Song of the paddle big meet

Last weekend Pete, and Joe from the Lancaster shop attended the Song of the Paddle Forum Big meet at Ullswater. Song of the Paddle is the biggest Open Canoe Forum in the UK, with paddlers coming from all over the UK, as well as lots of our existing more local paddlers.

Pete Knowles . At home in any boat. looking for a pub to paddle to

Gav (Canoe Stig) styling in the Wenonah Wilderness

Driving to Ullswater via Stockport enabled me to pick up the big box van full of demo boats, together with a full trailer I had 17 demo Open Canoes available from Novacraft, Mohawk, Venture Canoes, and Mad River. Together with the Importers for Wenonah and Gatz we put on an impressive display.

the sun shines on the demo boats

With a windy forecast it was always going to be a  social event with not much lake or tripping paddling being done. A lot of demoing of boats took place, with swanky ultralight Wenonah tandems, and low line solos proving most popular.  I managed to jump in a few boats, and am now closer to purchasing a solo superfast lake tourer.

John from Cardiff White Water Centre. he can roll an Open Canoe, but still no sign of his 1*

We were based at Waterside Farm on a field right on the water, facilities were basic (apart from the butty van!) but clean and tidy, the site also provided a marquee for evening entertainment with a bar! a curry was laid on on saturday night.

After a night of storms, and continual rain on sunday, we beat a hasty retreat to drop the van and trailer back at stockport where it looked really quite nice weather!

A successful event, but maybe we need to avoid the same time of year (I remember doing the Morecambe bay classic windsurfing event on this weekend, and it was always windy.....)