Check out the first video of the 2012 white water course here:

http://www.london2012.com/videos/2010/lee-valley-white-water-centre.php

It looks awesome!

Malcolm has passed on these shots of the new White Water Course being built 5 minutes down the road from us in Lea Valley parks.

It is going to be an amazing training venue and one we hope to use frequently.

Training every Monday night at 7 PM at Herts Young Mariners Base is great but I think it is fair to say none of us can wait untill the new course and centre is up and running.

As you can see the white water features are created using blocks. These have been constructed by one of our Canoe Lifeguard Unit supporters Palm and Dagger Europe.

Some more photos of the course can be found at the AS Watersports shop online blog here.

An absolutely massive well done and thank you to all of you who came along to be part of the water safety team at the 2010 London Triathlon.

Thanks to the quick thinking and amazing action taken by some of you lives were saved.

It was a long tiring weekend as always but hopefully enjoyable at the same time.

A few photos.

He does get wet sometimes!

See you all tonight!

This weekend the unit was split between 2 events.

Some of us were at the Ironman UK Race in Bolton

The others were on the Thames at Hampton Court for the Human Race Nokia Thames Swim.

Both events presented different challenges, however both went well and Herts Canoe Lifeguards have ticked another two events off for the year.

Our new inshore rescue boat supplied by Ribs Marine was in action up in Bolton providing support to the Canoe Lifeguards.

Some of the shiny new kit we got from our supporter Palm Equipment was modelled by Canoe Lifeguards at both events.

A couple of photos form the Ironman UK race.

Team photo.

Turn end.

Thanks to all the other paddlers who we worked with at both events for their help.

Next weekend is the London Triathlon. Our biggest event of the year. Hope you are all prepared!

HCL have now attended 2 British Gas Great Swims so far this season. The first one was the Great East Swim.

This was a hard event for everyone on the water safety team. The wind and rain made conditions very challenging for us and the swimmers. Every member of our unit worked very hard and dealt with the challenge admirably.

As the weather was so bad I took very few photos and the few I did get were rubbish!

In contrast yesterday we had the Great London Swim. This was in the Royal Victoria Dock in East London in weather conditions that were the polar opposite to the that of the Great East swim, Sunshine and light breezes.

The event was great fun and inspiring. One of the most rewarding parts of the day was watching the group of disabled swimmers from Ilford complete the mile swim.

It was a very successful event and the the team did the unit proud once again.

The Team

White 3

Swim entry

Swim Entry

Green 1

Green 3

Well done all.

Our order of shiny new Palm Equipment should arrive soon.

We like to have the best kit to do the best job, so keep your eyes peeled for lots of new red Palm buoyancy aids!

Thank you Palm.

Due to leaving my camera in the minibus I don’t have any of my photos to upload but I have recieved permission from phtographer Kyoko Beaumont to put her photos on our website.

Credit Kyoko Beaumont

Credit Kyoko Beaumont

Credit Kyoko Beaumont

Also check out the member of our unit on the front page the Blenheim Triathlon website here.

Well done and a massive thank you to all those who came and helped out both on and off the water at the Blenheim Triathlon this weekend. It was an extremely successful weekend and very enjoyable. (shame about the rain as we were all packing up!)

We have already received many positive comments from the other water safety personnel and the event staff. You all are a credit to the unit and your efforts really are valued.

If you do have any feedback give our Patrol officer a call or email.

Hi All

Click on the pic below for a link to lots of photographs taken the at the training weekend. They were kindly taken and uploaded to the internet by Peter Lai.

Thank you very much Peter!

Thank you to Malcolm for last Mondays session where we learnt all about towing, carrying and moving casualties using both open boats and kayaks.

A few photos of Mondays session.

It was a rather nice evening.

We tried rear deck carries.

Practiced bracing with a casualty on the back of our boats!

Practiced bow tows.

Tried getting casualties in and out of open boats.

We also practiced paddling boats that were full of water!

See you all next Monday for transferring casualties from the water to other craft.