Vitalstatistics
Getafix runs courses at various locations near Corwen in North Wales, including Bala, Cerrigydrudion and Anglesey.
See below for profiles on our fixers: Leo Hoare | Pete Firth | Richard Witheridge | Darryll Shaw | Phil Hadley | Anthony Ing | Andy Ing | Nicole Hendriksen | Mark Anderson
Leo Hoare
Leo got his addiction for paddling when he was nine, when he joined Proteus canoe club in Peterborough.
Back then slalom was the thing to do. Leo competed to a high level and represented Great Britain for 6 years. In those years he raced and trained all over the world, achieved a forth place in the junior worlds, a place in the squad for the Barcelona Olympics and many wins at junior internationals. He finished chasing sticks in 1992 after appearing on the programme "Paddles Up", and being ranked in the top 10 UK seniors. From 1992 to 1994 he coached the welsh junior and senior squads and the British intermediate slalom teams.
The seed had been planted to see and experience other places and cultures at an early age and discovering the open canoe and sea kayak has allowed him to go on some amazing adventures: A solo circumnavigation of Easter Island in a 10-year-old White water boat, the Rio Grande in Mexico, kayak safaris in Africa and expeditions to S.E Greenland, Norway and New Zealand is just some of the adventures he has had.
Leo loves people; That's why he feels that coaching is the best job in the world, and paddling is and always will be in his blood.
Leo has contributed chapters to the BCU Canoe Kayak Handbook and the BCU Coaching Handbook, and made smaller contributions to the books Top Tips for Coaches and Canoe Games. Recently Leo has been involved with the development of the new UKCC coaching awards, producing resources, running pilots and fine tuning the structure.
Leo co-directed and produced the DVD Sea Kayak Safety with paddling partner Olly Sanders.
Before setting up Getafix he worked for Plas Y Brenin for 7 years and freelanced for centres country wide providing staff training.
I first met Pete 6 years ago when I assessed him for his BCU Five Star Award in Syphon Canyon, Soca, Slovenia. He impressed me then as being one of the hottest prospects for both his own paddling and on how solid he was has a leader. Since then he has finished his degree in Outdoor Ed., had a stint at PYB and now lectures outdoor education at The University of Central Lancs.
Richard Witheridge
Rich is our canoe expert with a huge background of paddlesport
experience.
Paddling since the age of nine, he now mangages an
activity centre in Llangollen. Richard is a very well liked and
respected coach educator who has for the past 3 years worked alongside
Ray Mears in the Aredece (I think this was to help him stay upright
and keep him out the cake shops!).
Darryll Shaw
If a world famous Dutch brewery did jobs, mine would probably be the best in the world!
I currently work for PGL travel, managing the organisations Paddle sport and Instructor training programmes, in my spare time I work for Getifix running UKCC/BCU coach education, safety and personal skills courses, in the time in between I work for the BCU training and assessing the next generation of tutors and assessors.
I Love coaching people and love showing people how to take their passion and teach it to others, I im just really lucky I get to do it all of the time and still get to go paddling!
I have worked, paddled and coached all over Europe and can’t wait to continue adding locations to the list, I have been teaching and coaching for 18 years and draw on these experience’s to provide technical advise to over 20 centres as well as providing the best course’s in the best company’s.
Phil Hadley
"Foxy" is from Dudley, he is NOT a Brummy and was the front man to the prolific midlands Rock band "Cum to Bedlem".
Now he has turned all his pent up energy into paddling and coaching, which he loves!
For those people who don't know Phil (there can't be many!) he was the West Midlands Paddlesport Development Officer for nine years and contributed two chapters to the BCU Canoe Kayak Handbook.
Phil is massively involved with the BCU: as a national trainer he is one of the key people rolling out the new coaching scheme and Performance awards both in this country and the United States. He has a Bsc hons degree in outdoor education and loves working for Getafix (he told me!).
Phil does a lot of work approving centres for the BCU and is the technical adviser of choice for many centres and organisations.
Anthony Ing
Anthony is our youngest member of staff, but don't be fooled by his age! A fantastic coach and what he can't do in a boat isn't worth mentioning.
He already has some big foreign trips under his belt and represents GB in Creeking.
Watch a video featuring Anthony paddling on the Tryweryn.
Andy Ing
Andy is our South East connection. After watching his son kayak surfing one day the urge to have a dabble himself was too much. You cant help but like him, and you will not find anyone more passionate about paddling! (I think being a late starter, he makes up for lost time!).
Andy works freelance for a number of centres in Norfolk and works for the BCU assessing organisations for their approval, but his heart is still with Waveney Valley Canoe Club.
From the outset of the new coaching scheme Andy has been involved, developing himself into an expert coach educator.
Nicole Hendriksen
Nicole has 6 years experience in accident and emergency nursing. For the past three years she has been working in Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic as a nurse for Doctors without borders. Her work there was diverse, ranging from emergency vaccination campaigns, managing cholera units to being a nurse supervisor of a hospital.
Her passion is empowering people to be able to help others who are injured or sick, so she fell on her feet when she was introduced to teaching REC courses.
Web Fixer
Mark Anderson
Designer and caretaker of the Getafix website and creator of umpteen others as OaD Design.
Based in Llangollen, Mark also served as a guinea pig on a Getafix Level 3 Kayak Assessment, providing a demanding coaching environment with authentic useless paddling.