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Gold Outdoor First-Aid Course on 16 and 17 November
Last weekend, 12 Gold Award participants spent all Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday working towards their Outdoor First-Aid qualification. This is a compulsory part of their Gold Training and all pupils performed really well showing all the relevant skills required during their final assessment and as a result are now all qualified first-aiders for the next three years.
Very well done indeed to those involved.
Gold DofE Paddling Training Session. Sunday 17 November
In addition to those doing their first-aid, on Sunday 10 Gold Participants spent all day at Chichester Harbour working on their kayaking skills. This was their very first session on the water and they all performed well above our expectations. After going through some theory in the morning, they launched from Itchenor and were taken through a series of drills and games to help them become familiar with the kayak and how they can best manoeuvre it through the water.
At the end of the session, they all had to perform a capsize drill to show that they could escape when inverted in the water. The water temperature was around 12 degrees, so they weren’t under for long!
This is the first of eight planned training sessions before their Sea Kayak Assessment in June. Hopefully that will ensure they are fully ready for their Assessment Expedition in Norway in July.
Below is a picture of the two Groups just before the capsize drill. Well done to all participants, it was a great day out on the water.
A big thank you to the Carthusian Society for supplying the participants with new kayaking jackets this year. As you can see, they look incredibly smart and did the job in keeping them dry and warm, that is until they went completely under the water!
