Equipment
To get started you don’t need to purchase any gear and you can buy equipment one item at a time once you know that your child is going to stick to paddling. The Club will provide Personal Floatation Device’s (PFD’s) , paddles and suitable craft for learners to get started with their paddling.
Club Kayaks
Our club kayaks are the entry point for most new paddlers, enabling paddlers new to the sport to learn to paddle and allow progression as they get more experienced. The stock we hold start as stable TK1s and move through to older style K1 boats. As paddlers gain experience this fleet enables paddlers to develop paddling technique for racing kayaks. The Club charges $50 annually for the use of a shared club boat.
We have a selection of team boats which include K2s and K4s to allow paddlers to develop team racing skills and compete at regattas in teams.
This club fleet has been built up over a number of years and includes a range of different types of kayaks. These have been purchased by or donated to the club for the use of all members.
Boat Ownership
As paddlers gain experience they may want to purchase their own boat, which the club recommends as you progress into the senior training group. The benefits of owning your own boat are that it will be the correct size for you and it is not shared with other paddlers. When it comes time to purchase a kayak, Trade Me and the CRNZ website are places to start when looking for second-hand boats.
For new boats, we recommend the NELO AND VAJDA brands. A link to the New Zealand agents is listed below.
Day Two - www.daytwo.co.nz
Vajda Agent
iPaddle - ipaddle.co.nz
Nelo Agent
Private Kayak Storage
The club has one container available for personal boat storage. Due to the limited space storage is only offered to club members regularly training at the river.
Club storage offers the convenience of having your kayak on hand for training, reducing the wear and tear, time lost transporting your kayak on a car and saves storing the long craft in a sheltered environment. The club accepts no responsibility for damage of private kayaks held in club storage. There is a annual hire fee of $25 for use of club storage. Storage is in strong demand, so if you would like to store your kayak at the club refer to contact details below. The storage database is managed by the club equipment manager. Please refer all queries to infohbkayak@gmail.com
Senior Training Group Equipment
The Senior Training Group uses 'Training Peaks' to share training schedules and to assess performance. When entering this squad it is expected that you start to purchase the following.
- A paddle- Jantex Gamma or Rio are recommended, however, any tear dropped flat water model will do. Millennium paddles are a local company and produce a well-priced alternative.
- A GPS watch which needs the ability to record cadence, heart rate and have a range of functions. Most club members have second-hand models (around $100 on trade me) of the Garmin XT 310 or XT 910. Through Garmin Connect it allows you to upload your training data to the Training Peaks app for analysis.
- A cadence sensor (Vaaka). Once you have a watch, talk to Coach Ben Bennett and he will organise the correct one for your watch.