The BCU One Star is a flat water award that demonstrates an individual has basic boat control and foundation skills.The one star can be taken in any kind of paddlesport craft (e.g. sit-on-top, slalom C2, polo boat, sea kayak, racing canoe etc.)

The BCU Two Star is an improvement award that helps paddlers develop fundamental paddlesport skills on flat water. The emphasis is on gaining a breadth of experience, creating the desired movement of the boat and developing an understanding into how the paddle, boat and water interact.

The BCU Three Star award is significantly different to the old 2 star, with a change to develop generic movement skills that can transfer to any discipline and with an assessed journey. Assessors will need to be able to assess the award in a variety of craft. Successful performance at BCU Three Star level indicates that a candidate can consider themselves an intermediate paddler rather than a beginner. Unlike the existing award this will be discipline specific with awards in Sea Kayak, Surf,  Open Canoe, White Water Kayak, Flat Water Kayak and some of the competitive disciplines. The three star paddler will be a competent performer in sheltered to moderate water environments and have the ability to paddle unsupervised, with similar standard paddlers on sheltered water. The new award will look similar in structure to the existing 4 star, but with the skills applicable in an easier environment.

All courses are available all year long. You will need to contact us prior booking as courses running through the whole year based on availability.

Crete is a lovely place to get your BCU certification as you can paddle 365 days per year. During the winter near the beach the temperature very rare goes below 8oC with water temperature no lower than 13-14oC.

If you are on holidays or have a free week don't miss our seven days 3 star BCU course. More details can be found here.