This fantastic traditional event has run since the early 1960s with only one cancellation on record - last year! With contrasting mild temperatures and plenty of glacial-melt this year’s event was well supported as usual by those wanting to burn off that extra helping of christmas pud and choccies from the previous day.
 
A wide variety of craft were spread across the 60 starters with particularly strong contingents from Tees Tigers and Stockton and Thornaby clubs. A new Hare and Hounds format had the touring class start 8 minutes ahead of the racers and this will only need to be tweaked slightly for next year as it was quite late in the race that the leading touring class paddler was overhauled. Full credit then to George Marley of Sunderland who in the SuperVet category held off his younger and dare I say it ‘more race-conditioned’ competitors to take the touring class in 40.50. As I overtook him he was asking for his margin of lead as he was too in the zone / inflexible to look over his shoulder at those behind him.
 
Winner overall by a narrow margin was Nicky Cresser of Tees Tigers in 38.38 who had a great but “controlled” dual with Olly Wickham of Sunderland all the way down the course. Darren Cresser romped home to the third podium place showing that parenthood hasn’t slowed him too much. Sandra Hyslop of Durham Uni did a great job keeping the men ahead within sight for the whole race to be first lady home in 39.59. Other notable performances were the Williamson duo who stroked a precise race as first Canadian double in 46.18, Andrew Martin as first junior closely followed by the U14 Kris Wilko. Bethan Kelly showed strong technique to be the leading junior girl. Credit also to Connor Turner and Calum Cresser who produced strong performances in their first Wildwater Racing boat events.  (Click below to see the full results)
 
All were able to claim their finishers T-shirts and snacks provided courtesy of the event sponsor Rapid 9 signs. The Wickham family have been long supporters of this event so thanks to them we have been able to present to Saint Cuthbert’s Hospice in Durham a cheque for £262.

So thanks for coming and bring along your friends to next year’s race.

Michael Mason Read more

Over the weekend of the 13th and 14th August the Tiger A and B teams, plus their support teams, made the trek down to London to take part in the world renowned London International.

The B-team

The A-team

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Tees Tigers were asked to lend a hand at Preston Farm with the Stockton Charity Duck Race in return for having the pitch areas for the Canoe Polo National Championships coming up in a few weeks time.  All we had to do was provide 3 people to fish ducks out at the end of the race, simple, or maybe not!!! Read more

Half Term after the stresses of exams, what better opportunity to go sea Kayaking.  With our resident expert Ros there to guide us, it was bound to be fun!  

Read on to find out more and to see a couple of pictures from the trip. Read more

We arrived on the Monday afternoon ready for a week of training and a competition on the weekend. I was pleased to see the river lower than it was when we came down in February! I had 2 training sessions every day and I am pleased to say I didn’t swim! I really enjoyed all my training sessions and I grew more confident day by day. I learnt a lot and developed new skills. In the actual race on Saturday I kind of mucked my first run up and I was not pleased :). The 2nd run went better and I improved my time by 150 seconds. I was more nervous for the Sunday race as we weren’t allowed to practice, and the demo runs were all rubbish! But both of my runs turned out ok although I had a disaster on one of the gates as I couldn’t get it and had to keep going back for it.

Everyone had a good time, everyone but my mother who wishes she had stayed at home. The weather unlike home was cold and miserable and she wasn’t pleased when it rained all day and night. She complained about being stuck in a caravan for a week and to make matters worse the TV didn’t work so she couldn’t watch her soaps i.e. Coronation Street and Eastenders and this just put her in a worse mood! So nearly everyone had a good time!

The 9th and 10th April saw quite a busy weekend for the Tigers with both the A and B teams competing in Roundhay Park in Leeds and quite a number competing and supporting up at the division 2/3 slalom event at Fairnilee.  Read on to find out how the weekend went…

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A bit late, but here is a summary of the events from the training day back in January by Calum Cresser:

On the 29th January the Tees Tigers had a training day at Holme Pierrepont.  The day was a day for the beginners to get used to the rough stuff! And the more ‘advanced’ paddlers to get some hardcore training! This day in my opinion served its purpose as the beginners looked happy, and Brandon was trying so hard he went through Matt to get the full benefit of Nottingham!

When I arrived on the scene (late as usual!) it looked very constructive. Darren was belting out orders; I mean courses, from the side. Furthermore everyone on the water looked like they sort of understood what he was telling them to do. So everyone comes down, does the first course all good, then finally Ben comes down and does the unthinkable he rolls! I was shocked and stunned, so shocked I missed Brandon smashing through the side of poor Matt’s boat.

So when I did get on the group was full of enthusiasm and by enthusiasm I mean everyone was, as Emma Taylor would say, ‘buzzing’! So as we trekked down the course bit by bit the group was starting to look like they were starting to enjoy themselves and become more and more confident. Everyone looked as though Nottingham had turned from a nasty cold scary place to a place that you looked forward to going to.

Finally for each person who went I think that they all got a benefit out of each session, Brian’s was that he needs to work on his roll! But if it was just a little benefit I think everyone would think it’s worth it.

(Editor’s note: Brian did go on to practice his rolling technique at the pool sessions and hopefully will be more prepared next time he goes to Nottingham!)

So the long awaited Tully training weekend finally arrived…
Friday night – we were all happily on our way up to Scotland when ‘I am Ledger’ calls us to ask for a lift because his car has broken….it was too late for that so we expect to see him the next day. The snow starts to fall but no fear for Tees Tigers because we had fancy lodges; they had showers and everything.
Saturday – Up early for a “technique” session… very technical it was indeed. Next it was a halves session – good effort all round in very, very cold temperatures!!  Still no sign of “I am Ledger.” Anyway it was back to the lodges to thaw out for the evening and watch some TV where we learned that chicken salad is in fact the UK’s favourite sandwich – who would have known….?
Just before bed “I am Ledger” himself casually strolls in apparently unfazed at the idea of driving 4hrs for 2 sessions….good work!
Sunday – canoeing, tea with toffs (with special guest appearance from Lenny) and then some more canoeing.  Slightly warmer I seem to remember.
All in all a fantastic weekend – massive thanks to all who organised it and looked after the less organised individuals such as myself…

Andrew Rendall

Read on for some photos from the weekend (by Bev Wilkinson)

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Or at least I thought I did…
 
The weekend of 18/19 December saw a unlikely bunch of Tigers along with a carefully selected bunch of guests primed and ready to participate in their new 3* in preparation for the new Level 2 coaches course that we were about to embark on over the festive period (one of the course prerequesites was to hold a 3* certificate in open boating.) Read more

On Friday we held the first annual Tees Tigers Awards evening and Christmas party; celebrating all the great stuff that has happened this year for the club and it’s members, to laugh at the funnier moments, to remember those not with us anymore and to celebrate the new arrivals. Read more