Photo of the Month - March 2002

So you still think it is too cold and wet outside to try some adventurous activities? Well here is another example of the Scouts, from the St. George's Mill Hill Scout Troop in Blackburn, East Lancashire, trying something adventurous where they didn't get too cold though obviously they still got wet. Stuart Parker, the Scout Leader who sent in this photo, tells us what was happening on the 27th February 2002.

The session is a kayak training session run over 4 weeks by our local Youth Service. The training is a taster session for outdoor sessions planned during the summer.

The trainee kayakers are Levi, Andrew, Scott, Mark, Sam, James and Gemma. Steven is the Scout running the gauntlet.

If you are confused by what is going on here then let me explain. What you are seeing is a common confidence building exercise for kayakers. By itself a single kayak can feel very unstable but when the Scouts work together as a team they can form a raft by holding onto each others kayaks. To show how stable the raft is one of the Scouts has to get out of their kayak, walk along the bows of the other kayaks and then return across the sterns and climb back in to their own kayak. This quite a challenge because, as you can see in the photo, the tops of the kayaks are wet, slippery and they bob up and down when someone stands on and off them. For the Scouts this is just a game but should they carry on the training they will use the confidence and skills they pick up here when practising mid-river rescues.