DEVA Canoe Club was started in May 1999 by a small group of canoe coaches in Chester who wanted to answer a demand from local paddlers for a recreational club to allow them to get in touch with each other and organise trips down rivers, on the sea and open canoeing. The Club keeps in touch via E-Mail and Facebook.
The Club has over 200 members, a number of whom are coaches or very experienced paddlers, so it is easy for new members to get help and advice.
There is pool canoeing at the Northgate Arena in Chester on Monday and Tuesday evenings during school term time (20:00 to 21:00). The Monday sessions are organised and staffed by DEVA Canoe Club coaches and this is a very good way for our new members to get their skills developed in a safe and warm environment. Most of our new members come through these Northgate Arena sessions and through our website.
Whilst DEVA Canoe Club is solely an adult club (minimum age for membership is 18), there is the Chester Riverside Canoe Club which caters for younger paddlers. This junior club actually provides us with new members as their members grow up.
Club fees are £15 per annum, with an extra £5 for each additional family member, and the Club year runs from 1st. April to 31st March. The fees cover administration costs and affiliation to the BCU, as well as providing equipment and courses.
From April until September we run club sessions on a Thursday evening from 18:00 until the light fades at our base, The Riverside Centre, Lower Park Road, Chester CH4 7BB where we use the River Dee and the Weir. We also run sessions on Sunday afternoons at The Riverside Centre and also organise river and sea kayaking trips.
We have a wide range of Club boats and equipment, including sea kayaks, open boats, kayaks, sit-on-top and stand-up paddle boards, all of which can be borrowed during club sessions in order to be able to help people get started in the sport.
During the summer we run a lot of training sessions, both for beginners as well as the more competent. We also organise training days for Canoe Safety, White Water Safety, Sea Kayaking Safety, First Aid and Coach Development.
During the year we run numerous River, Sea, Canal and Lake trips. For example: Llangollen, Tryweryn, Teifi, Tyne, Dart, Wye, Severn, Vrynwy, Clywedog, Conwy and Llugwy. We also have many sea trips round Anglesey, Conwy, Hilbre Island and lake trips to Windermere and Ullswater. We run a Club weekend away each year, based in a bunkhouse in the Lakes.
The main aim of the Club is to get like-minded paddlers together for fun trips and to encourage people to enjoy canoeing. We are solely recreational as the other local canoe club, Chester Sailing and Canoe Club, provides competitive paddling in White Water racing and Marathon racing.
We hope this information is helpful to you and that we can offer what you are looking for in canoeing. More information can be found on the website, or use the contact us page.