News – Page 28 – Goring Gap Boat Club

September 25, 2013September 25, 2013

Pilates classes

From next month, the GGBC Pilates sessions will be starting again. I know that some new members who joined in the summer were particularly interested in this. Pilates is a great way of improving your rowing, and by joining together as GGBC members we are able to offer a great value course of sessions. The activity is organised by Club member Elizabeth Smith.

Pilates classes are held on a Wednesday evening, commencing at 19:30, until 20:30. The venue is St. Bernadette’s Church Hall, Horseshoe Road, Pangbourne (RG8 7JL). There is plenty of parking at the side and rear of the building, so we should be able to avoid parking on the street.

Classes will probabably commence Wednesday, 9th October and run until 18th December (i.e. a 10-week session, with a break for half-term – date TBC), 19:30 – 20:30. However, to achieve this we need to have sufficient interest shown by Friday 4th October, otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to commence– so please express any interest ASAP.

The cost of classes will be £50 (keeping it at the same cost as previous sessions) – this will cover the usual costs for the hire of the hall, and the instructor.

If you would like to express your interest in attending, I would therefore be grateful if you could kindly confirm your interest directly to Elizabeth Smith on 07970 010370 or via email – elizabeth.smith@hp.com

August 24, 2013

Special event Saturday 31st August, 10am

A special Club session is planned for Saturday 31st August starting a little later than usual at 10am. Our friends from Adventure Dolphin will be paddling down in their kayaks for an “exchange visit”. You will have an opportunity to try out canoeing under their guidance and supervision, and then we will try to teach them to row. Bacon rolls will be provided by the Purley and Pangbourne scouts in return for a small donation. It should be a fun morning so please make a special effort to come along.

August 12, 2013August 24, 2013

Helen Glover visits the club

On Wednesday August 7th, Olympic Champion Helen Glover and Goring Gap Boat Club hosted a “Join-In” morning at GGBC’s facilities near Pangbourne. Join-In have produced an official video that you can view here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dqoc8BxZ9Q&feature=c4-overview&list=UU4UgBNXFpza9AUT4l_s9Yzw. Local people were given an opportunity to give rowing a try, with Helen offering encouragement from a coaching launch and even serving them tea afterwards. Earlier Helen had made presentations to some of GGBC’s longest serving volunteers.

Goring Gap Boat Club has previously benefited from the support of other Olympic champions such as Sir Steve Redgrave and Zac Purchase, who last March launched the Club’s fundraising campaign for a new boathouse.

See the Reading Chronicle’s report on the event, with video

Helen congratulates Roger Moore, our ex-safety officer

Helen awarding a certificate to our Captain of Boats

June 8, 2013

Rowing Report from our Captain

Goeff writes:

I am delighted to see so many existing and new members at Club sessions and in a wide range of boats. In the run-up to the Goring & Streatley Regatta, I just wanted to share the following news items.

Learn 2 Row

Our second L2R course of 2013 will complete on Saturday, 8^th June. This has been a shorter but more intense course ably led by Captain Hugh and we look forward to seeing the eight participants graduate with flying colours. Hopefully they will go on to become active members and we also hope that at least four of them will enter the Regatta. Thanks to all the volunteers who have supported Hugh over the past 4 weeks.

Coaching Team

Hugh Baker-Smith has nearly completed his British Rowing Level 2 Coaching qualification and only has the final assessment to go. I am confident he will qualify later this month. This means that the GGBC will once again have 3 BR qualified Coaches.

Capsize & Curry Evening

A two hour coaching session has been organised for Tuesday 11^th June at the Oratory School Swimming Pool. This is to ensure that up to 12 single scullers and others members are properly trained and know exactly what to do should they capsize while out on the river. This will be coached by Hugh and myself and is already oversubscribed. We may have to run another…

British Rowing “Explore Rowing” and “Social League”

We are still pursuing this exciting British Rowing initiative and following a meeting with the British Rowing lead last week-end, two options for the GGBC to host an event are currently under review. One option is to include some specific races as part of our Regatta programme on 20^th July; the other is to host a one day event after the Regatta.

Regatta Training

As you are aware from an earlier post, Regatta Training will start on Monday, 17^th June. As ever, we will need volunteers to Session Manage, Cox/Coach and to assist. Some 20 members have already volunteered a few hours a week for what is always an intense but fun 4 weeks. If other members would like to get involved, please contact me as soon as possible. We only have a week to go…!

Club Sessions

Because of Regatta Training, which will take place every weekday evening and Saturday morning for the four weeks from 17^th June, there will be no Club sessions on Thursdays or Saturdays until after the Regatta on 20th July.

May 28, 2013May 28, 2013

British Rowing Establishes Social Rowing League

British Rowing (South East Region) is in the process of establishing a new Social Rowing league. The idea is to encourage participation in our sport and to provide access to a series of races for recreational clubs like ours. Recreational clubs or sections typically don’t enter the larger BR Regattas but would still like to participate in less daunting, shorter (300 meter?) races.

Groups of clubs would take it in turn to organise and host what is essentially a round robin series of events. This would clearly avoid the need to transport boats (hosts to provide) and should ensure that both costs and the effort to organise can be kept to a minimum. Please note that participants would must be 18+ and be British Rowing Silver members

Because the British Rowing South East Region is so large, 4 semi-independent groups are being proposed. The GGBC would be a member of Group 1 along with Falcon, City of Oxford, Abingdon, Wallingford, Reading, Phyllis Court and Marlow RCs.

We have already indicated our interest in being part of this exciting initiative and an initial meeting of all Clubs will take place during the Weybridge Regatta on Sunday 2^nd June 2013. Geoff Arnold will attend this on behalf of the GGBC and will update you once things start to fall into place.