The Year of The Sharks

2018, will be the tenth anniversary of The Sharks being involved in canoeing and we have great plans to make 2018 – The Year of The Sharks. For more information call 07951 770241 or email: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk.

What have we got Panned?

Venues

As previously announced we will be starting new sessions at Havelock/Three Bridges in Southall: www.thesharks.org.uk/the-sharks-at-havelock. This will give great opportunities for people living in that area of Southall and beyond, it will help us to expand our racing section as well as to continue to grow the Club. For more information call 07951 770241 or email: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk.

Details yet to be finalised, but we will be starting sessions in Hayes Town Centre, which this space for more details, but we will be doing weekend and weekday sessions. Providing Opportunities for family fun as well as getting people to take up the sport and race. This is going to be the beginning of a very exciting time for The Sharks as we hope to move into new built premises at Shackles Dock within the next few years: www.thesharks.org.uk/home-of-our-own.

Just like Havelock, this will enable the Club to grow and to provide opportunities for more people to take up paddlesport. For more information call 07951 770241 or email: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk.

Our Osterley Park project will be back bigger and better than ever, with the addition of teaching and racing sessions on Saturday mornings as well as training on Wednesday evenings enabling people to take up the sport as well as just have some fun at a great location. With over 2,000 people attending in 2017 we are aiming high. More information will soon be published on this site. For more information call 07951 770241 or email: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk.

We will continue to develop Harefield for slalom canoeing and look to re-introducing racing sessions there as well. At present we are training there once a week, we are currently investigating how we can run more sessions there, providing better opportunities for our slalom paddlers. For more information call 07951 770241 or email: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk.

Hillingdon Leisure Centre, Uxbridge will be used to help introduce new people to paddlesport, the outdoor pool at 50m provide good opportunities to start paddling in a safe enclosed area. This would also be an ideal place to host a Canoe Polo team. Long-term we would also like to be able to use the indoor pool for Winter sessions.

As well as the pool at Uxbridge, we are looking at hosting events and sessions on the Frays River near Fassnidge Park. More information will become available later in the year. For more information call 07951 770241 or email: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk.

Disciplines

At present Slalom is our most popular discipline and we will continue to develop this at our Harefield site. hosting more sessions and providing more opportunities for our paddlers to improve and enjoy this exciting sport. We aim to double the number of ranked paddlers in slalom as well as obviously improving the rankings of current participants. The water at Harefield has been used by internationals in the past and we have a great coach in Richard Moore. We will link this in with our very good partnership with Shepparton Slalom Canoe Club to help develop skills on rougher water, with trips to other sites and the coaches we have, we have the potential to develop as a great slalom Club, all we need is you. For more information call 07951 770241 or email: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk. For more information on our Winter sessions: www.thesharks.org.uk/slalom-winter-training. Also check out: www.thesharks.org.uk/slalom-report-2017.

In 2018, The Sharks will also be hosting two national ranking events, both Division 3 and division 4 (entry level), one at Shepparton on the bank holiday weekend of 27th and 28th May and at Harefield on August 11th and 12th.

We have recently started Marathon Racing and entered our first ranking marathon at Elmbridge in September, we want to develop this discipline and have some fanctasict facilities as we have miles and miles of canal. Our Marathon teams will be based at Havelock/Three Bridges and Hayes Town Centre. For more information call 07951 770241 or email: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk.

We will also be re-establishing our mini-marathon series, which will run throughout the year.

Wild Water Racing has proved to be our most successful discipline although in recent years, we have not entered as many races as we used to and the number of participants has dropped. However, in 2018, we intend to restore The Sharks to the top echelons of Wild Water Racing and we need you to join in and help us become Britain’s number one Club. For more information call 07951 770241 or email: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk. We will use Havelock/Three Bridges and Hayes Town for regular training, and taking trips further afield to get some wild water practice. WWR, as it is normally abbreviated to is an ideal partner sport to both slalom and paddle racing (Spring and Marathon). www.thesharks.org.uk/wild-water-racing-report-2017.

The Sharks will continue to run the Southern Series of Wild Water Races, managed by Susan Templeton and in partnership with Itchen Valley Canoe Club. We will also re-introduce the London Series.

Sprint Canoeing is a discipline we want to become better at: we have had some success and have a few good paddlers, but we need more. Over the years the Club has invested considerably in this discipline, brining in a top international paddler, Beata Fabrińska to help with coaching.  In 2018 we will establish racing sessions at Havelock/Three Bridges, in Hayes Town Centre, and introduce Sprint Sessions at Osterley Park with the aim of having a large Sprint Team, so that in future years we can take on the best in the UK. For more information call 07951 770241 or email: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk.

Events

The Sharks have a proud record of running events, we have run Wild Water Races all over the UK, even hosting selection events for the British Team. As mentioned above, we currently run Wild Water races in the South of England and two ranking slaloms.

For 2018 we want to re-introduce our mini-marathon series and our London Wild Water racing series, this will once again make us the Countries biggest provider of entry level races, something to be proud of. We will also investigate running some local sprint events, probably at Hayes of Havelock or even both.

We will continue to take paddlers to events all over the Country and beyond and we will manage the teams for Ealing and Hillingdon(and maybe some others) at the London Youth Games, an event where The Sharks have started to make an impact at; taking four medals in 2017. This year we want more, so need you to help us.

Help!

To achieve our ultimate goal of simply being the best, we need your help! Not just more paddlers but also we need help to keep the Club growing and to keep us moving forward. Being able to offer more opportunities to more people, enabling people to reach their full potential as a paddler, whether that is racing for their country or just paddling about and having fun, keeping fit. If you have some time and want to help, please contact us on 07951 770241, email: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk. www.thesharks.org.uk/help.

Where have we come from and what we have achieved in ten years

From very humble beginnings on the tow path at Perivale and using the weir at Harefield, The Club has grown: in 2017 we had over 3,000 attendances at session in three London Boroughs (Ealing, Hillingdon and Hounslow), we had our first home grown paddler, Grant Underwood, representing Great Britain in the European Wild Water Racing Championships and we had medal winners at the London Youth Games, Amelia Combes, Conor Sheehan and Joel Gunnery. We had paddlers racing in national events in Slalom, Sprint and Wild Water Racing and we entered our first ranking Marathon.

Our partnership with the National Trust at Osterley Park has enabled the Club to build a large following with our family fun paddling sessions. This has enabled us to run a successful after school club at Osterley, recognised by Sport England as the best Satellite Club in London in 2016, this partnership has provided not just numbers, but experience and new members. We have been recognised by Sport England and British Canoeing as a club that delivers.

We have also built up very good relationships with The Boroughs of Ealing, Hillingdon and Hounslow, we run after school clubs with local schools in Ealing, we run courses and sessions for schools and scouts groups.

We have been to some exciting events in the UK, including all over England, Scotland and Wales, we have had many paddlers winning races and collecting medals, we have also been to Europe to race, Belgium, France, Germany, Slovenia and Macedonia and to the USA.

Along the way we have also done a few other things and over the next few months we will be posting some memories and creating a history page to chart our progress, but here are a few pictures to show you we are more than just a great canoe club.