The Vigor Kayaking group trains on Tuesday and Friday mornings at 6:30am (7am in winter), and Wednesday afternoon / evening - 4pm during non daylight savings time and 6:30pm during daylight savings time. We kayak the Yarra river starting from the Fairfield Boathouse and the sessions take about an hour. We also meet on weekends, once you are on the email list you will be informed regularly of weekend training and events.

Many of us are members of the Ivanhoe Northcote Canoe Club (INCC). You can join INCC if you don't have your own equipment and make use of the facilities. After three sessions of trying out your new sport you can join this club, just let us know when you're ready.

Vigor also has a full range of kayaks for hire, if you'd like to see what boats are available check out the KAYAK HIREpage.

Joining Vigor Kayaking  

You can join the Vigor Kayaking group by becoming a Vigor Member for $99 a year. This gives you access to a year of coached sessions and support for any events you wish to do. It also gives you discounts at the Vigor Clinic, to make sure you can keep up the paddling.

Kayaking doesn't have to be a competitive sport, it can just be recreational. We want you to enjoy your kayaking and the fitness benefits it brings. We think that our kayak tours are an ideal goal to train for, you can check out our KAYAK TOURpage.

Supported Events 

Kayaking is a relatively small sport but there are many great events which you can find out about via the Canoe Victoria website.

Winter series caters for all levels so speak with Liam about getting started, it's the fastest way to improve.

Vigor is now organising Multi-Sport events including a kayak leg, just view the events section on the home page.

The Kayaking Session 

The sessions are for beginners to intermediate paddlers, those wanting to join the group with no experience will need introduction lessons (see below). 

Tuesday & Wednesday sessions

We meet at INCC or the docking on the Yarra below the boathouse and paddle up river for about a 2km warm up which gets us to a straight section of the river. We then do efforts focusing on technique, as you improve this can become more of a speed session. We then paddle back for our 2km warm down.

Friday & weekend sessions

We meet at INCC or the docking on the Yarra below the boathouse and paddle down river towards Dights Falls (about 7km). Depending on ability and time you turn back wherever suits you. Studley Park Boathouse is often the target, making a nice 10km round trip in the hour. Liam and or Rachel will be there for technique advice and give the session plan, e.g. sprint the straights and recover on the bends.

Kayaking Lessons 

Liam and Rachel take regular group sessions for $40 each (up to 10 people) but if those times don't suit you we can take 1-3 people out for 1 hour at an arranged time, the cost can be shared ($80 for 1, $90 for 2 or $120 for 3), Vigor members get a $10 discount when it's a one on one. Depending on ability it will take 1-3 lessons to become independent and ready to join the group. There will be a focus on safety and technique. We offer lessons with sit on top boats or sit in boats.

In addition to this you can add another hour session for video analysis, this can be organised as a group session so you can learn from each other. 

If you would like to make a time or have any questions Liam and Rachel will be happy to help and get you started.