Advanced White Water Award

Course Description

Your Advanced White Water Award will further advance your skills to enable you to have a safe and fun day out paddling on grade 4-5 water.

This award will further develop your decision-making skills. You will consider all the environmental factors to allow you to choose a suitable place to paddle. This will include the weather, the water level and any access restrictions. Together, you and your Coach will select the best stretch of water to present enough of a challenge and to allow you to achieve the objectives you have put in place. You will bear in mind what features there are likely to be on a grade 4-5 river, as well as any hazards.

What does it involve?

When on the white water it is important to stay relaxed and in control of your craft at all times. This award will build on your current white water skills and develop your situational awareness whilst on the water. You will look at how to choose the best route down river. This includes identifying the features that will aid you, as well as how you can deal with any hazards. You will take into consideration the topography of the river and use this information to help you during your paddle. This includes being able to identify where you are during your journey.

Further skills to help you to travel in a group on white water will also be developed. You will learn how to attend to the needs of the group, as well as ensuring that you are communicating effectively. This will also include expanding your rescue skills to cope in the more advanced water conditions. You will look at the safest way to get yourself and others back to shore. As well as how to retrieve loose equipment.

After each trip you will perform a post-trip review. You will look at the day’s objectives and see if they have been met. As well as identifying where you wish to go next. You will consider the lines that others took down the river and the paddling strokes they used and compare that to your own choices to see if this can help you improve.

Each day spent paddling further expands your skills and knowledge, creating a more enjoyable experience on the water. With no two experiences ever the same, we never stop learning. Continually evaluating the choices we make creates a natural evolution of decision-making and paddling ability.

Ready to begin?

Use our course finder to find a course or a Coach to begin your journey today!

Want to know more?

Read the award description here: Advanced White Water Award Description

If you are new to paddling white water you may wish to look at the White Water Award or the Progressive White Water Award

If you feel that you already have some experience surf kayaking and would like to progress further, then you may wish to look at 1-1 coaching or contacting a mentor to support your development.

Course Content

During this award your experience of paddling white water rivers will be built upon. It will equip you to have the decision-making and personal paddling ability to tackle a wide variety of rivers with different flows, volumes and gradients.

This will include:

• Location
• Getting Ready
• At the Water
• White Water Skills
• After the Session
• Future Development

Course Assessment

The Advanced White Water Award has no formal assessment. Each day you spend on the water will further expand your skills and knowledge, creating a more enjoyable experience. As no two sessions are ever the same, you will never stop learning. You and your Coach will reflect on each one and identify where you wish to go next in line with your own personal goals. The award will be certificated when you are ready.

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