Mountain Biking with Kings College CCF

Today I was out on the Quantocks delivering Mountain Biking to the Royal Marines section of the Kings College CCF as part of their field day.

The sun was shining and the trails dusty, Perfect!

We ran two sessions with 6 cadets in each session, I also had the assistance of two upper sixth form students who are keen mountain bikers and looking to complete their trail cycle leader award.

We looked at ascending, descending, braking, gear selection and slow speed cycling as well as getting in a few miles across the northern commons.

More Open Boating with Kings College CCF

Today I was back out on the River Tone with the other half of the year 10 Kings College Royal Marines section of the CCF.

The session was almost a mirror image of last weeks session to keep consistency in the delivery of their adventure training. It has been really good to work with a small group to teach solo open canoeing skills.

Next week all 10 will be with me for a session of tandem canoeing, completing a short journey.

Open Canoeing with Kings College CCF

The River Tone in Taunton was the Venue for todays session with the Royal Marines section of the Kings College, Taunton Combined Cadet Forces.

As part of their adventure training I am taking them for various outdoor activities. Due to exams we were light on numbers so I took 5 cadets for some solo open canoeing while Steve took the other 4 for a climbing session at Norton Manor Camp.

All of the cadets did really well considering it was their first time in a canoe solo. In the 2 hour session we looked at various solo strokes, played a few confidence building games and paddled about a mile.

Next week I will take the other 4 canoeing while these cadets go climbing.

Archery at Kings College

Back at King's College, Taunton this afternoon working with the Royal Marines section of their Combined Cadet Forces. 

As the 6th form and the year 11's are on study leave I was left with the year  10's which I decided to do some archery with. The students got to grips with it quickly and as you can see by the last image were hitting the centre of the target regularly.

I was also given a quick mini-bus familiarisation test in the King's buses today ready to take some students canoeing off site after half term.

Intro to Power-kiting with Kings College, Taunton - CCF Royal Marines section

I was back at Kings College, Taunton today after a two week break due to the bank holiday weekend and once again working with the Royal Marines section of their combined cadet force.

I have been brought in to offer some alternative activities as part their adventure training programme.

Today I ran an introduction to Power-kiting, teaching the basics of set up and set down, basic flying with 2 and 4 line ram air kites and a bit of theory around the wind window.

We started by discussing the wind window, wind direction and strength and quickly moved on to the students flying some small 1.4m 2 line kites. It took a little while to get used to the techniques but once mastered we moved onto some 1.2m 4 line kites where the students managed to fly the kites in smooth figure 8 cycles and some even had a go at using the brakes to turn the kite.

If the weather conditions are right in a few weeks time I aim to let them loose with a range of 4 line kites from 1.8m - 3.8m.