Cornwall College Watersports Trials a HUGE Sucess!

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Who
Students from across Cornwall College including Falmouth, Camborne and St Austell attended the first ever Watersports trials for elite watersports teams to represent Cornwall College at events in Sailing, Kayaking, Windsurfing and Surfing. In total there were 35 of Cornwalls top watersports students from different courses at different sites.

What
The trials were set up to attract students who have some skill and or experience in watersports so as they can take part in regular professional competitive training on Wednesday afternoons from top watersports coaches and prepare them to complete in regattas and competitions in the South West and maybe further afield after Christmas.

Each sport group underwent some skill training before undertaking a competitive test, the kayakers were tested on a kayaking ergo machine connected to a computer to ascertain there Max and average power output over a 100m sprint then took part in time trials on the water to ascertain the final team of seven to represent Cornwall College. The sailors undertook some skills training before undertaking a knockout style regatta to choose the final top six sailors who will make up the Cornwall College sailing team, the Windsurfers underwent the same process and the surfers travelled to Gwithain beach to impress the judges with there skill with a final team of six to represent the college.

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Matt Chambers (2nd year BTEC National Diploma in Watersports at FMS) said “this has been a fantastic day, I have done lots of kayaking but never considered how much my technique could be improved to make me faster, the ergo machine was brilliant and has given me a benchmark to work towards beating. I really enjoyed the on water training and am really excited about the prospect of representing Cornwall College at future kayaking competitions.

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Steve Bowens (Curriculum Manager, Watersports at FMS) said: “it was great to see all these guys out pitting themselves against each other trying to secure there place on the team, Stithians Lake kindly offered us the use of there excellent facilities to conduct the trials and allowed us to pick a team in each of the disciplines, the students were brilliant, they were so motivated and eager to learn tips to beat each other it was very satisfying. Now we have our teams we have some of the best coaches on the country to train them and prepare them for competitions in the new year, the kayakers will be taking part in some sea kayaking races going into the winter and then surf kayak events and marathons in the new year, the sailors and windsurfers will be organising several inter college regattas and the surfers will be taking part in college and open surf comps, I cant weight to see the guys flying the Cornwall College flag at these events and showing everyone just how much talent we have in the South West”.