shropshirepaddlesport.org - the blog

Please don't forget that there is a club meeting next Monday April 20th at 19:30 at the Punchbowl.

The agenda is:

1. Funding for the shed (including fundraising)

2. Programme  for summer 2009

Apologies for the lack of blog... Andy was playing with it just before we went away and it broke. We're now back, and the blog is mended. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

The club duathlon will be held at Queens Head rather than Shrewsbury due to river levels. It will start with registration from 9.30 with the lightning brief at 10.30 (race at 10:45) and the seniors brief is 11:15 starting to run at 11:30.

This means that there will be no club session on Saturday. However anyone who wants to take part in the race or is able to help is more than welcome to come down anyway!

Contact Deb or Bruce for more information.

I've added the ability to search the blog up in the top right-hand corner of the main page. It works like almost any other search engine you've ever used - type some words or a phrase into the box and click "Search".

So for example

slalom

will only bring back postings which have the word "slalom" in the title or in the article.

Using "AND" means that both words have to exist, so

hasler AND national

will return entries with both words (or  partial words - "national" also brings back things containing  "nationally" for example)

Finally if you want a specifc phrase then just include it inside quotes e.g.

"kayak village"

The observant among you may have noticed that over there on the right in the section marked "pages" there is a new link to the calendar of events. It's a new thing I've just discovered that the blog can do - as well as having these short postings which gradually get pushed down the page as new ones appear on top (and eventually get opushed into the month archive) I can also write pages whcih stay around.

Compared to the main website it's really easy to edit these "pages" so for things which change quite a lot (like "up and coming events" I'm going to start keeping them up to date here. We're just beginning to see the beginnings of the race calendar for next year appearing, but I'll be adding more things as i hear about them. If there are other important dates I should publicise (slalom races or anything from other disciplines) then let me know.

Some stuff, of course, I'll always post about on the main blog page as well (or anyone else can if they like - you only have to ask), so if you've got something you want brought to people's attention then just let Deb or I know. I'm quite happy to do the "donkey work" but I'd hate to suppress any budding authors.

I mean, how long can it be before a very excited Ellie feels the need to tell us all about her new boat...

We were up at QH last night and there is security fencing all around the Big Green Shed with a skip full of dirt and rubble stacked next to it. Clearly something is happening although we're not quite sure what yet.

If anyone (Phil, Mike, Bob ?) knows what the current schedule is then just comment on the post. (click on the "No Comments" link below)

We bumped into John last night up at QH and the paperwork for converting the club to a limited company has now gone off to the club's solicitor. This needs to be processed by him and the trustees will all have to sign it, but we are now a significant step closer to this important step happening. Once this is in place we will then continue withe the process of getting ourselves registered as a charity.

Last weekend saw our first Saturday morning operation out of our new (temporary) home in the "kayak village". This is a set of shipping containers and a portacabin changing room which have been set up in the BW car park while the shed is being redeveloped.

Important Note If you are a keyholder and letting yourself in and out of the carpark, PLEASE make sure that when you lock the carpark gates that you link the padlocks together - there are two padlocks, one of ours and one of British Waterways, so if we lock the chain with the two padlocks locked to each-other then EITHER of us can undo the gate.

While we were finishing off last weekend I took some photos of our new and old homes if anyone is interested.

The kayak village from the road

Our new changing rooms (despite reasoned and logical protest the girls still got the big one with the boys stuffed into the tiny bit at the end)

Storage for K2s, composites, and plastic boats with most of the racing boatts temporarily stored offsite or in the gallery.

When you look at the shed now that we've taken out all our clutter (and the partition walls) you begin to understand how big it really is. here you can see the top shed empty of boats and racking, what used to be the changing rooms, and the main bottom boat shed.

Lots of people turned out yesterday to empty the shed.  Dave, Joe and Giles built some excellent racking for boats, paddles and BAs in the containers of kayak village and we moved almost all of the boats and kit into them.  It all looks amazingly tidy - I wonder how long we can keep it like that.

The boats for night training are now tidied into the mill - suspended from the ceiling in a series of rope ladders thanks to Phil and Ben.

The shed is now completely empty.  As in, completely.  Even the dry walls have gone - thanks to Flo.  She may be wee but she's very handy with a large mallet.

The biggest surprise for those of us who have only joined the club in the last few years was a small excavation into industrial archaeology.  Led by Nigel who spotted a partial brick arch at the back of the slalom shed behind a large sheet of timber, he hacked the wood away to reveal a tunnel under the road into the mill.  A small advanced party of party of pot holers was formed - Marcus, Matt, Derek and Deb.  The tunnel goes under the road  and contains train tracks for easy transit of materials from the mill to the wharf.  The back half of the tunnel is about 5' high - but the front half is substantially lower.  Unusually it was the short arse who banged her head.  The excavation proved fruitful and resulted  in the recovery  of some old bottles a tin jug and a collection of bones.

Once we'd finished we retired to the pub to recover.  It was warm and had beer.  It was good.

Oh, and for anyone who is concerned, Bertie the ferret polecat from Narrowboat Flyagaric has been found and is back home on the boat.

There will be no paddling on Saturday due to the GREAT SHED CLEAR OUT.

Work on the new shed is imminent and we need to move boats, kit, fridge freezers, dining room suites etc out of the shed so the contractors can start work.  They won't start whilst there is ANYTHING left in the shed. 

All help would be much appreciated in carrying stuff to the new containers and loading trailers/vehicles to go to Walford for off-site storage and to the tip.

If we can't empty the shed this weekend, we don't get a new one.  Since the old one is falling down, its kind of important.  Please come and help!