Over the weekend Richard Brooks and I went over to the Tees Barrage in Stockton for a massive watersports festival aimed at getting people into watersports in the Teesside area. As well as loads of displays on the water including jetskis, power boats and water skiing they also put on a series of come and try it sessions for free.
Most of the people at the event had never had a chance to try kayaking or canoeing before and the queues for the sessions was massive all day and sold out pretty quickly. It was really great to see so many young kids excited by water sports and our boats on the stand were a big attraction all day.
As the event was more geared towards getting people into paddlesport the range of boats we took was more orientated towards recreational paddling with a large selection of Venture Kayaks and Canoes as well as a range of Feel Free sit-on-tops.
The sit-on-tops and Venture Canoes were really popular with families who wanted something to get out there on water to enjoy just paddling around with their kids. It was really good to see such a good turn out for the event and the level of enthusiasm that people showed for getting into watersport as a whole was great to see.
On the Sunday Richard and I managed to get onto the Teesside whitewater course for a paddle which was great as the course was on a really low tide meaning that eveything was working including a very nasty looking ‘Acid Drop’ which is the bottom hole. Before the tide is out the course looks so calm but that soon changes…
Richard and I had great fun paddling the Fusion for the first time on white water too as well as playboats. The Fusion is really great fun to paddle, it’s so forgiving and easy to paddle it’s easy to see why it’s so poular at the moment. Check out the quick video below of Richard and I playing in the Fusion…