During 2023, BCAB will be sharing a range of webinars aimed at those looking to paddle overseas or exploring places to paddle.
Each webinar will cover the opportunities to paddle throughout the country, including types of environment available and grades, visa requirements and byelaws, logistics of getting to and in and around the country, as well as local guide top tips.
Join our first webinar on 15th February, led by Bob Timms, exploring paddling in France. Book online here.
Bob Timms
Bob has been kayaking and canoeing for 41 years, having started aged 11 in East London. He has worked in the Outdoor Leisure Industry since 1988 in both Paddlesport and in the Mountains (walking , climbing and biking) as a Leader, Guide, Coach and Trainer. His paddlesport passions span sea kayaking, canoeing and white water kayaking and have taken him to Peru, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Nepal and India, but it is Europe, and especially France, that has always held his passion since he first visited to work on the Ardeche River as a canoeing Instructor in 1989. Over the following couple of years, he fell in love with France – skiing, climbing, ice-climbing, white water kayaking and rafting, sometimes working, or just for fun.
When a few years as the Director of Coaching at the National White Water Centre in Wales came to an end, he took a year off and sea kayaked from the UK to Athens in Greece.
A full time Instructional post at the National Mountain Centre in the early 2000’s was his final jumping off point to live permanently in France. He moved to the Southern French Alps in 2004, as self-employed Adventure guide, starting a family with his wife.
A few years later he relocated to the Ardeche in France to work as the full time technical advisor for PGL Travel, the UKs biggest Outdoor Activity company. He has remained there since, working for PGL full time and private guiding and training in his own time. Bob remains an active white water paddler and professional, having gained French equivalence for his UK Qualifications for advanced white water leadership and training, road and mountain biking and International Mountain Leading. You can find him paddling in the Alps and Verdon in the summer and waiting for rain at home in Joyeuse (Cevennes) in the winter.
Join us on 15th February, 7pm – 8.30pm UK time, to hear about paddling in France.
Keep an eye out for more overseas webinars throughout 2023.
