want to canoe?

What time should we check in for our trip?

Check-in time and locations

You will need to arrive earlier than your booking time as the other members of your party will need to sign some paperwork accepting our want to canoe? Hire Terms, Conditions and Rules. giving you the time to be kitted out correctly with your safety equipment and paddles. You may also need to pack your bags into water resistant containers or dry bags.

Half Day Trips (Hay-on-Wye)

• Please arrive 15 minutes and no more than 30 minutes prior to your departure time (e.g. 10:00 am booking slot means you should arrive no later than 09:45 am).
• Parking – please proceed down the drive which has slight left hand bend drive through a bottom gate, the office is immediately to your right and parking is towards the right further along on the grassed area.
• Toilets – are available on site by the parking area.
• Drinking water is also available from the taps in the parking area.

Full Day Trips (Whitney-on-Wye)

• Please arrive 15 minutes and no more than 30 minutes prior to your departure time (e.g. 10:00 am booking slot means you should arrive no later than 09:45 am).
• Parking: Please park in the overflow carpark and not the main carpark. If arriving from the A438 (Brecon or Hereford) this is accessed through the gate on the left hand side (by the black house) just before the toll bridge traffic lights.  If arriving by crossing over the Whitney Toll Bridge the entrance is on the right hand side of just after the barrier.
• Toilets are available on site.
• Drinking water is also available

Multi-Day Trips (Hay-on-Wye)

• Please arrive 30 minutes and no more than 30 minutes prior to your departure time (e.g. 09:00 am booking slot means you should arrive no later than 08:30 am). As you will have more to pack than a regular trip.
• Parking – please proceed down the drive which has slight left hand bend drive through a bottom gate, the office is immediately to your right and parking is towards the right further along on the grassed area.
• Toilets – are available on site by the parking area.
• Drinking water is also available from the taps in the parking area and by the toilets.

What is the minimum age my child can be?

The youngest member of your crew can be 5 years old.

What are the adult to child ratios needed to paddle ?

This is a great question, and truthfully will depend on quite of variety of factors such as technical advice, legalities, licensing and insurance requirements! Importantly we also take into consideration operational issues such as river levels, weather conditions, age of the children and their capabilities.

When hiring out any watercraft children’s safety is absolutely paramount! We have a duty of care for all our hire customers and we will not put young lives at risk unnecessarily. Paddling on a river is a watersport and it has inherent risks associated with it. So we have set requirements for paddling with anyone under the age of 18.

The general rule of thumb for understanding ratios is measured against the assessment question “would a child be capable of looking after themselves if something was not to go as expected?” Therefore, the water sports industry draws from experiences and their learning outcomes, technical advice from seasoned professionals, and peak paddle sports bodies, we; all private paddlers, hire companies, and delivery partners have a clear set of recommendations and guidelines for paddling with children. So with all this in mind here are some examples and guides to want to canoes? ratios:

• Firstly there must always be an adult in any of our watercraft! We do not permit the hire of watercraft to anyone under the age of 18, they must be accompanied by an adult who can swim at least 25 meters fully clothed.
• We would allow (conditionally) one adult and one child to paddle together in the same watercraft as long as the child is aged 10 years or older, and if the hire is during safe summer river levels and weather conditions.^
• If the child is younger than 10 you will need two adults, there are no exceptions to this. From technical experience and the general industry consensus, children younger than 10 would not be capable if an unexpected situation or problem arises meaning that the child was inadvertently on their own and separated from the lone adult with them.
• A family (two adults and two children). If any of the children are younger than 10, then we would raft two canoes together (see “What is a raft? later on this web page). Rafting ensures that the two canoes have the lowest probability of being capsized. Making for a safer journey for you and your family.
• A family  (1 adult 2 children)we really do appreciate that some single parents or a parent visiting the area alone with their children would love to paddle. We would do our best to try and help you, but there are significant restrictions and limitations on such a hire. It would best for you to make contact with us directly to discuss this. We will ask you some questions relating to your situation to see if we can help, for example the ages of the children, etc.  Please do understand that if you have two young children and just one adult it will not be possible to hire a watercraft from us.

My child has a paddle UK (British Canoeing) membership and qualifications, can they use one of your kayaks?

We greatly appreciate the achievement your under 18 has done attain their qualifications! However, we still are unable to allow a non adults the ability to paddle solo. This is unfortunately relates to licensing and insurances and not the capabilities of your child.

^Notes: Please be aware as we all expect not all children are the same. A risk assessment is made by the want to canoe? team leader responsible for launching all canoeists from a designated site. If the team leader in their assessment does not feel satisfied that a participant child or adult meets our and or the industry safety standards, they will not allow the hire to proceed. Their decision is final and the participant or the whole booking will be fully refunded.

I have Castaway or Robinson Caruso vibes, what on earth is a raft?

A raft is a wonderful way to travel down the River Wye. We most often use them for families with small children, making it a safe option for all. However, that has not stopped adults from enjoying a really relaxed float down the river in one of our rafts!

A raft is basically a very stable platform with a very low chance of capsizing. Now you might imagine bits of wood all tied together with some barrels underneath to keep it float! Well, yes, that is a raft for sure, but not one of our types of raft! Really what we are doing is rafting canoes! This is when we place two canoes side by side. It is held together by placing a beam of wood, called a rafting spar, across both canoes. The rafting spa is then tied to the wooden brace in the boat, which is either called the yoke in our 2 man canoes or the thwart in our 3 man canoes. The rafting spar on its underside has a solid 30 centimetre block of wood that acts as a spacer between both of the canoes, so they don’t bump together. We tie both end of the canoes together at the bow (front of the canoe) and the stern (back of the canoe) so they won’t drift apart. Hey presto, you have a stable pontoon, that travels down the river.

Is it hard to paddle, it looks heavy!

No, not at all, the additional weight is just the rafting spare which is about 10kg, not even a small pooch! A raft glides just like a normal un-rafted canoe. Paddling is done on the outside of each canoe, so when paddling down stream, those in the left hand canoe will paddle on the left of their canoe only, and those in the right hand canoe will be paddling only on the right of theirs. Depending on the configuration (4 person or 6 person). In the 4 person configuration both adults sit in the rear seats and kiddos in the front seats. In the 6 person configuration adults sit in rear two seats first and then any additional adults would sit in the front two seats and kids in the middle or a similar combination.

Do we have to make our own raft?

We look after that for you, and we will explain to the adults how to take it apart if needed. It is very very simple and can be done in no time at all.