New National Organisation for Combined Rock and Water Activities

THE BRITISH COMBINED ROCK & WATER ASSOCIATION (BRAWA).

For some years now there has been widespread acknowledgement of a conspicuous gap in the otherwise comprehensive infrastructure of accredited training via National Governing Bodies( NGB’s) in the Adventure Activities Industry. The gap relates to Combined Rock and Water Activities. These activities, more usually known as Gorge Walking, Canyoning and Coasteering have been growing rapidly in popularity with the activity providers and with their clients and rapid growth has brought this shortfall into sharper focus. It is also an inescapable truth that the last few high profile accidents involving adventure activities and widely reported in the press, have tended to involve rock and water activity.

A number of separate training initiatives have been introduced in various parts of the UK, ranging from in-house schemes devised by individual providers through to national schemes. Most recently The Scottish Combined Rock and Water Association (SCRAWA) was formed in 2005 as a forum to promote best practice through quality training in the three component activities in Scotland. This was the first time that a body had been established that sought to encompass ALL THREE activities into a common scheme.

At a meeting of interested parties held in Dundee on 5th February 2007 it was agreed to convert what has been a successful start for Scotland into a brand new UK-wide organisation that will now be known as THE BRITISH COMBINED ROCK & WATER ASSOCIATION (BRAWA).

It seems likely that BRAWA will move towards becoming an NGB in its own right although in the short-term it will exist primarily as a Training Provider for the adventure activities industry.

Training schemes will be devised in the three activities and aimed at professional instuctors/guides wishing to lead the activities with clients. Training schemes will contain some common content across all three activities: They will be competency based schemes and will incorporate training as well as formal assessment phases. There will be a mandatory period of consolidation involving logged experience between training and assessment.

Each activity will have two levels of qualification available. The first and lower level will be a site-specific leader’s qualification that will accredit competence to lead the activity at the instructor’s home location or locations. The second tier will involve a much higher level of experience, competence and knowledge and will recognise the holder’s competence to act as a leader or guide of the activity at any chosen location within the UK.

It is envisaged that BRAWA will be managed on a Regional basis that reflects as closely as possible the main centres of activity. We would expect the regions to be :

• Southern England
• Wales
• Northern Ireland
• Northern England
• Scotland

Each regional committee will administer its own courses and a National UK Committee will exist with the usual office bearers, honorary representative and reps from each of the uk regions. The Adventure Activities Licensing Authority have been consistently supportive so far and it would seem a certainty that they would be asked to retain an advisory role.

The interim committee

It is the case that this initiative has been seized by a relative few and some of those who have not been involved will cry that they have not been consulted. BRAWA welcomes your involvement.  We have set ourselves a heavy schedule for the next 12 months to get BRAWA up and running. At the end of that period will be a properly constituted AGM that will create further opportunities to get involved and to influence the direction that BRAWA is to take.

So if you’re involved in Combined Rock and Water then get in touch and get on board.

Contacts:
Chair: Andy Spink hebpursuit@aol.com
Secretary: Dave Horrocks daveh@adventure-scotland.com
Treasurer: Earle Wilson earle.wilson@dundeecity.gov.uk

Close this window