Taster Sessions 2016

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Want to learn more about L.U.C.K. Theres no better way than coming to a taster session and meeting us! The Lincoln University Canoe & Kayak team (L.U.C.K) is hosting four taster sessions to allow you to try this exciting sport. Understand everything you need to know from this post.

When Can I come and have a go.

We are hosting 4 sessions across 2 days. The 28th September and the 5th October. With 1 hour long taster sessions at 2pm & 3pm. Please show up to only one as we need to allow everyone a chance to take part. 

What should I expect?

You’ll spend 1 hour taking part, 15 minutes gearing up, warming up and a quick safety briefing then we head onto Brayford Pool, allow you to have paddle around, plus we’ll play some games and activities to teach basic water skills. It’s flat water so no plans for anyone to fall in. 

Do I need any special kit?

No, we’ll provide the boats & paddles, as well as the safety equipment to get paddling, we just ask you dress appropriate, bring a towel and change of clothes. There is a changing room at Lincoln Canoe Club so you can easily get changed straight off the water.

What should I wear?

Sports/active wear is good. A t-shirt and swimming shorts/tracksuit trousers (no jeans). However we’ll provide a CAG to cover your torso from water. Be prepared, you will get wet, be it from splashes in the water or the rain so please wear clothing you don’t mind getting wet. But please don’t wear jeans or cotton/fleece tracksuits as these absorb water and make paddling unsafe.  Footwear wise, please wear footwear you don’t mind getting wet. 

Is it easy, safe, dangerous?

We have a team of trained students who’ve been on various BCU courses who’ll be on the water providing coaching and assistance. The Brayford Pool is a flat body so no waves or choppy water will make this great for a first time paddling. The buoyancy aid you’ll be wearing will keep you afloat if you accidentally fall in. While the Brayford pool might look questionable some days, however the Environmental Agency has deemed the water perfectly safe to paddle on. 

Overall, it’s safe and the easy to paddle on the Brayford.

Where should I meet?

We meet at the Lincoln Canoe Club, based on campus, it the building near the Minerva building (formally M.A.B), to find it walk down the road/path as if you were heading to the level crossing.

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We’d love to see you come along and try this sport out. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us on Facebook, or e-mail canoe@lincolnsu.com

So here we go, one last time.

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You can never really prepare yourself for times like these, It is easy for you to say ‘this will be my last Tyne Tour’ and the classic ‘so what’s your plans after University?’. But it never settles in, you’re too comfortable and settled in with the idea that it’ll never end and when it does, truly you don’t want to be. But we know era’s come to an end, people leave and new generations come along. It was only this time last year I myself was writing a blog post congratulating the then leaving members on there successes and wishing them the best, not considering fully the gravity of what they were going trough and thinking. But as I’m writing this after sobering up from our summer meal, seeing the team photos on my wall and all the memorabilia I’ve collected from my days kayaking. I now understand.

So it’s time to write the blog post for this year’s cohort of leaving members. We’ve got plenty of names to mention. We’ve enjoyed an unrivalled success over the past few years and it has been not an accident, the dedication and commitment of some of the members has resulted in fantastic experiences for our members. So lets begin as we’ve got a few names to get trough, in no real order but lets begin with our Kit Secretary, Ted Gravestock has been key this year as we’ve gained shy of just £1000 worth of new kit for club use, from a new boat to helmets, he’s sourced kayaking gear for the club, and while he might have had issues with the off river gear (*cough* PlayerLayer) Ted has managed to keep the current kit safe and in good nick! And we can’t mention kit secs without a thanks to last years and leaving member, Dan Scarfe who has helped the club during his 3 years, providing a safe pair of hands on the water and also fitting our new shed out in his 2nd year!

As you properly know some of the best memories and experiences happen on our trips and socials and leading the challenge of organising a calendar full of these are the leaving events organisers. Briony Marshall has provided some most notable social nights outs this year, sure she might of just done a superhero night just to see Ted in a Robin outfit, it’s not to say that wasn’t worth it, along with Briony she had to tolerate I mean work with our other organiser this year Will Jonson, who returned to the role this year. Both have provided some awesome trips, with a solid return back to NSR and a new surf trip in Anglesey and all the river trips and camping weekends in between. These 2 have made each trip as exciting and varied as the last! And before we move on, thanks last year’s former events organiser Michael Edwards, providing plenty of support and high spirits to the trips and sessions, maybe missing the mark of his social attendance just means we’ll miss him more.

We don’t just miss the leaving committee members however. We have many a member leaving this year that has provided plenty of support to the club. From the kind driving services of Sarah ‘Sassy’ Perkins, to the almost solid attendance record of Adam Dearnley and the high spirits of Joe Davies. We have loads of names to mention but not enough space for all of you!

So that’s it… Nah could you imagine! Here is to our President, Events Organiser, Team Engineer and Rock-hitting expert, Ewan ‘Ewie’ Morrison. As a president they have to oversight the entire club and make sure everything is as scratched up as it can be, and Ewan has achieved a great year during his time as president, which followed his previous year as our events organiser, even with some rocky moments (pun intended) Ewan has kept cool head and made sure any issues, and we’ve had plenty are resolved quickly, he has also worked to improve our relationship with external partners, including the SU which has helped us secure extra funding/support, the LCC and Airfield Anarchy, almost resulting in £2500 of funding, donations and sponsorship. It’s been a pleasure working with Ewan and on behalf of all the members we thank you for you hard work, dedication and friendship for the past 3 years.

So these members and many more look forward upon the sight of new chapters in their lives, and we’ll look back at all the moments during our time with LUCK and properly keep in touch with each other, because it is not something you come out the other side not liking each other. And as we move on away from Lincoln, we’ll know for sure the success of the club continues in the form of your new committee and members, some of which have already done a great job this year, Dan Myers continues as club treasurer and general good pal while Ed Woodrow takes up the challenge of club president continuing to provide his coaching skills for the club.

And this is were I sign off, many a blog post, photo, Tweet, video Facebook post, heavily edited Linc Articles and 10 years of LUCK organising it’s come down to 1024 words in my last blog post as your Web & Media Officer of the past 2 years. A roller coaster of a time, I’ve been in places I never imagined when I first walked past the stall in my fresher’s week back in 2013. I’d recommended this to anyone and do it all over in an instant! It has been fun, like really fun, and my pleasure also. But don’t be gutted I’m off, you’ll have safe hands next year in the form of Joey Mcaleese who is eager to build upon my time here, so all the best to her, and all the best to everyone who I’ve mentioned in this post and those who’ve I’ve not.

So with great sadness, for the final time.

Happy Paddling

June Update

It’s June, so heres whats happening!

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1. Membership Updates

Bad news: Membership will soon expire on the 30th of June. Good news: You’ll be able to renew with the frozen price of £55 (including SU insurance)! And even better we’ve dropped out alumni membership to £35. This has only happened due to our hard work by this years committee to find alternative source of funding to keep prices to same.

2. New logo and branding

As discussed in the AGM we are in the process of refining our new logo designs. 6 designs will be presented to the club soon for a final vote and then a rolling re-brand over summer in time for Freshers! Keep an eye out in the members Facebook Group and emails for details of this.

3. Kit Suppliers

After a tragic year of kit supplying within the SU thanks to PlayerLayer. The SU are looking to appoint a new kit supplier for the new year, and are seeking the votes of members of sports teams of the 2 short listed suppliers. Visit lincolnsu.com/kitsupplier for all the details, you need to get your vote in before the 21st of June.

4. New Committee

Please note committee handovers finish on the 30th of June, from then it’ll return to a single committee running the club, so any issues please bring up with new committee members.

Have a great summer everyone! Any issues , questions or fancy a chat drop us a message canoe@lincolnsu.com. See you all in September for our new year!

Happy Paddling

AGM Roundup 2015/16.

Last Thursday saw our Annual General Meeting take place. We took part in our annual review of our constitution and discussed other issues effecting the club. While official minutes are still be pre-pared we can share our round up of the afternoons discussions and decisions, or see what happened by reviewing our live twitter feed.

One of the main changes at these meetings is the alteration to our constitution. No large changes were proposed and most was altering terminology and reflect the changes within the SU over the 12 months. Notable changes including allowing non-student members to vote within AGMs and election of Safety Officers by the members.

Once our members ratified the constitution the meeting move along the agenda and moved along to hear feedback from current committee members and the plans from the new committee next year.

Then agenda moved onto the last item that was the logo vote, after a 3-week open entry 6 new designs for logo entries were received. Both the new and old web & media officer took all 6 entries forward and did not need to shortlist the designs. Alongside the 6 new designs it was also put forward to keep the current design but with some alterations. After a discussion about the designs and the future of design within the club, a vote took place and a new design was selected.

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A team will develop the new design and 6 alterations will be presented to the club for another approval over summer for the final logo. Then the new brand will launch in time for Fresher’s Week!

Overall it was a exciting meeting and show the hard work and progress the club is making to keep it self up to date and develop even more.

Happy Paddling!

May Update

With a bit of quiet time due to exams and deadlines, it’s a good chance to update you on all the end of year plans we have as a team, It’s the May Update!

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Big end of year Brayford Session.

With a pause on Brayford sessions during the exam/deadline season, we are going to try and compensate this with an extra special last edition, this longer session will feature games, challenges and a load of ducking about for our last session. This will be on the 25th of May and will begin slightly earlier so we can do as much as possible. Time TBC, but you’ll definitely need to bring a towel and a change of clothing.

Summer Meal

Our annual end of year summer meal and awards are fast approaching, and as your e-mail invite has told you, we are hosting this awesome evening on the 26th of May. We are glad to say we have a venue confirmed and we’ll be starting the evening off at Mailbox, followed by the awards at Walkabout. We’ll be meeting at Mailbox for 6pm on the 26th, and as with all of our end of term meals/awards, it’s a smart dress code, and there will be prizes for best dressed! We have also got VIP in Home nightclub for the rest of the evening.

AGM

As posted already, we are having our Annual General Meeting this month, this is a chance to directly influence the running of the club so it is important all members attended. If you can not you need to send your apologies in advance to canoe@lincolnsu.com. We plan for a quick AGM as such we are having this at 1pm also on the 26th at the Cargill Lecture theater. You can read the official notice here for more info about that.

Logo Design Competition

We are currently running a new logo design competition, the deadline is the 23rd of may and we want as many people to enter. You can read up about that and more info on our dedicated logo competition page here. We’ve only had a handful of entries!

So you are all caught up! Sorry for the lull in communication, but hopefully we’ll end the year right.

Happy Paddling!