Programme Changes

With the programme coming out quarterly, on paper, some trips are not occurring until four months after the programme went to press. Inevitably, some people find they have other unavoidable commitments. As soon as we know about changes, we will highlight them here (and try to get the main programme updated, but that's harder!).

Most SOC trips are planned in advance through the quarterly programme, in which one person acts as organiser for each trip. He or she acts as a contact point and coordinator, and may change the venue if the weather conditions are unsuitable for the originally planned trip or if a group cannot be got together for the intended venue. On sea trips, the organiser is usually the one responsible for route and tidal planning. The organiser is not necessarily responsible for leadership on the water, as all safety decisions are down to individual participants.

If you want to know what to expect from a trip on the programme, it's best to contact the organiser. But a number of trips appear often enough on the programme that we thought it worth adding some photos of SOC trips and a bit of description in our Information and FAQs section. We have Favourite Rivers and Favourite Sea trips sections, both of which are somewhat works-in-progress, but contain a lot of useful information already.

Some trips need a bit more planning than just arranging to get X number of paddlers to the put-in at an agreed time and do the shuttle. Scottish two-day or longer sea trips are usually wild camping, but whitewater weekends away and some longer trips, particularly those further afield, do need considerable planning and some commitment in advance to ensure that the trip has sufficient people to go ahead. Ferry crossings, youth hostel or campsite bookings and perhaps flights may need booking (and it is so much easier if all are done together), gear may need to be rented at the destination or members' gear may need transporting. For these sorts of trips, the two-week to four-month lead time that characterises the normal way of building the programme is often not enough. The pages under this heading are intended to advertise possible future trips and the arrangements for future trips as their organisation is firmed up. When there's enough to say, an upcoming trip may get its own webpage, with a link from here.

We don't want to limit this page to the Section Leader - if you have a trip that needs advance organisation and you want to interest more paddlers before doing a lot of work, let us know and we'll happily post some details. Even if the idea is highly speculative "wish-list" stuff, you have to start somewhere !

Currently in progress

Round Ireland with a fridge magnet, 2012. Pete, Wendy and Claire have now set off to spend two or three months doing this rarely accomplished feat of paddling. Not a club trip, but the three will welcome any support, so if you fancy a week's paddling along part of the Irish coast, this could be an opportunity. There is some talk of an organised club trip to join them for a few days, but if you can't make the dates for that, the three will be out there all summer... They'll soon get pretty fit, though, so be prepared for quite long daily distances and perhaps rough conditions. There's brief newsletter article, and you can follow them via their blog.

Currently on the planning horizon are:

Slovenia 2012 ? After trips to the alps in the Durance valley for four years, some folk are wanting a change of venue. There's also a threat of damming on one of Slovenia's finest rivers, so a visit before it's too late (or to add impetus to the campaign to stop the threat) is being actively talked about. Easter or may seems likely to be the best time. That, of course, still leaves the summer free for a sea trip or more alpine paddling...

Sea paddling in Shetland 201x. Shetland is a fairly serious sea kayaking destination, as we found out in September 2009, when we had mostly force eights and swell up to 4.4m on the west side, but still managed to get out paddling all five days. A return in summer is at the outline planning stage, but 2011 is now looking unlikely as the sea paddlers are looking at Croatia, and the whitewater kids are committed to the trip to the alps. When it happens, it is likely to follow a similar format to the 2009 trip - hostel-based somewhere near the centre of the islands, with one- or two-day trips out.

Currently beyond the planning horizon:

Iceland NW Fjords. This is an ambition - but a feasible one, recommended to us by local paddler Þorstein Sigurlaugsson (see the write up of our two-day trip in Iceland with him). The great indented lump at the northwest corner of Iceland is connected to the main part of the island by a relatively narrow bit of land, so setting up a shuttle should not be hugely difficult, even taking just one vehicle and a trailer across. The trip would need at least four paddlers, but probably no more than eight, and should take about two weeks (maybe ten days on the water, plus some weather days), although to leave some safety margins and time for setting up the shuttle, perhaps a three week holiday would be ideal.

Norway whitewater. There's no specific plan for a trip here, but there are useful notes on logistics and accomodation in James Hastings' Splendours of Norway trip report. There have been recent rumours that the Newcastle-Bergen ferry may be restarted, which would make things a lot easier.

Even more distant dreams - Andy now has all the maps needed for the circumnavigation of Haida Gwaii and is gradually accumulating those for the Canadian part of the Inside Passage...