C-Forum

I am considering a paddling holiday in Switzerland next summer.

I have been looking at Kanuschule a company who do paddling classes and trips. They are based on the Vorderrhein near Chur. There is a handy railway line running along the river and you can use the train to take your canoes up river, sounds perfect to me.

Has any body paddled with the Company and can recommend them or otherwise? Its a long way from the England to know if they are any good. I think they are OK, Kent Ford from the US occasionally teaches there, though not in 2005.

Any ex-Kanuschule students out there?
Also is it best to go in May or June? I think may is busy due to local Holidays but is it too busy?



Sandie

Sandie,

I am originally from Switzerland and I learned a lot of my paddling skills while taking courses at the Kanuschule Versam, before moving to Canada 8 years ago.

Their instructors are great, friendly and very skilled paddlers, some of them used to be world class slalom or whitewater paddlers in their 20's. As far as I know most of their OC instructors are ACA certified.

They have hosted courses by Kent Ford as well as Bob Foote.
I don't know how their language skills are, but most people in Switzerland, especially younger ones, have basic knowledge of English, so you should be o.k.

I took 4 courses with them over a period of 3 years and I can only recommend them!

As for the best time to go, since the river is glacier fed, they usually have good water levels well into the summer, however you will have to wear a wetsuit, as the water is cold.

As far as the number of people is concerned, they limit the number of students to 5 per instructor in solo boats (I think 8 in tandems), so mthe classes themselves will not be overfilled, however the river is popular and therefore always busy, particularly on long weekends, and there are rafts, too.

I always had a good time when paddling the Vorderrhin, be it during a course or just boating privately.

I do, based on my experience in the early to mid 90's, highly recommend the Kanuschule Versam, and since it is still run by the same group of people, I don't think this has changed.

martin

HI Sandie

just moved to Switzerland and haven't got to paddle yet (no fair) but I'll be here and looking to paddle next year if you would like to meet up and paddle either side of your course (if that is what you end up doing). I live about 20mins south of Bern. I am slowly hooking up with a local paddling group and should have some good contacts by then. I paddle OC1 and C1 and my wife paddles OC1. We also do some OC2 occassionally, but normally find it works better in solo boats.

On the other side of the stick, my wife and I are hoping to come to your part of the world (well mainly Scotland to be precise) next summer and also get some paddling in. Any recommendations...we're probably looking at late June or early July.

BTW - I think school holidays here don't start until July (atleast based on the fact that school doesn't start again until October), so June shouldn't be too busy.

Send me an email or PM me through the forum if you are interested

Cheers

Matt

Hi Sandie,
you have to go there! I am a Swiss C1 boater and I used to paddled the Vorderrhein River several times per year. I never joined a course, but I know the guys who run the Kanuschule personally. Their courses are definitely the best you can get, especially if you are single blader. Some of their instructors rank very high on C1 rodeos, others are more 'expedition' type of paddlers. Several friends of mine attended their courses and most of them were very pleased. Just make sure that you choose the right course level.

By the way, you might want to paddle other rivers in Switzerland, e.g. the Moesa River is about 1.5h away from Versam and it is of similar difficulty. You might hook up with people of the Swiss Open Canoe Club. They organize a weekend there (see http://www.soc.ch/a050611.htm, in German). Unfortunately I can not introduce you to them since I moved a month ago from Switzerland to Ontario.

Dirk