Telford CC Paddlefest 2025

The weekend of Saturday and Sunday 5th/6th July 2025 saw the first Telford CC Paddlefest take place at Jackfield, and a great time was had by all!

Traditionally, the club has always held a slalom event as part of the official UK slalom calendar. However, this year the club decided to hold an event that was open to all styles of paddling, from slalom, to river kayaking, to freestyle, and SUP.

The river at Jackfield was low, which meant there were plenty of eddies, and the wave was working nicely. Although the rapid was rather rocky in places! In fact, the river was at one of the lowest levels it’s ever been.

Most of Saturday was taken up with freestyle coaching by C1 Freestyle World Champion, Matt Stephenson. Matt is a genius not matter what craft you put him in, and notable progress was made by everyone who took part. Particular mention has to go to Bella, who went from never having paddled on the rapid before to attempting to get onto the wave. An absolutely exceptional achievement. Other fantastic progress was seen by Ingela, who is coming on hugely with confidence surfing on the feature each time she’s there.

The day was rounded off with a BBQ followed by a talk by the always entertaining kayaking legend, Dave Mamby, who told us the story of how he began in kayaking, through to some of the notable expeditions he’s been on around the world.

Onwards to next year for a bigger event involving more of the paddling community.