Liverpool University Canoe Club

A HUGE thank you to our brilliant social secs Tammy and Finn for organising another amazing evening.  A group of gorgeous girlies and some rather dapper boys (well they were wearing suits and most of them had even washed!) congregated at the Phil, before heading to the rather snazzy Zelig’s for an evening of fine food, jazz and umm, well wine…perhaps for some more than others…  Next were umbrellas, high vis, bibs and arm bands (ooh and congrats to Ginge our most improved paddler!).  So, all that was left was the traditional pilgrimage to the Raz and I’m sure the night ended for most in a fat frog induced blur.  Thanks guys, bring on AU night!

photos by: Helen J

Last night showed an impressive turn-out (minus our social sec who decided to go to the pub…need I say more!)  showing us just what a fantastic club we have…ace (but rather girly) polo team, fantastic club trips and socials throughout the year, amazing results at BUSA (5 and 7th?) and plenty of new members and money…though perhaps slight modification of our recuitment tactics are needed (boy freshers anyone?).  After some hard-fought electorical battles and some where there was actually more than one candidate, here is your committee for next year:

Captain: Sam Hardy

Vice (and Rodeo): Flic

Secretary: Hannah

Treasurer: Bubbs

Kit Officer: Sambo

Polo: Emily

Slalom: James P with help from Mary

Social: Sophie and Squirrel

Web: HelenH with help from Finn

OCMs: Stu, Andy R, Matt E….

Finally, a big thank you to this year’s committee for such a fantastic year and to all the trip organisers, drivers, anti-faff officers for making it all happen.

First, and probably last WEEKEND river trip of the semester guys. Get your names down now or miss out.

We’ll be staying in one of our usual haunts, a nice warm town hall in Sparks Bridge right next to river Crake.   The heavens haven’t been good to us thus yet, so there’s not vast amounts of water flowing in the rivers but we’ll find something i promise.  

The trip will be tailored for all abilities, and should be a good bit of practice for scotland!  

Hopefully see you at the pool tonight, and on the bus on Friday..

Bring on the Lakes!

Martin

OK, I’m behind on the talk reports - here’s stuff about the last-talk-but-one - if anyone would like to write up about the more recent one, Doug Ammons, please go ahead and hit  “Write new post”  - cheers, xh.

David’s talk, entitled “One Thing Leads To Another”, was about the various boating adventures he’s had, since signing up for the first BUKE expedition, in 2005. The way he tells it, him and his brother wrote in for a lark, and then ended up “picked” for the expedition. The result: a couple of months exploring in Kyrgzystan, nice.

An amazing place. We learned to be afraid of donkeys, and afraid of both alchoholic and non alchoholic drinks, but also to be really impressed by how kind and welcoming folk in Kyrgystan were towards some funny looking and funny smelling paddlers who just turned up in their backyard.

The water also looked very fun indeed. There was a mellow video, with a Kyrgyzstani song in the background, and a more frenetic video, with high-speed mad music in the background - both v nice and captured the mood of the place and the paddling.

Then we heard about more recent trips - Morocco, as passengers of a minibus more suited to city-tours for the silver-haired, struggling up the roads to some spectacular gorge-enclosed rivers, India with some great boating and some frisbee-ing with monks,  Italy for some rather steep creeking, and so on. Lovely.

This talk gave a great flavour of where paddling can take you, and what happens if you choose to say “Yes” everytime you get an opportunity to go boating. Exactly the thing, thanks for a great talk David, and cheers Mary for organising.

The next two talks are:

Wed 1st April: “LUCC goes boating” - by various club members - more info soon - includes minitalks on (probably): Alps, Norway, “Swims of 2008″, Slovenia, Wales, Scotland and Blighty.

A date early next term (details soon):  “White Water Madagascar” - by Nic Pearce - tales of adventure, exploration, and bush babies.

Both of these will be top - as usual, tickets on the door, 8pm McAusland lounge, head to the bar on the ground floor first to obtain some liquid sustenence.

Continuing in the mood of celebrating the last year and looking forward to the next one: remember its the Annual dinner on Fri 27th March - that’s the day after the AGM - places going fast, so if you’re not  on the list yet, go find Tammy or Finn social@lucanoe.info this week and hand over £26. That’s for a 3 course dinner and includes a bottle of wine between each 2. The venue is “Zelig’s” - very lovely Italian restaurant in L1. Dress is: Bow ties etc for blokes, nice frocks for girls. After the meal we head on to here and there, pulled irresistibly towards the Raz.

Annual Dinner on facebook

Contact: social@lucanoe.info

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AGM is set for Thursday 26th March in teh McAusland Lounge.

Vote in the new committee, have your say and choose who you want running the club next year. Follow the link to the forum discussion:

http://www.lucanoe.info/sf-forum/general/agm-nominations/#p1222

Next of Mary’s kayak talks is on Wednesday, that’s this Wednesday, Doug Ammons, famoooos American boater!

liverpoolkayaktalks.info

Here’s the plan: Its at the guild, 8pm, tickets on the door £4. If you can help with putting out chairs etc, great, please tell Mary. We’re going out for supper beforehand too - Kimo’s, as usual, so go to Kimo’s (the Mt Pleasant one) any time from about 6 onwards - there’ll be us, and any other paddlers too - e.g. Leeds and Manchester are coming over for the Christie Cup, so it will all be very social. After Kimo’s, we’ll go for a swift half at the downstairs bar in the guild before the talk starts at about 8.

Here’s the blurb about Doug Ammons - this talk will be very, very top, so invite your friends.

“Doug Ammons is one of America’s most famous white water paddlers - known for his outrageous solo descents of Class V+ and VI runs - and especially the Grand Canyon of the Stikine.  Doug is an award winning writer and photographer and perhaps the most articulate and inspiring paddler in the world today.  This is an evening that will entertain, thrill, and leave you mentally hung out to dry!”

Quote from Rainchasers: “Doug Ammons is the paddlers paddler. 5 kids, proper job, a raft of hard first descents around the globe, hand paddled the North Fork Payette and soloed the Stikine (probably all before breakfast !) He is hugely respected by his peers as a talented and graceful boater and a good guy.
As a bonus, he writes really good books as well. ‘Laugh of the water nymph’ is, in my opinion, hands down the best book ever written about boating.”

Quote from Dave Manby:  “A guy who solo-ed the Grand Canyon of the Stikine HAS got to be worth seeing. He is as good a talker as paddler.”

Quote from Will Gadd (Canadian champion sports climber):  “The helicopter story was hilarious and worth the price of admission by itself”

Outside links:

Browse http://www.dougammons.com/ for plenty of stories from Doug’s book, as well as slide shows of Ice-kayaking, and some amazing photos.

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