Wensum Ospreys Canoe Club

Cardington pics

On a fine September Sunday we travelled to Cardington near Bedford to paddle on the artificial slalom course. This course is very special as we get to design and build our own course and we control how much water goes down it.

Foe many of our paddlers it was their first take of moving water. All paddlers did very well and we are looking forward to going again soon

Mike decided to try a game of submarines on his first descent of the course.

Will made lots of trips down the course and enjoyed them all

Even experienced paddler like Chris found places to play

Neil made the most of his day and made many descents (we would also like to thank you for taking the extra boat.)

Julie put her past cold trips out of her mind and enjoyed paddling in the warmer weather.

Les spent most of his time in the top two pools and made good use of the playspots while Martyn tried out many different boats, I`m not sure that the pink one suits him.

As usual once Abbie had got over her nerves she paddled very well and enjoyed the day.

Keith and Carol stepped in at very late notice to help us set up the course and run the day, without their help we would not have been able to hire the course. So BIG thanks to them both.

You can visit Keiths company website Liquid Blue Clothing and check out their range of paddling clothing and Cag repair service by clicking here

The course cost £273,000 and was funded by a consortium of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Anglian Water (now the Environment Agency), the Sports Council (now UK Sport) and local councils and was seen as an excellent example of the relatively low cost adaptation of a necessary structure to provide a facility of national significance.

The structure consists of an automatically controlled dropleaf control sluice, 9 metres wide, at the head of a concrete-lined channel which connects the upper reach of the river to the lower. The channel is 120 m long with a bed slope of 1:100. To create the required water flow pattern, fibreglass boulders known as "hippos" and "dollies" are secured to the base of the channel. The maximum head is 1.7 m with a maximum water capacity of 15 cumecs.

Cardington Artificial Slalom Course (CASC) was the first artificial whitewater canoe slalom course in the UK when it was completed in July 1982, having been first discussed in 1972.

Based on the River Great Ouse adjacent to Cardington sluice, within the grounds of Priory Country Park and approximately 2.5 km downstream from Bedford, the course has a dual role as both a flood control structure and a whitewater course for canoe slalom training and events.