Cobden Canoeing

Thursday 7th June saw Cobden Scouts on the canoeing lake at Roman Lakes. 28 of our best 11 - 14 year olds met at 7 o clock to have their annual half-hour in the water.

When the leaders arrived the Scouts were all raring to go, and despite the gates being locked, one Scout had even managed to get wet already!

The canoes were taken out, with each Scout trying to claim a boat for themselves - they obviously knew that we were 12 canoes short!

A quick lesson in the art of canoeing, and how to stay graceful on the water, was given by Andy Togs as we waited for our life-jackets to arrive by emergency-courier Tommy.

With the Scouts all prepped up, we sent the first set out onto the water. The scouts stayed dry for a small while, and it was only when Tommy and Oli Hibbs rafted them all together for a few games that they felt the water for the first time.

Not so on the bank, where the remaining few canoe-less Scouts had taken to throwing themselves, and each-other, off the small wooden jetty.



Andy Teaches them Canoeing


They soon got their turn at being in the boats when we swapped over.

Fred struggled to get the canoe away from the banks, with his oar being blamed, swapped, blamed again, and swapped back. He got the grip of it eventually!

The Scouts entertained themselves with splashing and chasing each-other, with James Collier winning the race round Wrighty's canoe and back.

With half an hour to go, the Scouts started getting bored of sitting on the water in a boat, and instead chose to join the growing number on the jetty, who were hurling themselves into the water - we had spare canoes going but they would rather stand around and push each-other in!

The Scouts all helped to pack away (yeah right!) before we put the canoes away for another year.

See the Photos