Park Jam returned this October, bringing kayakers together from across the UK. Organised by Pyranha Kayaks and Palm Equipment, the Park Jam tour takes place over two weekends. Team paddlers from both Pyranha and Palm, as well as special guests visited white water courses across the UK. The aim of the Park Jam series is for young kayakers to be given the opportunity to meet and paddle with team paddlers and hopefully leave the event feeling inspired.
The Park Jam series started with Bren Orton and it is beautiful to see Bren’s legacy be continued through Park Jam. The positive and long lasting impact that these events have on people can not be underestimated. Many of the kids who come to Park Jam have attended for years now and it is incredible to see how much progression they have made every year.
It was an absolute pleasure to be involved in Park Jam 2025 and here is my account to tell you all about it.
I wrote this article originally to cover the whole of the Park Jam series. After finishing, it had an estimated read time of 40 minutes! Rather than cut out any of the stories, I’ve opted to post two articles covering the first weekend. Here is part one of the Park Jam write up!
The events
This year, Park Jam expanded internationally with a special event in Hohenlimburg, Germany earlier in September. I did not attend but heard it was a real success and have linked a post from Palm and Pyranha below about it.
The two UK Park Jam weekends took place on the 11th-13th October and the 18th-19th October.
Lee Valley
Saturday on the first weekend was an early one as we needed to pick up Oli and Sophie before heading down for a 9am start at Lee Valley.
Having never paddled at Lee Valley before, I hadn’t been quite sure what to expect. I live next to the river Trent in Nottingham and Lee Valley was very different. Crystal clear chlorinated water AND conveyer belts to carry you back up to the top of the course – what a treat!
There are two courses at Lee Valley – the legacy course and the olympic course. As we made our way up the conveyer belt for that first lap on the olympic course, everyone was very excited.
The olympic is a great white water course and totally unlike anything I’ve ever paddled. The white water was easier than I was expecting but the eddies were very boily. Luckily I had the lovely Sal Montgomery with me who had forewarned me of the infamous boils and told me to just take that first lap slow! It took me a lap to warm up but then I soon got used to it. The olympic course is an awesome section of white water – I can see why people rave about it!
I then went and paddled on the legacy course which is a similar style but less full on than the olympic course. I met two lovely young paddlers called James and Joseph who were paddling hard in their playboats. They were both keen to try everything and were quite comfortable being upside down. Joseph came down the legacy with me for more laps than I could count and I could not tell you how many rolls he did in that time – it was very impressive!
I asked the boys at the end about how determined they were with their rolls and they told me that they would practice every week at the pool and Lee Valley. Their coach had told them it was important to keep trying with their rolls so if they failed one roll, they had to go for another one or he wouldn’t help them. They were so resilient with their rolls because of this and it was great to see their commitment. So if you are the coach of Joseph and James who came to the Lee Valley Park Jam – great job coach!
As the boys session ended, we headed to the pontoon for some launched loop attempts. Myself, Becky, Jamie and Kalob had great fun launching kids off the pontoon! Sophie took great delight in joining the kids and being launched herself.
As we were having fun doing this, it was great to see another two young kayakers I know arrive to join the Park Jam event – brothers Logan and Mason. Logan and Mason are both super keen and talented young shredders who have a great attitude to paddling. They got on and stuck in straight away with some off the pontoon loop attempts before heading down for some white water fun.
Whilst I had been having fun on the pontoon and legacy course, another couple of fabulous junior paddlers called Ottilie and George were both ripping it up on the olympic course. I am told that Ottilie went no paddles and smashed it and George gave Zach Mutton a good run for his money in one of the stickier holes! Young Seb was also out and about having a great time in his playboat!
We were having so much fun than we had to remember it was time to get off at midday so that we could go get changed ahead of the talk. Kalob Grady was leading this talk and it was a great insight on how to plan an expedition and stories of his own experiences.
Once posters had been signed, photos taken and the pack down completed, it was time to head north to the second Park Jam of the day at Northampton Active. Thanks to the Lee Valley team for a great start to our weekend!
Northampton Active
We arrived mid afternoon at Northampton Active and again – the car park was already full! The staff at Northampton Active are super lovely and always the most welcoming. The first person I saw was lovely young Teija who I had met on the GB Freestyle Academy Camp over the summer. Teija is super enthusiastic and it was great to see how much her kayaking had improved since I last saw her.
She was accompanied by her younger sister Niamh. 8 year old Niamh wasn’t planning to paddle but when I asked if she would like to come down in the duo, she said yes! We acquired a very enthusiastic Oli to lead the duo and on we got! Niamh was a little nervous but I said I would be at the front in my bright yellow kayak and she just had to aim for me. As a big fan of yellow ducks, this appealed to her.
We smashed out a couple of duo laps and each time Niamh grew with confidence. It really helped that her wonderful big sister was helping me as a safety boater and being very encouraging. Niamh and Oli weren’t the only pair to be having some duo fun, Em and Louise, and Elliot and Theo were also having a great time!
On one of the laps I met young George who was in an eddy and feeling a little nervous. We went for a course walk to see all the features before kayaking. There is one larger drop on the course which can make people a little nervous so we went to watch this.
The fabulous Zack Mutton was sat just above the drop and about to go down. I said to George to watch Zack and he would demonstrate. Zack then proceeded to go backwards and do half a freewheel landing into a faceplant. It was entertaining but I did have to stop myself laughing as I saw George’s face after watching this and promise him we wouldn’t go down the drop in this manner!
We had a fun few laps down and George was doing so well conquering the nerves and pushing himself out of his comfort zone. We saw another George coming down hand paddling and having the best time. It was a tale of two Georges!
George was getting a little chilly so got off and I then met two lovely siblings called Jessica and Alex. Alex was smashing some attempted cartwheels when I bumped into them and Jessica was neatly working her way down the course. I asked Jessica what she wanted to work on and she said surfing but that she was a little nervous.
Jessica had enough boat control that she would go to surf but pull herself out at the last second. It wasn’t a lack of ability but rather a lack of confidence. We practised on one of the holes and each time she got closer to going in it before suddenly she was in! It was awesome to watch! She had a little surf before capsizing and swimming but when she came up she was grinning. Moments like this is what makes Park Jam so special to me. I had met Jessica only that afternoon but felt so proud of her in that moment. It can be hard to be brave and push yourself when you are scared, but Jessica smashed it!
The session ended with a mass start race down the course. This quickly turned into carnage when both duos got stuck across the second drop and we had a mass pile up of boats! Luckily the support team from the side quickly came to the rescue and they were put back on track.
We got off and changed ready for two brilliant talks by Becky Green and Heidi Walsh. Becky shared her experiences of being a freestyle athlete whilst Heidi focused on why everything starts at Park Jam. I really enjoyed Heidi’s talk in particular as everything she said was so true. You don’t learn the skills to do the complex moves on complex water, you learn it on easier water. Looping or freewheeling off a waterfall starts by learning to loop or freewheel off smaller drops like those on the white water course. It was a great talk and really well received by the crowd.
After poster signing and pack up, we went for dinner as a group. After such a busy day, it was nice to take a moment to sit back and catch up with people before getting back on the road and ready for the next destination – North Wales. A big thank you to the team at Northampton Active for a great Park Jam event.
River Dee
On Sunday we headed to the river Dee! With a midday starting time, it meant for a slightly slower morning and plenty of time to faff before getting on the water. Sometimes a bit of faff is great as it gives you the opportunity to catch up with people in the car park. I had a great hour chatting to folks at Mile End Mill where Park Jam was being run from.
It was great to see Dasha there again, who had come to the Northampton Active Park Jam the day before. She was telling me all about her kayaking adventures and balancing life as university student. George B was also there again, having attended both of the Park Jam events the day before. The commitment to the Park Jam was very impressive – way to go George and dad Scott who had done the driving!
It was nice to meet some new paddlers as well including Matt and his daughter Hannah who live locally and paddled from their house to Mile End Mill in their duo. I had a lovely chat with them and Hannah informed me that her favourite thing to do was surfing on the wave at the bottom. Me too Hannah, me too!
We gathered as a group on the river and the fun started! I saw Hannah and Matt again at the top. Hannah was keen to get to that wave so I challenged her to a race down the first drop. I had a good lead at the front but just as we went down the drop, Hannah managed to get into the front and beat me!
We headed down to the bottom wave and joined a group of paddlers who were all ex-students of Loughborough uni. We had a lovely 15 minutes of chilled surfing and chatting in the eddy. I met a nice SUP paddler called Budd who was making me want to get back out on my SUP to surf some waves!
Suddenly every paddler there for Park Jam descended to bottom wave and it became a very chaotic party wave. There were so many wonderful moments during this but I did particularly enjoy Kalob Grady surfing holding his paddle by holding one of the blades with both hands and challenging people to come knock him off. I am not sure anyone did!
The older kids were causing their own carnage and I am not sure who did the most flipping and who got the most flipped. Jamie, Dan, James, Dylan, Toby… I’m sure I’ve missed some names but that little group seemed to be at the heart of the party wave carnage!
Budd had taken to loaning out his SUP and SUP skills and one minute was ferrying Sal Montgomery at the front of his board onto the wave. The next, Em had acquired the SUP and was sat on the board in her playboat and surfing. There was so much fun being had. I particularly enjoyed a moment where I was surfing to suddenly feel myself going into a tailee. I looked over my shoulder where Steph was sat happily on my tail before proceeding to push me off the wave! So much fun!
In the eddy I bumped into George and his dad Ade again. George had been at Northampton and I was delighted to see that I seemed to have persuaded him to come for a second day of Park Jam. George wanted to practice his paddling so we walked up to the top to run the section of rapids.
On the way, we walked past big rock where Kalob and Aaron were busily launching children and team paddlers alike off of it. We stayed to watch for a little bit and it was great to see George B smashing his launch! I also quite enjoyed Heidi’s toss which seemed to involved a small amount of screaming. Even I was a little worried that the boys were going to drop her on her face at one point in the set up! But of course – they didn’t and she smashed her launch.
Myself, George and his dad went up to the top and got onto paddle. George had never paddled through the middle hole before. He smashed it! When we got down to the bottom wave, he was even convinced to try out surfing for the first time which was awesome to see!
Time flies when you are having fun and we realised it was time to get off. A quick change and then we headed upstairs for two talks from Oli Cooper and Zack Mutton. Oli was talking about his journey in kayaking and Zack was sharing his journey as well as a really interesting discussion about risk taking and risk management.
Zack showed photos of him as a toddler learning to kayak on the Kaituna and how this river shaped his development. I loved these stories and it brought back some happy memories for me. For I too learned to kayak on the Kaituna! Only, I was 20 years old when I started and 2 year old Zack looked a lot more in control than 20 year old me had felt! It was an interesting talk for sure!
After poster signing and photos, it was time to do the pack down and grab dinner. Myself, Tom and Oli were heading back to Nottingham as sadly none of us could take the week off of work / uni. The others were staying the night in Wales before heading up to Scotland for the Pinkston Park Jam the next day and then a week of kayaking in Scotland. It was lovely to have some chill time with everyone before we bid our goodbyes and wished them a happy week of kayaking ahead!
To be continued…
Park Jam part two to cover the Tees Barrage and Cardiff will get posted soon – keep your eyes peeled!