Words : Pete Astles Photos : Pete Astles and Paul Ramsdale
This year celebrates 250 years of Cromford Mills , the World ’ s first water-powered mill built by Sir Richard Arkwright within the Derwent Valley . As part of the celebrations , over the three day bank holiday weekend , the local community group Paddle Peak took more than 250 local youngsters kayaking on the Cromford Canal at Cromford Wharf .
Thirty-minute back to back taster sessions , ten paddlers at a time , were given free of charge to young people , giving them the chance to experience kayaking in the beautiful outdoor space Derbyshire has to offer . Plus , every lunchtime , awe-inspiring paddlesports demonstrations were performed by several world-leading canoeists and kayakers to show the variety of different and exciting disciplines paddlesports has to offer .
On Saturday , Team GB Canoe Slalom team members Chris Bowers and Olympian Adam Burgess , just back from Tokyo 2020 , showed the crowd of fascinated onlookers the ins and outs and ups and downs of canoe slalom , including a demonstration of the wiggle test , a tricky canoe slalom training routine from the 1970s . Neither Adam nor Chris had ever seen the wiggle test before , but both quickly mastered it and laid down some good times . Check out the Paddle Peaks Facebook page for the video ! Adam and Chris then gave our local youngsters their first taste of slalom , then chatted and signed posters for all the kids that attended that day of paddling sessions .
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