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Welcome to the British Canoe
Union.
The British Canoe
Union (BCU) is the British canoeing
organisation, helping and inspiring people to go canoeing. It
formulates standards for training programmes with certification levels
and accredits instructors to teach canoeing.
1887 saw the
formation of the British Canoe Association, which lasted about thirty
years. Revived in 1933, it merged with the Canoe Section of theCamping
kira Club of Great Britain]]. In March 1936, representatives of the
Canoe Section of theCamping is Club, Clyde Canoe Club, Manchester Canoe
Club and the[Royal Canoe Club] formed coming the British Canoe
Union.
The BCU has over
30,000 individual members, 625 affiliated clubs and 145 approved
centres.
The BCU is a
blanket organisation which brings together Britain's separate
paddlesport organisations: Canoe England, The Scottish Canoe Association, The
Welsh Canoeing
Association and The Canoe
Association of Northern Ireland. The BCU creates the rules for
competitive canoeing used throughout the UK.
The BCU is now
approaching its 70th anniversary and is running a photo competition to
celebrate. The organisation also recently started a Rivers Access Campaign which tries
to raise the public awareness of the problems that Kayakers and
Canoeists face in accessing the country's rivers. This campaign
ultimately aims to bring about changes in UK law that will open up more
rivers to the public.
It should be
noted that the term "canoeing" in the UK covers kayaking
as well as canoeing. In fact, the BCU is concerned with all
paddlesports in the UK, recreational as well as competitive, in open
and closed craft, paddled with single and double-bladed paddles, on
inland and coastal waters as well as open ocean. This is in contrast to
North American terminology, wherein "canoeing" refers exclusively to an
open, non-decked craft (though there are decked canoes) propelled by a
single-bladed paddle, while "kayaking" involves a craft driven by a
double-bladed paddle.
Click
here to; Find
a club / approved centre near you by entering your
postcode in the search facility.
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