New OWW Courses for 2025

After the initial launch of Online White Water last summer we couldn’t be happier with the feedback we have been getting from our subscribers. We were super excited to get the platform live and are thrilled with the reception, massive thanks to all our subscribers and anyone who has supported OWW. We are now looking forward to a busy year of creating some awesome and exciting new courses for all our OWW subscribers.

Starting in a few weeks we kick off filming for our new Reading the River course. Working with Jamie Greenhalgh from Paddle 365, the aim of this course is to share skills, knowledge and tips to help white water paddlers plan safe and clean lines down the river. We’ll look at the grading systems and guidebooks, how to recognise river features and their effects on us as paddlers, reading from the boat and when it’s time to inspect from the bank, how to decide the cleanest route down a challenging section and tactics for reference points in rapids. Jamie has spent many years as an expedition guide and coach helping clients with tactics for picking and making clean lines down rivers, he’s the perfect person for the job.

Next up in spring and we are heading out to mainland Europe to film two courses. A Rolling Course and a course on Strokes and Kayak Control. Our rolling course will start with the very basics of gaining confidence being upside down in our kayaks before moving on to efficient body movements and the fundamentals of the roll. Next we’ll look at working with a partner to start to develop your roll before becoming independent. We’ll look at common faults and problem solving any issues with your roll and once happy we’ll share some tips on how to bombproof your roll ready for moving water. This course will be ideal for paddlers looking to start learning to roll or kayakers who want to develop or improve their existing roll.

Our new Strokes and Kayak Control lessons are themed around building a toolbox of essential paddle skills ready for the river. We will include lessons on strokes for moving the boat sideways, rudder strokes, efficient forwards paddling strokes, using the blade for support and preventing a capsize, turning strokes like sweeps and more. Building a solid tool box of paddle strokes is essential for all paddlers and this course promises to be a deep dive into the detail of all these fundamentals.

Lastly we start filming in late spring/early summer for our awesome new Drops Course. We are mega excited for these inspirational new lessons into the world of running drops and kayak freefall. For this course we are thrilled to be working with two super stars from the white water world, Red Bull athlete Adrian Mattern and NRS team paddler Laura Hofberger. Both Adrian and Laura are top of their game when it comes to running drops and have masses of knowledge and skills to pass on. In this course we are going to break down the intricacies of running drops and freefall. We will look at the phycology of running drops, how to assess dangers and safety, looking at the lead in line and how to control our kayak in free fall, how to set up safety and knowing when to walk away from a drop. These lessons are sure to educate, inspire and get any aspiring drops paddler psyched.

All of these courses take lots of time planning, filming and editing and we are really excited to see them sitting alongside all the great content at Online White Water. 2025 is shaping up to be an awesome year and we can’t wait to get stuck in and back on the River!!