Kayaking in North Wales with The Army

Over the half term, Fourth Year Army Cadets Cdt Richards and Cdt Donovan were lucky enough to be chosen to take part in a week-long residential course in North Wales, in which we developed our inland kayaking skills and were able to gain a wealth of knowledge and experience on the rivers, lakes and estuaries of North Wales. We joined other cadets from across the UK and, after a first day of technique development on flat water, we progressed to moving into and out of moving water and acquired unique skills such as travelling on rapids and rescue manoeuvres.

Over the last three days, we had the opportunity to progress seriously our water rapid skills. On the fourth day we had our toughest challenge yet: kayaking through five different types of rapids along a fast-moving river. During this day we put our new techniques to use and learned about the importance of water safety. On our last day, we focused on learning ways to save ourselves and each other when capsized.

This was such an amazing experience as we got to improve our adventure training skills and gain new experiences with new people. We recommend this course to anyone who is interested, as it is full of fun and interesting opportunities.