any serious issues. All club coaches are first aid qualified, so you do not need to provide first aid yourself but you may need to coordinate with club coaches / LVWWC reception / emergency services. This requires a level of common sense and maturity to handle unplanned and potentially stressful situations. Thankfully, these are very rare but we need to be ready. If you wish to paddle while being Club Rep, you simply need to wear the purple Club Rep Bib, so that the club’s members and bank safety volunteers can easily identify you if any assistance is needed. There are two times when you need to be available on land: In the 30 minutes before the first club session starts and the next 15 minutes of the session. To ensure both safety trolleys are set up (throw bags packed, first …
A further reminder that Club Membership is now due for renewal. All categories can be seen under ‘subscriptions‘ in WebCollect on the left side of your home page. Your early renewal is greatly appreciated. Please do check if you have outstanding credit which can be used for or towards renewal. If so , please select the cash option and I’ll adjust it for you. Any outstanding balance can be paid by cash or card at the desk on club night. However, if you are not able to renew this year, please do let me know so that you may be appropriately dealt with! Pamlvpcmembership@gmail.com
Following a successful trial last year, we will be reducing the paddling hours again this year from November 26th for the winter months until March 4th 2026. There will be one session of 90 mins on each course, from 7pm to 8.30pm. The cost will be as last year, £10 for the Legacy, £15 for the Olympic sessions. There will be a complete break from 17 Dec to 7 January inclusive, so the last session of this year is the night of our Christmas Get Together on December 10th. (Save the date!) The first session in 2026 will be January 14th . Reducing our winter hours worked well for us last year and certainly contributed to getting our finances in order. We will, of course, be grateful for members’ help with bank safety, which will run in 2 sessions of 45 minutes.
We are organising a pilot freestyle competition on Wednesday 15th October on the 7:30pm Legacy session. If you’ve ever wanted to see what freestyle is about, now is your chance! Anyone can enter in any boat; this is all about having fun and finding out about freestyle. Heats will be in a ‘jam’ style format (a set time allocated for the heat based on the number of paddlers and you just take it in turns getting on the feature). The categories are mixed gender and age but based on ability level: Novice – All fun moves count (think paddle spins, cosmic donkeys, Harry Potters – if you have no idea what these are you’ll learn along the way) Intermediate – ICF moves with flexibility i.e. if you initiate in the feature but flush, you’ll still score it and some flexibility on angles. If you retain in the feature, there will be additional bonuses. Advanced – ICF scoring. Stricter scoring, requiring you to retain in the feature to score the move. There will be a mandatory safety brief in the island on the Legacy at 7:15. Heats will also be allocated at the brief along with bibs. The cost of the …
The first AquaPaddle took place Sunday 28th September on the River Lee from the White Water Centre. 10 paddlers tackled 5k in a variety of craft and with a range of skill sets, with some racing, some relaxing, some litter picking….but enjoyed by all. Our thanks to Martin and Reuben for safety cover and their organisation. This was a first for LVPC and it is hoped that these paddles will take place monthly. Look out for the dates and joining instructions for future AquaPaddle events…come and join us and still have time for a WW paddle afterwards.
For Club Members who have a 2024/2025 membership, your membership expires on 30th September 2025 – so it is time for an October 1st renewal! Following our September AGM’s decision to return the Club to an April to March membership year, there will be two renewal options to get your membership into an annual cycle that starts in April: There is a small discount built-in to the 18 month membership fee. We are delighted to announce a reduction in our Junior and Family Membership fees thanks to an anonymous benefactor who has generously donated a subsidy to help make paddling more accessible for young people. Our six month and 18 month membership fees, with discounts and subsidies applied, are as follows:
This report was kindly submitted by one of our talented junior paddlers. Our thanks to them. Yesterday evening, Lee Valley Paddlesports Club hosted a Kayak Cross event. Kayak Cross is a sport where people go down a flowing water course in plastic kayaks, going around massive poles as they go. 4 paddlers are released at a time, often sliding down ramps, and try to go round the poles whilst staying in the lead. If the poles are green, you must go to one side of them, if they are red, you must go around them. Sometimes it even includes a roll zone, where you have to roll under a horizontal bar! The event saw a great turn out, with 32 under 16s, 12 of them LVPC members, showing up to have fun on the Lee Valley Legacy course! The competitors all tried their hardest, especially when faced with a roll zone, other competitors and white water. This event was hosted in order to allow young people to try out a different kind of paddlesport to the ones they are used to. It also boosted many of the paddlers’ confidence on the white water course as they knew they were not …
For our many current Club Members, memberships will need renewing from 1st October 2025, but just for this year, the options available for renewing membership will be a little different. Here’s why: At our September 2025 AGM it was agreed the Club would return to a Membership Year that starts on 1st April each year, and not, as currently, the 1st October. We moved to the 1st October to accommodate all the months of lost paddling during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns, but it suits us much better to get back to a 1st April start. So, as our current memberships become renewable for 1st October 2025, there will be two options available to get you back to an April-to-March annual membership cycle. You will be able to either renew for six months to 31st March 2026, or you will be able to renew for 18 months to 31st March 2027. Details on these options and the fees agreed by the AGM will be published on WebCollect with updates in the weekly Club News and on this website.