Adelaide Canoe Club offers training in skills, trip preparation, navigation, safety, and rescues in all disciplines including flat water, sea, white water and canoe polo.

Introductory skill and safety sessions are held at West Lakes. These prepare prospective kayakers for paddling in the many sheltered environments in South Australia. The skills of balancing in the kayak to avoid capsize, paddling the kayak forward and backward, stopping the kayak, rescuing yourself in the event of a capsize and towing are presented.

Intermediate skill and partner rescue sessions are often held at Garden Island in the Port River estuary. This is a magnificent location for kayaking and great for training as the water is warm year-round thanks to the Torrens Island power station which uses river water to cool its machinery. Groups are often visited by some of the Port River Dolphins. The warm water makes capsizing much more appealing!

Surf safety and rough water training is held at many locations with the favourite being Port Elliott. Here there are a variety of coastal features that provide suitable challenges for the more experienced and trained paddler. Playing in waves and testing manoeuvring skills through the “rock gardens” provides plenty of spills and thrills. Safety, self-rescue, and partner rescues are an important theme in this type of training.

The kayak rolling and rescue training that ACC conducts is one of the most popular programs of the year. These sessions are mainly conducted in a heated indoor pool in winter. They provide a great way to stay involved in kayaking during the cooler part of the year! Several self-rescue methods are presented but the focus is on developing a kayak roll. The art of righting your kayak without needing to wet exit is not only a great skill that improves safety but also great for developing fitness and impressing your friends!

Canoe Polo training and skill development sessions are conducted at West Lakes and several other locations. Canoe Polo is a team game played in small kayaks in olympic pools and outdoors in sheltered venues. It is often described as “basketball on the water” and is one of the more spectacular disciplines of kayaking. Participating in Canoe Polo is a great way to master the skills of kayaking quickly in a fun, socially oriented way.

ACC also offers trips interstate, when COVID restrictions allow, to white water locations. The most popular being to Eildon in north eastern Victoria in January. Here a man-made white water course has been constructed on the Goulburn River.  Instructors lead novices in the skills required to paddle in moving water and how to read the river. The white water course has several sections with graded difficulty allowing for novices to develop basic skills in safety and progress to the more challenging sections at their own pace. This is a very popular trip with many Club members making the yearly pilgrimage.

These activities consist of a trip that usually starts and finishes at a location for a trip that lasts a few hours and finishes in the same day. The details of the trip are published in the club’s calendar. Paddlers typically meet 30 minutes before the start of the trip (for example, 8:30am to be in the water by 9am) to prepare the crafts and gear. Each trip has one or more leaders that will provide attendees with a description of the activity, the weather situation for the day and other information relevant for the trip. These events usually take place round the city coast or on local rivers.

These trips are organised in two modalities. In the first modality paddlers meet in an area with a basecamp (a community hall, a campground, a holiday park, etc) and go on daily paddles around that area. These trips are like the day trips with additional arrangements needed for the overnight stays.

In the second modality paddlers carry all their camping equipment in the craft and camp along the multi-day trip.

Make sure you discuss your participation in these trips with the organisers to make sure your skill level is the adequate for the trip.

In addition to the previous trips the club occasionally organises expanded river or sea trips for its members. These trips usually require the adequate skills, and equipment and therefore are more suitable for the most experience members of the club.

Some of the activities previously described are categorised as “Peer Paddle”. A peer paddle is an activity in which all participants will be experienced paddlers with skills and experience relevant to the chosen activity for which there may not be any nominated leadership structure. Participants will be responsible for their own actions and decisions and will be prepared to actively contribute to trip and group safety decision making.

Have you ever wondered if other paddlers in the Club would be available and interested in joining you for an impromptu paddle during the coming days? The weather may be fantastic, you have some free time to paddle, and there is no event scheduled in the Club Calendar. To organise Peer Paddles at a short notice the club has created a WhatsApp group (starting in November 2022) to connect with other like minded paddlers. The group is available for club members to notify others of their intention to go for a paddle.

To join the WhatsApp group you have to be a club member and send an email with your request to info@adelaidecanoeclub.com.au.

Group members can let other Club paddlers know about an upcoming peer paddle, usually with at least a couple of days notice. Those attending should reply to the host confirming their attendance (and cancel if you can’t make it).

The paddles will be run under the clubs Peer Paddle definition and each paddler must be responsible for their own safety, as these events are not necessarily run by ACC leaders or guides. Please refer to the definition of ‘Peer Paddles‘.

This is a great opportunity to paddle with fellow paddlers, increase paddling fitness, connection with others Club members and make use of fantastic weather that may not have been predicted!

These activities are grouped in the following four programs:

• Flatwater Kayaking
• Whitewater Kayaking
• Sea Kayaking
• Canoe Polo
• Social activities