Good news for North American paddlers and coaches: Paddlesports North America (PNA) is now the official Delivery Center for British Canoeing (formerly known as BCU) programming in North America and will be responsible for administering British Canoeing programs in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
This is an enormous development, and one that’s been in process for several years. It means that we can now promote, train and support coaches to deliver BCU programming and maintain all achievement records on this continent, and be more responsive to the needs of North American paddlers and coaches.
If you are a current BCUNA or BCU member, you can become a PNA member before your membership expires, and you won’t be charged for the overlapping time. Just fill out the membership form and provide a photocopy of your existing membership card, with the expiration date clearly visible, and you’ll become a PNA member right away. On the date you other membership expires, you can renew through PNA.
Check out the new PNA website for information about PNA, British Canoeing, and all the documents you need as a coach or a paddler. There’s a list of North American coaches, a calendar of British Canoeing events, membership information and lots more.
Congratulations to everyone who worked long and hard to make this possible, on both sides of the pond!
For the under-initiated like myself, could someone spill a few digital drop of ink on the benefits of joining? And not just benefits in the “what I get” sense (tho that, too), but also in the larger sense of what the organization brings back to the community. Many thanks!
Thanks for asking! You’ll find the answers to a lot of your questions at the new website, paddlesportsnorthamerica.org, but we can also spill a little virtual ink for you. The BCU offers a progressive approach to paddler and coach development. Star awards are internationally recognized benchmarks; often trips are pegged to a particular star level to ensure that participants are well matched to the challenge. The early star awards (1 and 2) enable paddlers to gain multi-craft skills, rooted in the fundamentals that apply to all paddlesport and emphasizing safety, effectiveness and efficiency. Later awards (3 through 5) focus on a single craft and include seamanship, leadership and more advanced conditions. The coaching system trains instructors to deliver progressive sessions, starting with foundational skills and techniques and then building along a long-term paddler development pathway. Everything is grounded in research about how we learn technical and tactical skills, and the psychological as well as physical obstacles and opportunities. Joining PNA makes you a part of a system that will help you progress as a paddler and/or coach to reach your own goals, whatever those are, in recreation, competition or fitness.