Irish Whitewater Forum

Hello all,

I'm hoping that this won't be construed as any of the following:
Shite stirring,
Back bitching,
Imposing.....

and also hoping that it may be an opportunity for some mature discussion.

It's funny how many rumours you hear as a club captain - and I've always wondered why people don't get to hear the truth of things.
For me, I heard about another college club using one of our boats in the alps while we had gone on to Montenegro - All sorted now btw - discussed with all relevant parties. I also was told that something similar happened with respect to our boats being used outside of our hard worked policy with other claims of paddling in darkness, paddling less than 3 on club trips, abandonment of less experienced etc.
There has been expulsions from clubs and Queens Kayak Club is now shut down SFAIK. There has apparently been a suspension also.

Outside of that I've heard of college clubs (yes - more than one) where there was suspensions over health & safety concerns.

Amazingly though with more than one of the above mentioned stories I've heard a VERY different account - one that changed my thoughts of "fucking eejits" to "fucking hell - that doesn't at all sound unreasonable" in terms of the actions taken. Linking both accounts still seems that there were questions to be answered but it didn't seem to me to warrant the kind of reaction that occurred.

Thing is though - very few people will ever know the full story. I know I certainly don't and therefore we can be in no position to critque (I don't want to say "judge"). Really though - I'd love to know more about some of these situations as I think it's very much of benefit for clubs to know what's happening in order to be able to learn from these situations - isn't that why we do incident reports and the like? Surely such situations are as valid?

Are we all so afraid of insulting each other that we like to keep these things behind closed doors?

I say fair play to the clubs who have managed to successfully deal with any internal issues in a mature manner. So my question is - do people feel they would like to hear more about such issues from the people involved? I mean in terms of a reporting structure among club committees which could help other clubs see a standard of how things get dealt with?

Very interested to hear frank honest and considered answers to this.

Tony

I figure other colleges will be more forthcoming with their more sensitive matters, if you take the first step, and show that you're willing to have a frank and mature discussion about it, by divulging some of the safety matters that affected your own club this year?

I don't really think that's what I'm getting at though..... We certainly haven't had anything that required any sort of action that was out of the ordinary. Obviously no club is perfect but it's more that I'm interested to hear how clubs deal with large issues like the ones (not very well) described in the original post and the notion that committees could share their experiences so that others can be aware of how to deal with them safely.

I suppose what concerns me most is something that's going on in another UL club where I find it very hard to see the situation objectively as I know one of the people involved. IMO seeing things objectively is a critical point in dealing with things in an even just and fitting way.

Although JK - I might be reading too much into this - is there something you've heard about ULKC that I either haven't or am forgetting right now?! Feel free to say it here though I'd prefer a pm in case you've heard something that is just false!?

You probably shouldn't have named the thread "Rumour Mill" if your looking for credible feedback.

And in my opinion the internet really isn't the forum for a real discussion on the individual problems and unfortunate scenarios that befall clubs.

Fair enough on title - as regards discussion - I'm not asking for info on the board here - check out the suggestion in the OP - More than anything the suggestion is if clubs would be interested in committees communicating issues they have experienced with each other.....

The NUIG head of sport was thinking of holding a forum for all university clubs, both uni official's and committees to discuss the safety aspects of Kayaking, she was also thinking of expanding this to other adventure sports that are run at university level.

That's something that could be incredibly productive I think. One are I think many people lose out on is in safety training that supports their paddling skills progression.... And every club should have a clear safety training calendar in the same way as having a calendar for trips.