BCU 3 Star - Open Canoe

Successful completion of the BCU 3 Star Open Canoe award means that you can consider yourself an intermediate paddler. The award requires you to be able to tackle moderate open water and easy moving water as part of a led group; which includes having the group awareness skills to be able to assist in the smooth running of such a trip. You will have to be able to deal with wind of around force 2-3. The assessment will include: forward and backward paddling, moving sideways, changing direction, poling, sailing and crossing simple flows. For the full course syllabus, please see the links below.

The PDF documents below give more information on what is involved in the award.

3 Star Open Canoe Syllabus

3 Star Open Canoe Trainer's Notes

3 Star Open Canoe Assessor's Notes

On successful completion of the 3 star award, you will receive a certificate from the BCU by post. Certificate fees charged by the BCU will be collected from successful candidates by the coach at the end of the assessment (£5 for BCU / CW members or £10 for non-members). Please note that it may take several weeks for your certificate to arrive.

Find a course

Volunteer coaches or club members wishing to work towards some coaching awards can access the 3 star award in any discipline at a heavily discounted price through the Community Coach scheme. To see dates and contact details for all of the 3 Star Open Canoe courses that have been registered with us, check out the course dates list or find a provider.

Providing BCU 3 Star Open Canoe

Coaches who are old scheme BCU Level 3 Canoe or higher can provide the BCU 3 star open canoe award - all you have to do is register with us using the star award assessor registration form.

BCU UKCC Level 2 coaches with their Moderate Water Endorsement in Open Canoe, who have registered to provide the BCU 2 star award (using the star award assessor registration form) and have run at least one 2 star assessment can request a logbook to work towards providing the BCU 3 Star Open Canoe. Once you have the logbook, you are required to observe a minimum of one 3 Star Open Canoe course but may observe and assist on as many as you like before being assessed. Each course you observe or assist on will be noted in the logbook. Once you feel you are ready to take full responsibility for running the course, you should get a registered 3 star sea provider to watch you running a course; if they think you are ready to deliver the course independently, they can sign the final endorsement signature required in the logbook before you return it to us for approval.

All 3 star assessments should be registered with us prior to the course taking place. We will then give you a Course Authorisation Number and can send you a 3 star course schedule if you do not yet have one.