Watersports and Fossils
Families booked on to today's Paddleboarding and Canoeing Deep Dive at Grafham Water were the first on the water this season at the centre. It was a privilege to be on site today and see nervous first-timers coming off the water beaming and eager for more.
At the start of their season, Grafham Water staff were dealing with their share of challenges too with a coach-load of school children stuck on their site after their coach had broken down, teething problems with internal communications which meant our group had been erroneously briefed that wetsuits were optional when in fact at this time of year, if the water is below a certain temperature at this time of year, they are not. I was glad I was on site, with my trusty Waymakers lanyard on, to help explain this to children and parents as I totally get how, for some in groups like ours today, last-minute unexpected changes can be very discombobulating, especially when it involves something with so many sensory issues like a tight-fitting, heat-preserving piece of clothing to contend with. The duty manager, course director and business development manager all came and found me and apologised about this and welcomed our feedback. I'll fill in their evaluation form after families have had a chance to fill in ours so we can include attendees' feedback for them too:
PLEASE COMPLETE EVALUATION FORM HERE
The plan had been to split the group in two and have half paddleboard while the other half canoed. At the time of writing, I'm not sure yet why but they ended up taking the whole group out on paddleboards first and then swapped to canoes later. During the session, I was also asked if they should just stay on paddleboards. I responded that they should really put that question to the group as it was their session but to bear in mind that some were expecting to try both and might be disappointed if both were not offered. They decided to switch to canoes and had a bonus trip to a sandy area where they were able to go fossil hunting and when they came back ashore I was met with excited faces and handfuls of amazing 130 million-year-old treasures!
Everyone was very glad to ditch the wetsuits afterwards, some opted for showers and went home tired and happy. Grafham Water had proactively approached the home educating community to make today possible and are keen to have us back and improve on their ways of working to accommodate us. Residentials are a possibility in future or other days focused on their many other activities which include:
Archery
Bushcraft
Climbing
Boat trips
Challenge days
High ropes/low ropes (various challenges)
Kayaking
Mountain biking
Orienteeting
Pioneering
Power Kiting
Problem solving
Raft building
Sailing funboats or keelboats
Windsurfing
Do be in touch to give us an idea of what would be popular.
