Hello

I'm new to newsgroups (so hopefully haven't made a pig's ear of it!)
and new to kayaking. What I'd like to know is as a 35 year old
beginner, are my chances of becoming a great paddler less now than if
I'd started as a child or does age not enter the equation? I know I'm
not old but I seem to be the eldest novice in my local club, lol.

Also, as a complete "Humbug" I was wondering if any instructors out
there would be willing to give me lessons over the Christmas break. I
live in Southampton, and am yearning to get out of the pool and onto a
river. I'm trying to boycott Xmas this year and can't think of a
better way to spend it : )

TIA

Liz.

"Liz" wrote in message
om...
Hello

I'm new to newsgroups (so hopefully haven't made a pig's ear of it!)
and new to kayaking. What I'd like to know is as a 35 year old
beginner, are my chances of becoming a great paddler less now than if
I'd started as a child or does age not enter the equation? I know I'm
not old but I seem to be the eldest novice in my local club, lol.

Also, as a complete "Humbug" I was wondering if any instructors out
there would be willing to give me lessons over the Christmas break. I
live in Southampton, and am yearning to get out of the pool and onto a
river. I'm trying to boycott Xmas this year and can't think of a
better way to spend it : )



Age does come into it, as it does for any sport... As my doctor put it, "As
you grow older you have to train for your sport, rather than using your
sport to train". I am similar aged to you, and now I find I need to do some
work in the gym to keep up paddling fitness. But there is no reason not to
start now. I regularly coach people older than myself. We get the right
results. Just go for it! I think the oldest person I have taught was 65, and
we got him rolling.

Southampton... sorry... too far away :-(
A friendly word of advice... at this time of year... get some decent
paddling wear... (shiver)

Happy paddling!


Peter



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"Liz" wrote in message
om...
Hello

I'm new to newsgroups (so hopefully haven't made a pig's ear of it!)
and new to kayaking. What I'd like to know is as a 35 year old
beginner, are my chances of becoming a great paddler less now than if
I'd started as a child or does age not enter the equation? I know I'm
not old but I seem to be the eldest novice in my local club, lol.

Also, as a complete "Humbug" I was wondering if any instructors out
there would be willing to give me lessons over the Christmas break. I
live in Southampton, and am yearning to get out of the pool and onto a
river. I'm trying to boycott Xmas this year and can't think of a
better way to spend it : )

TIA

Liz.

Hi Liz yes age does make a difference I started at 36 3 years ago and still
having problems
with thinks like rolling

The club that I go to has a 15 year old female how has been Kayaking for 2
years and last month she rolled
115 time non stop in fact she could of done more but the water was getting
to shallow

Neil



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Liz wrote:

Hello

I'm new to newsgroups (so hopefully haven't made a pig's ear of it!)
and new to kayaking. What I'd like to know is as a 35 year old
beginner, are my chances of becoming a great paddler less now than if
I'd started as a child or does age not enter the equation? I know I'm
not old but I seem to be the eldest novice in my local club, lol.

Also, as a complete "Humbug" I was wondering if any instructors out
there would be willing to give me lessons over the Christmas break. I
live in Southampton, and am yearning to get out of the pool and onto a
river. I'm trying to boycott Xmas this year and can't think of a
better way to spend it : )

TIA

Liz.

Hi Liz,

Well its unlikely you're going to make a world class freestyle paddler...
but it doesn't mean you won't be running grade 4 in 2 years.

In our club, we've got a few members who started paddling around the
40ish mark. I would say that all who started within the last 3 years
(with the exception of one or two maybe) have developed a good roll on
one side and paddled grade 2 with confidence within 6 months of joining.
One or two have even managed a trip to the alps in their first year.

At your age, you should be able to achieve what you want... just don't
let the speed that the little buggers in your club pick things up. Kids
learn really fast and almost effortlessly..., whereas we've got to keep
plugging away.

If you want to travel to south Wales, e.mail me and I'll arrange for a
few of us (adults only) to go out for the day.

Have fun,
Steve (Amman Valley Paddlers)

Liz wrote:

I'm new to newsgroups (so hopefully haven't made a pig's ear of it!)

No...

and new to kayaking. What I'd like to know is as a 35 year old
beginner, are my chances of becoming a great paddler less now than if
I'd started as a child or does age not enter the equation?

Your chances of becoming "great" are certainly less. But as long as you
become great *enough* to get something out of it, does that really matter?
In kayaking, as any other sport, the great majority of the participants
are not "great" at it. I'm not-great at a lot of sports (kayaking
(surf, river and sea) included), but participate in and enjoy many of them.

not old but I seem to be the eldest novice in my local club, lol.

You'd be about par for the course in Tayside Sea Kayak. We've had
retired folk come along to take it up.

Also, as a complete "Humbug" I was wondering if any instructors out
there would be willing to give me lessons over the Christmas break. I
live in Southampton, and am yearning to get out of the pool and onto a
river. I'm trying to boycott Xmas this year and can't think of a
better way to spend it : )

Surfing! ;-)

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

In message , Liz
writes
Hello

I'm new to newsgroups (so hopefully haven't made a pig's ear of it!)
and new to kayaking. What I'd like to know is as a 35 year old
beginner, are my chances of becoming a great paddler less now than if
I'd started as a child or does age not enter the equation? I know I'm
not old but I seem to be the eldest novice in my local club, lol.

Also, as a complete "Humbug" I was wondering if any instructors out
there would be willing to give me lessons over the Christmas break. I
live in Southampton, and am yearning to get out of the pool and onto a
river. I'm trying to boycott Xmas this year and can't think of a
better way to spend it : )

TIA

Liz.

which club are you with? there are several round Southampton - most will
have some suitable trip going on over Christmas at some point I would
have thought. Many clubs are happy to take 'drop ins' for these sort of
trips if you ask.

The main issue is having suitable kit to keep you warm .

If you haven't paddled outside the pool them you probably don't need
lessons - just a bit of time on the water to sort out going strait - not
as easy as it sounds on a windy river!

Richard

--
Dr Richard Seaby

PISCES Conservation Ltd
IRC House, The Square
Pennington, Lymington
Hants, SO41 8GN
Tel +44 (0)1590 676622/674000 Fax +44 (0)1590 675599
www.irchouse.demon.co.uk www.pisces-conservation.com
www.powerstationeffects.co.uk www.amazonian-fish.co.uk

The club that I go to has a 15 year old female how has been Kayaking for
2
years and last month she rolled
115 time non stop in fact she could of done more but the water was getting
to shallow

Why? was she drinking it?

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Hi Liz yes age does make a difference I started at 36 3 years ago and
still
having problems
with thinks like rolling

You thinks too much.... rolling is feeling not thinking ;-)

I don't think this is totally an age issue... we have people who can roll at
36+ and find it easy, and we have younger people who find it impossible.

Age comes in because people get stiffer, but if you are taught good
technique, you should be able to roll. I have seen a paraplegic lady being
taught to roll... a hipflick free roll. It's interesting to see how she does
it.

Peter

Peter wrote:

Age comes in because people get stiffer, but if you are taught good
technique, you should be able to roll. I have seen a paraplegic lady being
taught to roll... a hipflick free roll. It's interesting to see how she does
it.

A pawlata roll is quite easy to do without a hip-flick. In fact that's
one of the nice things about it: less co-ordination required and you're
using leverage rather than brute power so are less likely to do a
naughty to a shoulder too. Not great if you're in a Big Hurry, but more
likely to work if you're not.

Our club starts folk off on pawlatas and then progresses to screws after
that's fairly bombproof. Must say I'm not getting very far with reverse
screws at the moment: back to that "which way is up? what do I do now?
what am I doing here?" feeling I had first time I was trying pawlatas
unassisted!

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

"Peter Clinch" wrote in message
...
Peter wrote:

A pawlata roll is quite easy to do without a hip-flick. In fact that's
one of the nice things about it: less co-ordination required and you're
using leverage rather than brute power so are less likely to do a
naughty to a shoulder too. Not great if you're in a Big Hurry, but more
likely to work if you're not.

Our club starts folk off on pawlatas and then progresses to screws after
that's fairly bombproof. Must say I'm not getting very far with reverse
screws at the moment: back to that "which way is up? what do I do now?
what am I doing here?" feeling I had first time I was trying pawlatas
unassisted!


It is interesting that you teach pawlata first.... I don't anymore for the
reason that people seem to rely on the leverage, and that turns into brute
force with the screw roll. I prefer to teach a non-brute force method of
doing the screw roll, which protects the shoulders etc.

Since I changed to this way of teaching, my success at getting people to
roll has rocketed... the most impressive "victim" went from not started
rolling to rolling in 15 minutes. She of course was an exception, but we
seem to get most people going in a few pool sessions.

Reverse Screw: the thing I did wrong for ages is I was pulling the blade
down in the water, rather than sweeping it out. This gave me a reverse roll,
but quite a weak one. Sweeping it round, and bingo... a much better, safer
roll. I still don't like back deck types of rolls, but they definitely have
their uses.

Peter

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