Venue: Mill House (CM3 4BG)
Meeting: from 6pm, 19th April 2023
Launch: after 6.30pm briefing
Finish: c.8pm
Level: Strong, competent river paddlers

Despite a solid north-easterly wind, at least there’s no rain on the forecasts so we’re finally going to get our 2023 SUP Club season going at Mill House tonight. To be clear, it’s looking pretty windy and from a cold direction, so do wrap up warm as there’s likely to be quite a windchill (maybe feeling like 3 or 4°C?) And after such a wet spring, parking and pumping up may not be too salubrious: be prepared for some big, muddy puddles by Church Road. On the plus side, the subsiding river flow is in the opposite direction to that breeze… Definitely one for our more confident, experienced paddlers – probably not ideal for a first paddle of the year though!

Meeting at Mill House from 6pm (https://w3w.co/fitter.ideas.transmits) ahead of a 6.30pm briefing and launch. After, we’ll be off for dinner and drinks at our favourite local pub – numbers with a show of hands at the briefing.

Paddlers on the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation must be licensed: get or renew yours via www.waterways.org.uk … we have a few simple codes of conduct for SUP Club (eg; all paddlers must wear a leash) that you can find on our main SUP Club page.

All competent paddlers (by which we mean comfortable and confident standing-up and paddling strong, non-stop for 90-minutes, able to steer, stop and turn around effectively, ideally reverse-sweep) are welcome at SUP Club … although this week won’t be an ideal first session. For newcomers we offer Learn to SUP lessons and can teach you everything you need to know in one 2-hour session – if you want a performance boost we also offer private coaching for 1:1 and 2:1 improvers, intermediates and advanced paddlers with or without your own kit. Check out our schedule and book online here.