Vigor Kayaking 

Liam is a qualified Level 1 flatwater kayak coach and leads the Vigor Kayaking group. 

The Vigor Kayaking group trains every Tuesday and Friday morning on the Yarra river starting from the Fairfield Boathouse at 6:30am and finishing around 7:30-8am. In daylight savings time we change the Tuesday morning session to a Wednesday evening starting at 6:30pm. In winter we start at 7am so there is enough light. 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 3 sessions of trying out your new sport you can join this club, just let Liam know when you're ready.

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

Joining Vigor Kayaking  

1. You can join the Vigor Kayaking group by becoming a Vigor Member for $77 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.

2. You can join Melbourne Adventure (MA) . MA is a multi-sport club set up to introduce people to a wide range of endurance sports with quality coaching. This option will suit those that compete in other sports such as running and cycling. 

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(non DLS time) /Wednesday(DLS time)

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 a speed session. We then paddle back for our 2km warm down.

Friday

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 where ever suits you. Studley Park Boathouse is often the target, making a nice 10km round trip in the hour. Liam will be there for technique advice and give the session plan, e.g. sprint the straights and recover on the bends.

Kayaking Lessons 

Liam can take 1-3 people out for 1 hour, the cost can be shared ($70 for 1 $90 for 2 or $120 for 3), Vigor members get a $10 discount. 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, very important for kayaking in TK and K 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 will be happy to help and get you started.

Download Timetable