The Kids Academy Strikes Back

At CIWW nothing marks the start of October half term without the early Saturday morning hustle, bustle and stoke of the Kids Academy trip leaving for Scotland. That first moment the whole team gets together to meet at CIWW is incredible, all the hard work, planning, pre meetings, pre pre meetings and more planning has paid off! We’re off to Scotland! I (Andy Kettlewell, a.k.a Chips) was joined by coaches Oli Cooper and Janice Lo look after and inspire the group for a week away in the Scottish highlands. 

As we travelled north it became clear we had 4 highly motivated young rippers that wanted to progress all aspect of their paddling and safety awareness on their week in Scotland. Having just been away for the ParkJam tour with these two for the previous 3 weeks we knew we were in for another epic week! 

Straight to the Spean! Water this last October wasn’t so kind to us but we still had plenty, but choosing the first river of the trip is always a tricky decision, don’t put any one off on day one, too hard, too easy, too long, too short, it’s definitely one of the most stressful decisions. Although as we put on in Roy bridge for the middle Spean it became clear this was the right decision with ferry glides, tailies and rolling for half an hour all happening before we had even left the bridge. 

Part of progression is repetition, and as many others believe you coach on grade 2 and 3 to implement those skills on harder white water, so with that we found a brilliant 5ft waterfall half way down the middle Spean that gave us an opportunity to easily walk back up and try again, with plenty of awesome boofs it left us all ready to take on the spean gorge with ease.

The 2024 crew! (Left to right Freddie, Myles, Ben, Oli Cooper, Janice and Eva)

Classic river are classics for a reason and the rivers Orchy, Morrison and Etive were on the cards for the next 3 days following that same theme of repetition, for all the skills, not just the big stuff but taileys, surfing, setting safety and so much more! But I think if anyone asks the team, laps on Eas a Chathaidh, sticky hole and tripple step were definitely highlights. 

Being away from home has its perks, NO PARENTS! But also comes with plenty of draw backs, having to wake up early, doing the washing up before you go kayaking, hanging your kit up to dry each day and helping out with dinner. Fortunately staying at Roam West on the outskirts of Glen Coe was a great base for us with self catering accomadation and spacious social space for post kayaking hang outs and debriefs. We even had a lovely team meal on the last day at the pub on sight.

After a whole heap of excitement on the first 4 days water levels dwindling for the final 2 days of kayaking, fortunately fellow Palm team paddler Joe Rea Dickins came up with an idea of heading to the Falls of Lora and although there were no big tides, paddling on the outflow of a sea loch ended up with a whole heap of fun and new experiences, tacking huge currents, tricky to surf waves, big eddy lines and the notorious whirlpools. We finished the day on the Arkaig, none of us had done this run before which made it even more of a fun adventure. We found an awesome rapid near the start that once again was easy to do over and over again, and further down the river an awesome wave and tailey spot that we sessioned until it litterally got dark and paddled the flat water to the end of the river.

We awoke on our final day to a gentle piter patter on the roof, the kayakers calling. We’d prayed for it all week and it had finally rained! Back to the Etive for us, this time with some water. It was great to see the team tackle the river once again and use what they’d learnt through the week and put a whole heap of it into practice. Although a few things didn’t go to plan it was a great day for the team, each finding and understanding their own limits in a controlled and friendly environment. 

Over the course of the week every made so much progress, a stand out was how Eva (13) didn't get intimated at the prospect of being the youngest by far and made amazing progress not just on the water but off the water including learning new skills walking on slippy rocks and steep loose river banks.

With the support of Palm Equipment here is the highlight video from the October 2024 trip to Scotland with the CIWW Kids Academy! 

See you on the water!