Competition - A Brief Guide
Scotland is an excellent venue for competitive canoeing with events taking place throughout the year on rivers, canals, lochs and sea at some of Scotland's most beautiful locations. There are several disciplines of canoe racing using all types of canoe and kayak and every type of water available. Events cater for paddlers of all ages and abilities, newcomers are always welcome and coaching is available. Here is a short description of some of these disciplines and follow the links to each disciplines pages for more information.
The Olympic discipline of slalom is one of the most exciting branches of canoeing where the paddler has to steer the boat down a set course as quickly as possible, passing through a numbered series of downstream and upstream gates in the process. Each gate comprises two hanging poles at a set distance apart. Races take place on white water on both natural and man made rivers.
The Olympic discipline of sprint racing is all about paddling your canoe or kayak as fast as possible in a straight line over distances of 200m, 500m, 1000m, 6km & 10km. Sprint Racing takes place on flat water at regattas in single, double and four seater canoes and kayaks.
Canoe Polo is the fastest growing competitive canoeing discipline not only in the UK but also worldwide. Fabulous to play, and full of spectator interest, Polo combines paddling and ball handling skills within an exciting contact team game where tactical and positional play are a fascinating ingredient of this thoroughly entertaining sport.
Marathon racing is an event combining skill, stamina and tactics and can be enjoyed by paddlers of all ages and abilities. Marathon covers a wide range of events with distances from a few miles to over 100. Scotland is a fantastic venue for marathon racing with events taking place on lochs, canals and rivers.
Wild water racing is the canoeing equivalent of downhill skiing. Races take place on grade II to IV water – the exact difficulty depending on water levels. Pace yourself correctly over a 10 – 25 minute Classic event or test your speed and boat control over a 2 minute Sprint event.
Through sportscotland lottery funding the SCA has a number of of performance coaches who coach specific slalom and sprint athletes to help them gain access to the GB lottery funded performance programmes.