Is this club still in existence? We could have been talking about the great boat race between Oxford and Kingston.
I think the club on the River Hull relocated after a fire. As far as I know, they're on East Park now, which is quite a come down...especially from the splash boat.
I used to be in a rowing club when I was at school, in winter we used to practice at Albert Ave baths. After a while they switched to East Park, the first time we went we had to smash the ice to get into the water and I thought **** this.
It was, though it wasn't actually Albert Ave's club that I was there with, it was just a school club.
I did my British Canoe Union First Star by braving South Hunsley Swimming pool, Newport Canal and then lakes over near Barton - Hardcore.
When I was doing my apprenticeship at Fenners in the early '80s we used to use East Park to practice in Canadian canoes and kayaks. We had a team which did long distance canoe racing. And much of the old pissing up. A particular standout moment was doing the Grand Union Canal from Northampton to Hemel Hempstead, a distance of about 50 miles, in the pouring rain, after a night clubbing, vomiting over the side of the canoe at regular intervals. Happy days.
That mention of Fenners just reminded me, we sometimes had our lessons at Reckitts pool as well, I seem to remember really liking that pool.
"A particular standout moment was doing the Grand Union Canal from Northampton to Hemel Hempstead, a distance of about 50 miles, in the pouring rain, after a night clubbing, vomiting over the side of the canoe at regular intervals". Good ground bait that Ern.
