UCD Canoe Club
General => Kayaking => Topic started by: canoekev on May 14, 2014, 16:44:31
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Hey guys I'm curious, is there a reason why the the pool sessions stop over the summer? Apart from the school year ending and people not being around..
I'm in dublin for most of the summer and I'd love the option for more training, I'm not sure how often I'll be able to get on a river. (also rivers are cold for learning to play boooo).
Is anyone against them continuing, because if there's no real reason and there isn't too much bureaucracy I'd love to get talking to the pool guys or whoever to keep them going.
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I would SO be up for this as well. I'm around most of summer..
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Same here. I'm dublin based an need more practice
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The arrangement we have at present is based on the set up most (if not all) varsity clubs in UCD have which is that they are subsidised to train during term time.
I imagine the pool makes a lot of money in the summer running summer camps (since all the school kids are on holidays) so your best bet would be to aim for sometime during the week when business is slow.
There's an agreement that the pool let the club train for a certain number of hours in the year for free and if you excede that amount you've to pay to rent the pool. There's no black and white figure on this, but the figure to rent the pool is very hefty, definitely more than you could cover with people paying in.
Maybe if you asked nicely they'd be able to give you a lane or two late at night sometimes? Although, be litte careful about how you ask. If you presented it as a "the club absolutely needs this training" and then hardly anyone shows up all summer that would undermine future requests under that heading.
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So it would help to know if we'd have spare free hours for summer and how many people would be up for this. The pool is never super busy when we have pool sessions and for me the same time as usual would be fine..
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That's good to know. Do students still only have to pay 4 euro to use the pool over the summer does anyone know? Also do we have many members in the club?
I assume that water polo club still train over the summer, if they do then the pool is already partially partitioned whenever they train. not sure if this would help us or not.. I'd say our best bet would be something similar to during the year, 9 to 10.30 whatever day they agree to.
Maryanne do you mean that the free time we get during the year is just the amount that the subsidy pays for?
Also does this money come through the club or straight to the pool.. Is there any left if it comes to having to pay?
I'm sure the club wouldn't mind us using the boats and the paddles Ross?
I'll make a new thread to see if there's enough interest first. Most likely would be once a week at night.
^^Yeah agreed Johannes
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I'd say it's not overly possible to run them, especially if the numbers are too low. If you want to go paddling midweek, Salmon leap do races every Wednesday night, which would be well worth doing, there are plenty of alternatives.
If the numbers signed up are high enough, I'll send the pool an email after my exams and see what is possible...
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I looked into doing this before in UL and they told me that the pool would have to be paid for as it is subsidized during term time. You more then likely will have to buy 2-3 lanes which would work out at around 100 an hour. This would not be feasible unless you were able to get external members but that's another issue. Best bet is to join wildwater or another other club that has pool sessions over the sunmer. I'll be up for going to pool sessions during the summer anyway!
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Well a lot of this is speculation, so for the options we might have with the UCD pool we should go ahead and ask them..
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Kev if you've a car then it's totally worth heading to a river, or the Canal - a cleanish bit. You learn way more not in a pool.
Plus you can literally walk to the Dodder from the boathouse! Then use the showers in the gym for free :). Oh and there's even a net set in the boathouse to set up goals on the Dodder for polo training.
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Where's a good entry to the dodder? Never been on it.. I'd be up for going there and playboat a bit in the flat after work some evening next week..
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It's just the carpark beside the pub there, Clonskeagh House, I think? If you turn into the carpark, walk over to the far side it goes onto a track beside the river with a wall you can step into a boat from.
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Kev just to answer some of your questions there:
That's good to know. Do students still only have to pay 4 euro to use the pool over the summer does anyone know? Also do we have many members in the club?
Yup we still pay €4 over the summer (this is subsidised by the student contribution you pay at the start of the semester)
By members I presume you mean members of the pool, in which case I have no idea! :o
I assume that water polo club still train over the summer, if they do then the pool is already partially partitioned whenever they train. not sure if this would help us or not.. I'd say our best bet would be something similar to during the year, 9 to 10.30 whatever day they agree to.
Unfortunately not, the water polo team don't train over the summer...that's why we had the full half pool for our last week. :D
Maryanne do you mean that the free time we get during the year is just the amount that the subsidy pays for?
Also does this money come through the club or straight to the pool.. Is there any left if it comes to having to pay?
The pool allocations are sorted directly by the sports office to the pool, we have very little say in it, and aren't actually aware of what the exact deal they have is other than the fine details at the end (eg. Getting permission for polo etc.)
I'm sure the club wouldn't mind us using the boats and the paddles Ross?
Nope that wouldn't have been an issue at all!
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Pool? Summer? Testicles? :o
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Avoid pools at all costs over the summer. As noted by Dave they will sterilise your manhood and cause you to forget how to kayak.
Canals and Rivers arn't that cold over summer. Go play Polo, Marathon, Sprint, Slalom, whatever at Wildwater Kayak Club, Kilcock Canoe Polo Club or Salmon Leap Canoe Club (or whatever club is closest to you).
Wildwater Kayak Club do a student membership of €50. You can buy it or not, they don't care that much. I'm planning on buying it this summer :). You can do pretty much anything there (Marathon, WWR, Slalom, Sprint, Polo, the works). I paddled there all last summer, it's great craic.
Kilcock Canoe Polo Club only have the adult membership rate (€100 I think it was). If you paddle with them more than once, you have to pay it, no messing. Probably the best spot to go to to learn Canoe Polo, they're ridiculously good. I paddled there for the whole summer at the end of first year.
Salmon Leap Canoe Club I don't know that much about. They appear to have marathon races every Wednesday and I assume they do training too.
If possible over the summer you should try get to as many of the polo competitions as possible, they'll have you away for every second or third weekend camping somewhere down the country. It's ridiculously good fun.
I'm also planning on getting going to Clifden to do some freestyle, it's an amazing feature in Galway that's perfectly predictable, go there if at all possible.
Lastly, if you want to do something, just ask the committee for gear / borrow it off another club / national committee if UCDCC don't have it. People are generally pretty sound about lending gear. Get out there, do your thing, make your paddling happen yourself, no-one is going to make it happen for you over the summer but try stay outdoors, it's worth it.
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For me, the pool has the advantage of being a simple and quick after-work possibility. No gear needed, 2 mins from the office. I don't see it as a replacement for real (as in outdoor) paddling, but as a supplement. I am not a gym guy. Did it for a few years, but always hated it.
Anyway, I understand that it'll be hardly possible anyway.. What about dodder in the early evening, I assume we can use club playboats? But we always need committee around, right?
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I would be interested in this and should be around UCD during the summer :) I wasnt able to get enough pool time 2nd semester due to injury and other commitments and would be nice and handy to practice the basics in a controlled environment
I do know however that other sports clubs only get one night a week (Wednesday) during the summer when they can use facilities or else they have to pay. Also, if they DONT show up they have to pay for the rental of the hall and lose their slot so dont do that :P
Best to just ask the sports centre what they can do
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Unfortunately the pool isn't run by the same management as the sports halls. There are apecial arrangements in place for the pool sessions during the year outside of the usual hall rentals.
The committee have looked at this but as I posted on the other thread it's not feasible to run pool sessions. There's plenty of paddling opportunitys available outside of the pool over the summer, a time where there's actually no need for a pool (they're only used to stop people getting hypothermia from rolling sessions during winter)
Sorry lads, but there's no way we'll be able to get them sorted over the summer!
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Johannes, to answer your question about the Dodder in the evening. I haven't actually been down there before to paddle, but once it's bright (which it is til about half 10 or 11 in mid summer) you'd probably be fine to paddle down there. Once you fill out gear borrowing forms and receive the appropriate permission you could definitely use club boats, although I'd imagine you wouldn't get the permission unless you were paddling with others. You could try to arrange evenings where a few of you head down to practice rolls and freestyle/polo. It'd be handy for you to have a committee member there though just for getting boats in and out of the boathouse.
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That's what I meant. Wouldn't go paddling alone, anyway :) Thanks!
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Maryanne do you mean that the free time we get during the year is just the amount that the subsidy pays for?
Also does this money come through the club or straight to the pool.. Is there any left if it comes to having to pay?
We're not charged for our two sessions a week, but if we increased that we would need to pay for the extra.
I found this out when we were starting in the pool and I was trying to establish occasional Sunday pool sessions using the whole pool for things like full pitch canoe polo tournaments.
Turns out that that was prohibitively expensive since paying to keep the pool open late for an hour or two cost well over a thousand euro.
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I'm sure the club wouldn't mind us using the boats and the paddles Ross?
Nope that wouldn't have been an issue at all!
The gear borrowing policy is pinned at the top of the resources section of the board, good reading to do before the summer :)
http://forum.ucdcanoeclub.com/index.php/topic,10611.0.html
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Kilcock Canoe Polo Club only have the adult membership rate (€100 I think it was). If you paddle with them more than once, you have to pay it, no messing. Probably the best spot to go to to learn Canoe Polo, they're ridiculously good. I paddled there for the whole summer at the end of first year.
Seriously all males should consider this place, just look at the difference in Diarmuid between first year and second year.....
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=108513092592746&set=t.100000288300862&type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2079448184160&set=t.100000288300862&type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4043342967359&set=t.100000288300862&type=3&theater
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The Dodder's a grand spot.
Downstream of the bridge there's a nice stretch that's wide and plenty deep.
If there was a will to have some kind of polo or freestyle training over the Summer, it'd be ideal.
It's something that we tried to get going when polo was just starting in the club, but we never really had enough numbers to make it happen. There's A LOT more people playing polo now though, so maybe?
FYI, many years ago(2008/9?), we (mostly Benny and Tom I think) set up a polo-pitch and slalom course down there. Unfortunately local anglers took exception to this and it all got destroyed. It could be worth trying again if there's the will, you'd definitely manage polo goals as you could just put them up and take em down (the stuff is still in the boathouse).
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If there was a will to have some kind of polo or freestyle training over the Summer, it'd be ideal.
It's something that we tried to get going when polo was just starting in the club, but we never really had enough numbers to make it happen. There's A LOT more people playing polo now though, so maybe?
^^ I would definitely be interested in something like this and do you mean the bridge near ucd?