Having fun on the water at Park Jam 2024!

For UK and Irish paddlers, October brings with it an exciting couple of weeks as the Park Jam events series runs. Park Jam is organised by Pyranha Kayaks and Palm Equipment in an effort to bring people together for some fun on the water. The aim of the Parkjam tour is to inspire the next generation of paddlers across the UK. It’s a chance for kids to paddle with and be inspired by the Palm and Pyranha teams, and hear from them about their latest adventures. Over the course of 3 weeks, team paddlers from both Pyranha and Palm tour white water courses across England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Paddlers are encouraged to come and join them for some fun on the water, with the opportunity to then hear from and meet those paddlers afterwards.

I was involved with some of the Park Jam dates in 2023 and was thrilled to get involved again in 2024. Life has been a little busy lately but I managed to join for 4 out of 9 of the dates and had a great time during those events. I am sure there will be blog posts aplenty from team paddlers in the coming weeks to share a more official account but here is mine if you wanted to hear it!

Northampton Active

The first day I joined for was event 2 of the Park Jam series which was at Northampton Active (the Nene). Park Jam had kicked off with a bang the night before at Lee Valley down in London. My husband Tom was working as a photographer for the weekend and so I’d already seen lots of photos that morning of all the happy paddlers!

We arrived at midday and grabbed lunch from the cafe, giving us the chance to chat to a couple of the staff members. I’ve only been to the Nene a couple of times but the staff there are just always the most lovely people! Me and Tom had both been involved in running one of the Youth Freestyle League events there a couple of months ago and so there was lots of familiar faces.

Once we’d finished some lunch, we headed out to start getting ready and the rest of the team started to arrive. Banners were put up and paddlers were geared up. It was a beautifully sunny and warm day so many people had even opted for shorts!

As I was finishing getting ready, little Luke Bermingham came over for a chat. At 13 years old, Luke is the youngest team member involved in the park jam. He and his two brothers recently joined team Pyranha and you only need to spend a little time with Luke to see why! Luke is an absolute ball of enthusiasm, incredibly determined in his kayaking and above all was super friendly and encouraging to everyone he met. It was great to see him leading the fun on the water and Luke is certainly a paddler I think you’ll be seeing more of in the future. He was also, like me, was paddling a small Ozone so obviously he has good taste too!

If you’ve never paddled at the Nene before, it is a cool little course! It’s set out in a loop and so when you get to the bottom, it’s really not that far to get back up to the top so you can get plenty of laps in! I proceeded to have a lovely couple of hours paddling and talking with people. There was so many cool things happening and it was great to see people just having fun! I loved seeing how inventive everyone was being.

Shout out to a kid called Hamish who was nailing his stern stalls at every opportunity and to the Nene staff for their various shenanigans including with the use of canoes, duo kayaks and SUPs! 7 year old Theo making his way down the course in both a duo and then his own kayak was pretty cool! A big well done to everyone who went for a surf in the pour over or tried some fun moves! It was very impressive to see so much creativity!

I met one lovely couple in particular who I spent lots of time with – Patrick and Anja. Patrick had a bright yellow Firecracker, the same colour scheme as my Ozone which started our conversation. Anja joined me for a couple of laps of fun in the sun. Anja had been a little nervous before hand but she smashed her laps and by the end was getting stuck in with surfing and all sorts! I really enjoyed our paddle together so thanks for that Anja!

Once off the water, everyone got changed and headed upstairs for the talks. At each event, it swaps around which team paddlers are giving the talks. This event had a talk from Andy ‘Chips’ Kettlewell and Oli Cooper about their trip to Iceland. Sal Montgomery gave a more general talk about lessons learned and her adventures. Adrian Mattern gave a talk about his journey into where he is now. Each talk was very different and I thought they all spoke so well. It’s not always easy to speak in front of a crowd but they smashed it!

Adrian showed a SEND video at the start of his talk to show their group’s adventures. There were of course lots of clips of Bren, who sadly passed away in May this year. Both Adrian and Andy mentioned Bren in their talks and his name had been mentioned many times over the day by numerous paddlers. Many of the paddlers who attended the Park Jam event had attended the year before as well and so had got to meet Bren then. Whenever his name came up, there was always a feeling of sadness but also there a feeling that his legacy was being honoured. So many paddlers brought together to share a good time on the water. Bren might not have been with his, but he was very much there with us in spirit.

After the talks, there was an opportunity for people to meet any of the Team Paddlers that they wanted to, get posters signed and collect prizes for being spotted by one of the Team for having a great time on the water! It’s a really lovely way to end the day and a huge thank you to the Nene staff for accommodating this and getting everyone sorted. Once the last poster had been signed and the banners taken back down, we headed to the pub for some dinner. It was nice to get a chance to catch up with friends after a fantastic but busy day.

Thanks Northampton Active for a great day!

Holme Pierrepont

Day 4 of the Park Jam was held at my local white water course Holme Pierrepont (HPP), here in Nottingham. The day after the team, most of the paddlers had gone to Cardiff but I had not been with them so it was nice to see everyone again and hear about the Cardiff event. By complete coincidence, I had actually been at HPP all day already as I had been there with students from my school, helping the PE department to assess them kayaking for their CNAT sport qualification. I was always love when the different areas of my life come together in this way.

Once one set of teenagers had left me, the next set arrived as the Palm Groms (Jools, Charlotte, Ask, Cam & honoury Grom Ewan) parked up. Palm Grows is a programme set up by Palm to help develop and mentor young kayakers. In my opinion, it is one of the most wholesome things that a brand has done for a very long time. The current Groms are all lovely and it was great to hear about their adventures had down on the Dart over the last couple of days.

The rest of the team arrived just in time for the 6pm event start. We only had a little bit of daylight left but luckily HPP has floodlights to allow for paddling in the evening. There was a good turn out and it was fantastic to see so many of the local kids showing us their moves. There was much party surfing and fun times being had. Shout out to Ted and Henry who went for a party surf and paddle swap when I told them to ‘do something cool for the camera!’. Another youngster James also stood out as being really enthusiastic and giving everything a go. I decided to give him a shout out later on for one of the spot prizes and through that found out that he was actually Oli’s cousin!

Once everyone had had a good time on the water, it was time for the talks. There isn’t a function room at HPP’s white water course but manager Matt had done an excellent job of setting us up an outdoors screening area! Heidi, Huw and Adrian all gave a talk, which was again followed by some spot prizes and a chance for people to meet and greet with the team. I really love to see how excited everyone was (kids and adults) to get their posters signed and photos taken. It’s such a wholesome atmosphere!

Pub dinner afterwards was very appreciated as everyone was pretty hungry by this point and we reflected on what a great community there is here is Nottingham. It really is special and I was pleased that the team got to see that. Thank you HPP for a lovely evening!

Mile End Mill

We headed over to Llangollen in North Wales and arrived in beautiful sunshine! We didn’t arrive with enough time to join for the morning Dee lap but we did arrive with enough time for a hot drink and a catch up with some friends which was lovely. Banners went up and it was time to paddle!

I met a lovely little group in the carpark including 13 year old Dylan and his dad Nigel. Dylan hadn’t paddled in a while but was keen to get back into it today. We started with a couple of laps from the top of mile end mill to the bottom as a warm up before moving onto some ferry gliding practice and then some surfing! Dylan was absolutely smashing out his surfs by the end of the session!

We bumped into lots of other happy paddlers on the water, including another Dylan and some keen slalom teenagers who’d also come for Park Jam – Lara, Rose and Alex were nailing their surfs on bottom wave. There was a University group who were lovely too – Surrey I think they said! (Any of those University students reading this – please add a comment to correct me if I’ve misremembered!) It was nice to bump into lots of friendly faces on the water of locals and those who’d come from further afield.

On my final walk back up to the top, I stopped and watched some impressive seal launches off the big rock taking place. Kayakers were launching themselves off the rock into the river below in a wide range of ways and this was making for some great entertainment.

After the river came the talks with Aaron Kendall going first. Aaron works locally as a raft guide and has been one of the driving forces behind Dee Valley Clean Up, which organises river cleans on the Dee. He spoke about this and about how others can get involved in helping to clean up their rivers.

Next came Charlotte and Cam to talk about how they got involved with Palm Groms and what their experiences had been so far. Finally came Adrian’s talk which was focused on showing us his latest film documenting the SEND trip to Gabon. This is a short film which is going to be released in a couple of weeks and so I won’t go into details about it here. But I will say that when it comes out – go watch it if you can.

Poster signing and photos followed before dinner out. Thank you to the team at Mile End Mill for a fantastic Park Jam!

Tees Barrage

We drove up to Tees Barrage early on Sunday morning ready to set up banners and get on the water for 10.30. Quite a few of the team hadn’t paddled at the Barrage before and so were intrigued by the layout of the course – it is an interesting one for sure! I once saw a seal there many years ago (it’s tidal) and when I told Charlotte this, she was very excited that she might see one too! Spoiler – neither of us saw a seal this day but Tom did and we were very jealous!

As I was helping to set up, a man approached me to say hello and to say that his son Patrick was here for the Park Jam. Patrick is a keen young paddler who attended the GB freestyle academy camp over the Summer which I helped to run. It was great to see him again and see how enthusiastic for the day ahead he was! When we got on, it was still quite chilly and Patrick went for a warm up swim before getting in his boat! I did not join him in the water but instead stayed snug in my kayak!

As soon as we paddled down, Patrick was off! It’s only been a couple of months since I saw him in a kayak but wow had he improved! Patrick’s dad informed me that he had a real kayaking bug at the moment and just wanted to get out on the water as much as possible. His hard work really showed and it was great to see how much progress he had made since we last saw each other. Many of the team commented throughout the day about what a great attitude and what determination he had. Huw beat us to it when it came to nominating people for the spot prizes later on but I know many of us would have put his name forwards otherwise. Well done Patrick!

I paddled down my first lap to remind myself of the course – I haven’t paddled much at Tees Barrage and couldn’t quite remember the features. I had vague memories of the bottom hole being quite changeable, depending on the tides. Sometimes there is nothing there and other times the hole is quite sticky. As I dropped down and got immediately back looped in my Ozone, I decided that today it was quite sticky! A couple of roll in the holes later, I caught my tail and it spat me out. I rolled up to see 2 of the locals smiling at me – I’m sure they see quite a few beat downs in that feature! Needless to say, it delighted me when I heard later on that quite a few of the team had had a similar experience on at least one of their laps. Love a bit of carnage based fun!

I spent more time at the top of the course on my next laps and had so many lovely chats with people. There was a cool dad and son duo called Dan and James who were enjoying their paddle. It was nice to bump into another father and son, Scott and George, who are Midlands locals. George was smashing his paddle and Palm Groms paddler Charlotte was having a great time on the water paddling with him. Shout out to Durham University who were there rocking some really cool playboats and having a great time. Also it was great to see Connor Proud, a local legend, showing us his best moves as per usual. We see Connor at lot at HPP where he comes to train regularly in freestyle, but it’s lovely to see him on his home run!

As the session went on, the carnage ramped up! The younger of the team paddlers started to get creative with their fun. Little Dan brought out his inflatable Orca and for the first time in my life, I called out to a paddler on the wave, ‘watch out for the incoming Orca!’. Ewan Murray and Oli Cooper started a group of paddlers launching themselves off the concrete wall in various forms. What was really impressive is both Ewan and Oli had a spectacular faceplant off that wall (which I imagine hurt quite a lot) but went straight back up to go for it again! Some might say that shows real strength and determination. Others might say a high level of stupidity. I’m not sure what the final answer is but all I can say is it was very impressive!

When the paddle had come to an end, everyone changed and headed over for the talks. Ewan and Dan started us off by talking about their Summer paddling trip to Norway. Huw and Chips shared their expedition paddle in Kyrgyzstan which sounded like quite an adventure! The final talk was of course from Adrian speaking of his adventures. Whilst I have seen Adrian talk at every Park Jam event so far, it is always an incredible experience. He is a great public speaker and has so many brilliant adventures to share.

Once the talks and spot prizes were over, there was the opportunity for poster signing and photos. Northampton Active gets everyone who attends the Park Jam to sign a poster for them each year to put on the wall and I thought this was a great idea and so did the same! A nice memento to pop up on the wall at home. We had our last group meal together and then me and Tom left for home. There are three more days of Park Jam – one up in Scotland and two in Ireland but this was our last date we could attend and so it was time to say goodbye.

Thanks for having us Tees Barrage!

Final thoughts

Park Jam this year was always going to be different. Bren has always been a huge part of Park Jam and so him not being there this year was always going to mean that it felt very different. Yet Park Jam 2024 was still incredibly special in its own way. Throughout the 4 events I attended, the vibes were always fun and there was so many happy paddlers who were being brought together on the water. Memories and friends were made throughout the event and whilst Bren’s name often came up, it was generally when people shared nice memories of him or memories of previous Park Jams before. He was such a driving force behind the Park Jam series (it used to be called Bren’s Park Jam until he asked it to be changed) that it was nice to honour him by continuing to have the best time ever at these events.

All of the team paddlers who joined to help run the event made it such a welcoming atmosphere and so inclusive. I think was might be the most number of team paddlers that have ever been involved. Some paddlers could attend one or two events whilst others are attending every single one. The constant enthusiasm and good energy from everyone was amazing. I saw so many wonderful interactions from team paddlers with each other and paddlers attending the events over the last 2 weeks. One of paddlers at the Tees said to me ‘Adrian Mattern just came over to me and said ‘hi I’m Adrian’ – can you believe it!’ This paddler was absolutely stoked by the interaction. People across the events have just been so nice, and it makes such a difference. It really has been a couple of weeks of good vibes and happy memories. Shout to all the great Palm and Pyranha paddlers who were involved this year and helped to make that happen.

There have been some bumps along the way but the events has gone so smoothly and that is massively thanks to the people behind the scenes. Special shout outs to Mat from Pyranha and Janice / Chips from Palm who were the driving forces behind making these events happen. A lot of work goes in behind the scenes and that isn’t always know about. Thank you guys for your incredible hard work in making this happen.

If you attended Park Jam this year, please do add a comment below with which event you attended and what your favourite memory was. It would be great to hear all about it from your perspective! Meanwhile, if you haven’t attended an event and still want – get over to Pinkston white water centre (now) or Ireland at the weekend and you can still join in for the fun!

Thanks for letting me be involved everyone!