Jamie Walker

Jamie (22) comes from the small town of Nairn in the Scottish Highlands; like many small towns there is often a lack of activites that interest young people, especially teenagers! Jamie has a great passion for kayaking, which he discovered as a teenager, he now has several years of river kayaking experince and is an ASPRINT level 2 coach. He wanted to make his hobby more accessable to people in his home town so he initated the process of forming a Nairn Kayak Club and drummed up support for it. Being a lifeguard at the local swimming pool at the time, he also negotiated with them and arranged suitable times and rates in order for the club to get started. He is now chairperson for the committee and a club coach. The Nairn Kayak Club now has pool sessions once a week where anyone of any kayaking ability can go along, whether its to give it a go or hone thier skills, with the club coaches there to give advice and help, and of course help keep it fun and safe! By playing the key part in the set up of the Nairn Kayak Club Jamie has helped make it easier for local people to give this sport a go, a new way for the local teenagers to have fun, keep fit, see the outdoors and get an adrenaline rush!

Coaching in the Nairn Kayak Club also helped Jamie realise the fullfilment he gets from passing on his knowledge and seeing someone progress, which helped inspire him to go to university in order to, hopefullly, in four years time, graduate as a geography teacher!