🌊 Give Kayaking a Go This Wednesday! 🌊 Thinking about trying kayaking but haven’t taken the plunge yet? This Wednesday is the perfect opportunity! The forecast is looking fantastic – warm weather, calm conditions, and a beautiful river to paddle on. Whether you’re completely new to kayaking or just looking to get out on the water, we’d love to welcome you for a paddle on the River Crouch. ✅ All equipment provided ✅ Just £8-10 per session to hire everything you need ✅ Typical paddles last around 90 minutes or more ✅ Friendly, experienced kayakers will paddle alongside all newcomers during their first few sessions We meet every Wedneday at 5:30pm, on the Water for 6:00pm. No experience is needed – just bring yourself and a sense of adventure. It’s a great way to get active, enjoy the outdoors, and meet other members on the water. Come along and discover why so many people love kayaking. See you on the river this Wednesday! 🚣‍♂️☀️ Yearly membership for CKC is only £22 a year, with Burnham Sailing Club membership also being required yearly if your paddling with us from our Burnham Base Weekly. Details on becoming a member can be found here - https://www.crouchkayakclub.co.uk/membership Email via kayak@burnhamsc.co.uk Regards BSC Kayak Representative / Social Media Rep for CKC Daniel Rodwell Cheers Dan Photos Supplied: Various Club Members

Updated Risk Assessment Documentation Roger Smith, our Health and Safety Officer has recently completed a review of the CKC Risk Assessment Documentation and has kindly updated both the Sea Kayaking & Canal Paddling Risk Assessments. We would encourage all CKC members to review the documents ahead of their next paddles. Please use the buttons below to download the documents. Cheers Roger Smith

Upcoming Paddle Schedule 2026 See our latest poster for upcoming paddles for CKC across 2026, this is being updated and shared weekly via our Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp social media groups. Cheers Dan

Sunday 28th June - Club Paddle to Hullbridge A small group of kayakers set off from Burnham for Hullbridge on Sunday, facing some stubborn head-on winds all the way upriver. Thankfully, the tide and a gusty breeze turned in our favour for the trip back, making the return far more enjoyable. Around 18 miles all in, finished with a well-earned pint at the Smugglers Den. Can’t ask for much more than that. 🍻🌬️🌊 Cheers Dan Photos Supplied: Dan / Alan / Darryl

Wednesday 24th June - Club Paddle in the June Heatwave It was great to see such a fantastic turnout this evening, with plenty of people looking to escape the heat and enjoy a cooler evening on the river. We split the paddlers into three groups, which allowed our faster kayakers to enjoy a longer route while giving us more time to support and coach those joining us for the first time. A refreshing easterly breeze arrived just when we needed it, and we were treated to a beautiful sunset on our journey back to the pontoon. Another lovely evening on the water! Cheers Dan Photos Supplied: Various Club Members

Sunday 31st May - Club Paddle from East Mersea to Rowhedge  A club outing today for 12 kayakers paddling from East Mersea to Rowhedge. After launching from the beach at Mersea, we were met with some lumpy conditions caused by the wind opposing the incoming tide. Fortunately, this section was short-lived, and we were soon making good progress towards Wivenhoe before continuing on to our lunch stop at Rowhedge in much calmer waters. Rowhedge offered a great lunch stop, with a choice of two pubs and a food stand on the village green. After lunch, we all headed back towards Mersea. Conditions were noticeably calmer on the return journey, with the outgoing tide and wind both working in our favour. Finishing the paddle on Mersea’s lovely sandy beach in warm sunshine was the perfect end to an enjoyable day on the water. A great day’s paddling with good company, covering some beautiful stretches of the River Colne. Cheers Dan Photos Supplied: Various Club Members

Wednesday 27th May - Club Paddle Fantastic to see the biggest turnout of the year for this week’s club paddle! With so many kayaks on the water, we split into groups to cover different distances downriver across the 2-hour paddle. Warm weather made for a great evening, although the fairly strong ENE breeze against the incoming tide kept us working! . Cheers Dan Photos Supplied: Various Club Members

Wednesday 6th May - Club Paddle What a fantastic sunny day out on the River Crouch! ☀️ Great to welcome another group of new paddlers—11 kayakers in total hitting the water together. We headed downriver, stopping for a short break on Branklet Spit before making our way back and crossing near the Burnham moorings. Lovely to see so many other river users out enjoying the day, especially the kids learning to sail. Days like this are what it’s all about! . Cheers Dan Photos Supplied: Various Club Members

CKC supporting River Action, a programme being run by Dengie Climate Action Group. A number of members from both the Crouch Kayak Club and Burnham Sailing Club attended the latest meeting of the River Action group on the 11th March, at the Royal Burnham Yacht Club. Guest speaker Eamonn O'Nolan of the Deben Climate Action Centre gave a talk around how we can work together to prevent future river pollution and provided the group with some vital guidance around how their approach could be adopted on the River Crouch to tackle the increased sightings of sewage. The initial focus for the group is the implementation of water test sampling at Creeksea shoreline, as this is an area of the River Crouch that has regular open water swimming. The group are focused on the detection of any unsafe levels of E.coli bacteria in the river as this directly links back to sewage coming from treatment plants upriver. E. coli risks to swimmers in the UK are significant, particularly in rivers and some coastal areas, due to sewage discharges, agricultural runoff, and heavy rain. High E. coli levels, often exceeding safety standards, can cause serious gastrointestinal illness, infections, and in rare cases, severe, life-threatening, or fatal illness. It is worth noting, as a kayak group which travels up and down the river on a weekly basis from Spring to Summer, we have seen the impact that this sewage can cause along the shoreline or in area's of the River Crouch which are sheltered from any strong winds or currents. As a kayak group, we will always do whatever is required to ensure our members are aware of any risks around going afloat on the river, including what we can do individually or as a group to mitigate these risks whilst we are out on our weekly paddles. This year we will focus on the monitoring of any sewage that we witness whilst on the river and raise the awareness of any issues in our pre-paddle safety briefings. Please note, Impact to our kayak members has been very limited around this pollution to date, this is for a number of reasons including that we host our training sessions for water based activities in a swimming pool and also look to limit any time spent directly in the water outside of the kayaks for a normal paddle on the River Crouch. Additional policies like the correct usage of kayak protective clothing and the regular cleaning of our kayaks and associated kit have also limited any exposure to our members. CKC looks forward to exploring how we can work more closely with groups like the Dengie Climate Action Group throughout 2026, additional information will be provided once more engagement has taken place. In the meantime, we are looking to support by spreading the word locally around the focus of this group on the River Crouch. Anyone looking to make a personal donation towards their River Action programme, can do so by the link below. More information about the focus of the Dengie Climate Action Group below, Clean Water, Clear Future River Action is a local, volunteer-led campaigning group dedicated to protecting and restoring the rivers, streams, tidal inlets and drainage channels of the Dengie Peninsula. We work to highlight pollution issues, monitor the health of our watercourses, and push for stronger action from regulators and landowners. By engaging our community, promoting evidence-based solutions, and supporting practical clean-up efforts, River Action strives to safeguard the peninsula’s precious waterways for wildlife, residents, and future generations. We run entirely on volunteer enthusiasm and public donations. Can you help us out? Donate Here Your gift to River Action supports practical, local work towards a cleaner River Crouch 🌱 Together we can restore river habitats, monitor and reduce pollution in the Crouch. We want to protect swimmers, sailors, anglers, wildlife and reduce the degradation of our water ways. Every donation helps fund water‑quality testing, river clean-ups and active pressure on polluters. Give what you can today to back community‑led action along our river. Additional information can be found on the Dengie Climate Actions Website below, https://www.dengieclimateaction.org/river-action Cheers Dan Photos Supplied: Bernie Kerr from Dengie Climate Action