Les Allen
LEGEND
Les Allen has been a towering figure in the West Australian sea kayaking community for over 25 years.
Les has been a member of the Sea Kayak Club of WA (SKCWA) for 26 years.
Over this time Les has consistently and strongly advocated for the club to promote sea kayaking as an adventurous sport. To mitigate the risks, Les has encouraged the club to deliver skill advancement and specialised sea kayak skills through regular training to enable others to enjoy this exciting side of sea kayaking.
Les held the club presidency for two years from 1998 to 2000. Les’s vision was to introduce a club
management plan to define paddling guidelines and protocols. The key components of the plan were to define levels of paddles and the required skills needed to attend. Many of these skills are now reflected in the PA qualifications scheme as Basic Skills, Introduction to Sea Skills (ISSA) and Sea Skills (SSA) awards.
Les was a regular contributor to the club’s newsletter/ magazine writing many articles on sea kayak safety. He was acutely aware of the ocean environment, the risks it posed and was a compelling advocate for having the necessary skills to mitigate the risks.
Les mentored Sandy Robson (Australian Adventurer of the year 2017, PWA Hall of Fame 2018, Australian Canoeing – Olegas Truchanus Award) who acknowledged Les “as a mentor for my paddling and helped me to develop the skills to become a sea kayak instructor”
Les headed east with a sea kayak, backpack, push bike and some snow shoes with the aim of sea kayaking, walking, biking and snow shoeing the best of the east coast and Tasmania. One of the standouts from the trip was the wonderful hospitality he received from other the sea kayak clubs. The Victorian Sea Kayak Cub awarded him an Associate Member for the training assistance given and “will always be a wonderful reminder of those great people.”
Congratulations on an amazing achievement Les!
