Canoe Wales is the national governing body for paddle sport in Wales. We:

  • Manage the National White Water Centre which is located on the river Tryweryn in Bala, North Wales
  • Represent the interests of our club and individual members
  • Advocate on behalf of the interests of the sport in Wales
  • Provide coaching and development programmes from local to international level
  • Stage national and international competitions.

BCU 3 Star - White Water

Successful completion of the BCU 3 Star White Water award means that you can consider yourself an intermediate paddler. The award requires you to be able to tackle grade two white 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. Topics covered will include: forward and backward paddling, moving the boat sideways, breaking in and out, ferry gliding and rolling. For the full course syllabus, please see below.

Please note, you should be able to swim to undertake this award.

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

3 Star White Water Syllabus

3 Star White Water Trainer's Notes

3 Star White Water 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

The BCU 3 Star White Water course is often run by coaches within clubs and centres, so before checking elsewhere, it is probably worth  contacting your nearest club. 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 White Water courses that have been registered with us, check out the course dates list or find a provider.

Providing BCU 3 Star White Water

Coaches who are old scheme BCU Level 3 Kayak or higher can provide the BCU 3 star 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 White Water Kayak, 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 White Water. Once you have the logbook, you are required to observe a minimum of one 3 Star White Water 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 white water 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.