Words: Paul Ramsdale
Photos: Pete Astles
Cromford Peak Challenge 2026
Over the August Bank Holiday weekend, we welcomed over 80 paddlers to the third running of the Cromford Peak Challenge, situated in our own very special training spot on the River Derwent nestled at the foot of Willersley Castle.
The Peak Challenge is a multi-day paddlesport event, with competitions in WWR, Slalom and KX to find an overall river champion. New this year, we introduced a Club Championship prize, where the individual points scored for those in the top eight of their categories would accumulate to crown an overall Peak Challenge Club Champion!
A damp Saturday morning started with WWR practice. The Christie family, consisting of dad Jamie and his two daughters Emma and Kerry (multiple World and European champions in various formats and classes), not only supplied a trailer full of WWR boats for paddlers to try out for the first time, but were also on hand to offer coaching and safety cover once on the water.
After a steep learning curve in the morning for some paddlers, it was on to the afternoon’s racing. A 1km time trial starting from the west side of Willersley Castle and finishing just upstream of Cromford Bridge certainly got the heart pumping!
An eventful first day
An opportunity to practise Sunday’s slalom course was then laid on before prize-giving for the WWR race at 16:00. What an eventful first day; it was fantastic to see so many youngsters rise to the new challenge of navigating the River Derwent in a WWR boat, something completely unfamiliar to many people.
The entertainment didn’t stop there, though; later in the evening we welcomed two very special guests to Willersley Castle, as Dave Manby and Roger Huyton shared their story of kayaking down Everest. and the subsequent feature film ‘Dudh Kosi – Relentless River of Everest’. This pioneering, now-legendary expedition is celebrating its 50th anniversary. It was an honour to host Dave and Roger, learn about the difficulties the trip threw at them and the joy it brought them. Many thanks, Dave and Roger!
Canoe slalom
Sunday dawned with blue skies and a new on-water discipline to try and master: canoe slalom. During the morning practice we were thrilled to be joined by former and current stars of the canoe slalom world. Two members from the 2026 GB Jnr team, Alex Cleator (MK1 and MC1) and Sophie Forster (WK1 and WC1) were joined by current U23 GB team athlete Luc Royle (MC1) and former GB athlete and World Class Podium coach Mark Proctor to offer helpful tips, advice, and safety tips for those looking to push their slalom skills up a notch.
It was truly a heartwarming sight to see our small race section completely overrun by junior paddlers, thoroughly enjoying their time on the water. After a short event briefing, racing began; three hours of tough, back-to-back runs produced our results and crowned our slalom champions. More evening entertainment was later enjoyed back at the Castle, this time in the form of local (and internationally renowned) musical sensation John Gill!
John’s a supreme wordsmith, and he can summon lyrics seemingly at will to entertain any audience. We weren’t disappointed, with some epic sing-alongs and crowd involvement that left us smiling and with many more happy memories.
Kayak Cross (KX)
The final day’s racing involved the newest Olympic paddling discipline, Kayak Cross (KX). Using the same section of river as the Slalom, but this time starting on the mighty ‘Cross Ramp’, paddlers would slide into the river and head down the KX course of eight gates. Each paddler had an individual Time-Trial run, and then the fast and fortunate paddlers were seeded into semi-finals and progressed to finals.
Tensions were high, with heats of two or three paddlers. launching together off the ramp; the action and atmosphere were electric! Some very entertaining and crafty paddling brought us to finals for each category, but the memory of the day for me was the sound reverberating through the valley from the support and excitement watching the racing!
Overall weekend champions
One final prize-giving after the event not only saw us crown the KX champions, but also the overall weekend champions in each class and the inaugural Club Champions. Break Out Canoe Unit took home the Club Champions title for 2026, with Paddle Peak in second place and Pleasely Canoe Club in third – if you want to fight for the title next year, gather your club mates together and join us in the Derwent Valley.
On top of this, there were spot prizes for the many notable achievements we’d seen over the whole weekend. Well done to you all.
Thank you
Thanks must go to Pyranha for loaning boats for the event, as well as our bunch of safety kayakers over the weekend – Luc, Gav, Dave, Andy, Joe, Leafy, Alex, Sophie and Dale.
A huge thanks and well done to everyone involved over the weekend and in preparing for the event beforehand. These things only happen when we all come together; the Peak Challenge was such a good example of that.
Thanks also to our supporters and sponsors of the Challenge for 2026: Peak PS, Cromford Mills, Manor Adventure at Willersley Castle, Pyranha, P&H, Ainsworth Paddles, Thornbridge Brewery, Dagger Kayaks, Charlie and Jane and TJ Composites.
