Reports

ANDY LAIRD -‘’Rapid Blocs’’ 1st April

Today’s talk was a fascinating account by Andy Laird of how he had designed and developed a new way of creating canoe slalom courses using ‘Rapid Blocs’. He began by giving us a brief overview of how slalom courses are made using obstacles which create rapids and other changes in water direction and how these used to be made of concrete. The speed of water created by pumping water from a lake to up to 5.5metres above the water course before opening the dam and letting gravity carry the water down the course.
The weight and awkwardness of these blocs made designing changes to slalom courses both difficult and very expensive.
Andy explained that his background in civil engineering, particularly in the designing of sewerage systems coupled with his love of kayaking gave him a unique insight into the problems and potential solutions in developing courses. The concrete used in the 1980’s had given way to the use of bollards developed by the French in the 1990’s but they were still heavy and cumbersome and were far from flexible.
Andy was able to look at all of the problems existing systems had and came up with a mixture of changes which have revolutionised the sport….
The first ‘Rapid Blocs’ were made in 2009 in anticipation for the 2012 Olympics and are made of moulded plastic which are more easily manoeuvreable, can be joined together to create different effects on the water and are held in place on a network of tracks built into the watercourse. His initial investment of £20,000 and 200 blocs has grown and has since seen them used in the Rio, Tokio and Paris Olympics. He has designed kayak training courses all around the world and has diversified into creating waterway rescue training courses too.
Andy’s talk was well delivered with lots of interesting photos and everyone really enjoyed listening to him.