Imagine being a young kayaker, dreaming of exploring wild rivers and kayaking with your heroes. Now, imagine having a mentor by your side, guiding you through every splash and turn. This is the reality for the participants of the Palm Groms Mentorship Programme.
Following the Park Jam series this year, I couldn’t stop thinking about the incredible impact of the Palm Groms Mentorship Programme. Many of the Groms and their mentors were involved in the Park Jam events. Seeing the positive influence this programme was having on young paddlers inspired me to learn more and share it with the wider paddling community.
In this blog post, I’ll take you through the origins of the Groms programme, share personal stories from the young paddlers involved, and highlight the insights from their dedicated mentors.
How the Groms programme began
Palm Equipment initially set up the Groms programme, inspired by the success of the Park Jam series. The goal was to inspire kids in paddling by bringing them together on the water. Bren Orton was instrumental in getting the programme up and running. His vision was to connect young paddlers with experienced mentors (including himself) who could guide and support them in their paddling journey.
The Palm Groms Mentorship Programme naturally followed the Park Jam series. While the Park Jam is an annual event, the Groms programme offers personalised support to young paddlers all year round. The programme pairs young paddlers, known as Groms, with mentors who help them meet their goals and develop both as paddlers and individuals. This ongoing support ensures that the Groms receive guidance and encouragement throughout the year.
You can read more about the programme through Palm’s website here. There are now several mentors involved in the programme and quite a few Groms! I’ve asked a couple of the Groms and one of the mentors to get involved in this article and tell you more about the programme themselves.
Meet the current Groms
Spending time with some of the current Groms over the Park Jam weekends was great. Charlotte, Jools, Ask and Cam were brilliant ambassadors for Palm and for the sport in general. I’ve asked Charlotte and Cam if they could share their stories about how they got into kayaking, how they got involved with the Groms programme and what they are up to right now.
Charlotte hughes
Early Experience:
My first time in a boat wasn’t fun. I was 7 years old and hated it. For two hours, I screamed and cried because I was terrified.
Years later, I tried kayaking again during a school residential trip. This time, I had a much better experience out on the sea with friends. That positive experience led me to joining a local canoe club where I would be out on the water every weekend. It was mainly a flat water club but we did the occasional river trip which was really fun and kayaking became something I knew I wanted to do more of.
I later came across the European Whitewater School who run trips and I signed up on a trip to go to Italy. This trip was the first time I really stepped up with my paddling and it’s been a wonderful journey since then.
Joining the Groms Programme:
I attended my first Park Jam event in 2022 and got my ever flat water and white water loop with Bren’s help. I had only ever been in a freestyle boat a couple of times before this day and afterwards was so excited!
At the Cardiff Park Jam a year later, Janice, the team manager for Palm, asked if I wanted to join the Groms programme. I was thrilled to say ‘yes of course!’
My Experience:
The Groms programme has a real family feel, reflective of how Palm is. Being part of the programme has allowed me to access a close network of people who all want to help push you and see what you can do. The mentors are there to help you to reach your goals within kayaking.
My mentor, Heidi Walsh, has helped me both on and off the water, giving me tips to improve my kayaking and even created a gym programme to support me.
When it comes to goal setting, the mentors have really helped me with that by showing me how to pace myself. They told me to set one short term goal (a goal that is achievable within the next 4 months) and one longer term goal which you can build up to. My current short-term goal is to learn to hand roll, and my long-term goal is to go on an expedition in Papua New Guinea within the next five years.
Cam Tickner
Early Experience:
I first got into kayaking in 2020 when my brother and I got sit-on-top kayaks. We would head up to Loch Lomond in the evenings after school or on weekends.
I joined the Stirling Canoe Club and started heading along to their weekly pool sessions at the local pool.
I got my first proper kayak (Dagger Axiom) in late 2020 and started venturing out with friends I met from the club. I paddled my local river, the river Leny for the first time, and despite taking two swims, it was the best day I had ever had kayaking! For me, that was where the spark really started. I completed a couple of safety courses and really focused on getting out on the water whenever I could. I started paddling at Pinkston Watersports which is my local white water centre in Glasgow.
Joining the Groms Programme:
My enthusiasm for Bren’s Park Jam at Pinkston in 2022 caught Bren’s attention. I was recognized for my social media enthusiasm because I had shared all the online posts relating to this along with a countdown timer and a daily post.
During the event the team had spotted me helping a younger kid recover his kayak after it had floated away whilst he was getting out onto the pontoon. Following the Park Jam, I was contacted by Janice from Palm asking for my address. The team had noticed me helping this young kid out and wanted to send me some prizes.
Shortly after this is when I first met Sam Clegg who would go on to become my Groms mentor. I would see Sam most weeks at Pinkston where we would chat and he would give me hints and tips on my paddling technique. I took his advice on board and kept working on improving myself. Around June 2023 Sam asked if I wanted to become a part of the Groms Mentoring Program to help with my development. Not knowing exactly what was involved as this was new to everyone I said ‘yeah I do!’ Before I knew it, Janice was contacting me again welcoming me onto the programme.
My Experience:
Being a part of the Groms Programme has been amazing. I always feel supported and encouraged by the team both on and off the water. Janice and Sam keep in regular contact with me and the other mentors are very supportive. I have learned so much from spending time with the Palm team. Being able to speak to all the mentors and wider team paddlers as well as getting specific help from them to improve my paddling skills has been awesome.
I’ve had the opportunity to travel across the UK and Ireland as a Palm Groms representative and paddle with some of the best kayakers around. In 2024 I attended multiple events with Palm including Galway Fest, Dee Fest and Tryweryn Fest as well as competing in the River Moriston race which was sponsored by Palm. Chips, who is another of the mentors, invited me to help at the Welsh Youth Weekend which was then followed by a week of kayaking and surfing around Wales. Then of course, the Park Jam series ran in Autumn which was really cool to be a part of that. It also allowed me to spending valuable time with Sam and the team. Getting that opportunity to paddle as a group was so special.
My current goals for 2025 include traveling as much as I can to gain paddling experiences and participate in as many Palm events as possible. I am super stoked to be entering the British and Scottish Surf Championships and my summer vision is potentially a trip to Norway. If possible, I will also be considering heading back out to Zambia at the end of 2025.
Being a Palm Grom has helped to make many of my goals actually happen and I am excited to see where my paddling takes me next.
Life after being a Palm Grom
Oli Cooper is one of Palm’s ‘older’ groms and by older I mean Oli is 20. Oli has been involved with the programme for a few years now and is now coming to the end of his time as a grom.. Excitingly Oli is now chasing white water on a global scale and is certainly inspiring many paddlers himself. I asked Oli to share a little bit about his own experiences.
Oli Cooper
Early Paddling Experience:
My parents are paddlers, so I’ve always been in boats from a young age. When I was 8 years old, I had lessons at Cardiff White Water Centre before taking up slalom at 12. I did slalom for 6-7 years and really wanted to be a slalom athlete but missed out on the junior team. I wasn’t sure what to do from there.
Luckily, I got in contact with Lyndon Williams and went on a white water kayaking trip to Austria. I’d done a lot of paddling in plastic boats with my parents or with Chips, so white water river running wasn’t too new for me, but that trip with Lyndon to Austria ignited a spark. Since then I’ve just loved getting out on white water as much as possible.
Joining the Groms Programme:
Chips had been my slalom coach for 7 years, and taking me out on white water naturally led to my involvement with Palm and the Groms programme through Chips.
Chips was unofficially mentoring me for quite a while, but it was nice to make it official through the Groms programme. Everything I have learned has been from him, and the contacts he’s given me to push myself further have been amazing.
I took a gap year this year and used the time to kayak as much as possible. Chips has really helped me with this and has been a big part of the reason I wanted to.
Future Aspirations:
I feel that I am moving into the next stage of my kayaking by being able to inspire or even mentor others now. I am more confident with what I have learned over the years and want to teach that to others. Helping younger paddlers during Park Jam to learn new moves such as tailees and tomahawks was really cool. That is something I am keen to do more of now.
I want to share what I’ve learned and share that love of the sport with others. Being mentored by Chips and being a Palm Grom has really helped me develop my kayaking and I wanted to give some of that back if I can.
Insights from the Mentors
A mentoring programme only works with the assistance of the amazing mentors who chose to get involved. We’ve had 3 of those mentors mentioned in this article – Heidi Walsh, Andy ‘Chips’ Kettlewell and Sam Clegg. Chips has kindly agreed to share a bit about his own background, why he chose to get involved as a Groms mentor and his hopes for the programme going forward. Thanks Chips!
Andy ‘Chips’ Kettlewell
My Kayaking Journey:
I got into kayaking via a canoe club in Bedford – Viking Kayak Club. They had a 6 week course when you first started and by the end of those 6 weeks, I really loved kayaking. There was lots of opportunities to try different disciplines of kayaking and I started slalom kayaking when I was 12. I fell in love with the training required and competed in slalom until about the age of 23.
After retiring from competitive slalom, my goals shifted towards river running and expeditions. I’ve just got back from a 2.5 month trip to South America where I focused on developing my waterfall running. On this trip I paddled my new highest personal waterfall – the 80ft Newen – which I was really stoked with. It was just a great trip overall and I am excited to be planning for the next one. You can keep up with my adventures via the Pistyll Productions Youtube channel or the Coffee with Chips: a downstream diary series on Palm’s Youtube channel.
Involvement with the Groms Programme:
I became involved in the Groms programme really naturally. When I stopped paddling slalom for myself competitively, I took up a coaching job. The goal of this job was really simple really; inspire kids and take them kayaking. I was fortunate to already have all my white water qualifications so this made days out on the river really manageable. I was already coaching kids on white water when the Palm Mentorship Programme was introduced. One of the kids I was coaching happened to be Oli Cooper. He had so much passion for kayaking and it made perfect sense for him to become one of the very first Groms.
Mentoring and Impact:
When I think about the Groms Programme, I think about my own experiences as a Grom growing up in paddling. There were so many small interactions I had with other paddlers which really helped to shape both me and my kayaking. On my childhood bedroom wall there is a signed photo of Etienne Stott from 2009 which I still have up. Those moments where others took the time to connect with me as a younger paddler meant so much. They helped me to grow up to be the best version of myself and that is why my motivation for the Groms Programme is so high. I want to give back to others what so many others gave to me when I was growing up.
Currently I have just been mentoring Oli Cooper. Oli was a superb and highly motivated kid who has just been the most stoked on kayaking for as long as I’ve known him. One time when Oli was about 13, we had just got off the Tawe and were doing the shuttle with Oli’s dad who was itching to get on the Mellte and asked if he could join. So we went! We didn’t run the drops that day but it was great for Oli to experience the wildness and remoteness of that river. When Oli was in 6th form, we managed to get loads of river days in.
As he has got older, the focus moved away from supporting Oli on the water to helping him in developing his other skills such as planning out his own expeditions. He went to Guatemala this Summer and it was great helping him to take the lead on planning this. I’d say Oli has now graduated the Groms programme but we will always be good friends.
As the next generation of Groms graduates, we (Palm) do look out for new Groms to join the programme. We hope then that in 10-15 years time, these paddlers are in a position to share their wisdom and give support to the next generation.
Final words
Hopefully this has given you more of an insight into the Palm Groms Mentorship Programme. A huge thank you to the Groms and mentors who helped get involved with this article.
If you want to get involved with the programme – go to Palm’s events, especially Park Jam, join in on their annual Summer of Fun video competition and most importantly, have fun and share the stoke with @palmequipment! From what I’ve learnt, it’s not about being the best kayaker, having the biggest online following or paddling the biggest rapids – all these Groms have that spark that makes them live and breathe kayaking and are genuine, humble people which makes them a great fit for Palm.
Do keep up to date with what the current Groms and wider Palm team are up to via the Palm website and Instagram page. Or even better, have a chat with any of the Palm team at the wide variety of kayaking events they are involved with!
